I could really use some advice here. Here's the situation....I have an HD tv connected to an HD cable box. I would like to connect this into my surround sound receiver, but am not sure about how to do this. I have an optical audio out on my cable box and tv. Which one should I connect to my receiver. Will I even get surround sound from my tv or cable box? Should I even bother to use an optical cable or just use a standard RCA connection? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
You would typically only use the optical out from your TV if you are using an off air antenna connected to your TV. If you are able to get digital off air stations with an antenna, they are often encoded in 5.1 Dolby Digital.
Jason, something to consider concerning the cable box. If you connect the cable box using the optical cable to the receiver and you get no sound or the receiver does not decode dolby digital 5.1 or DTS (you will know this because there should be a way to display whether this is happening on the receiver, it will usually say dolby 3/2 or something like that depending on your receiver, you should probably check your receiver manual to determine how to make sure you are getting 5.1 when you expect to or you are wasting your time) you may need to go into the setup of the cable box using your cable remote and tv display then locate the audio setup and set the receiver to bitstream from pcm. Mine does not require this and just works automatically but yours may not. This applies to DVD as well or anything that you connect to the receiver that you expect to get 5.1 surround sound from.
I know this is a sound related forum but I thought it would be helpful to mention that you will also want to change your dvd player output to progressive to get a 480 progressive scan picture as opposed to just 480 interlaced. You will get a much better picture this way. You do this by going into the setup of the DVD player the one that displays on your tv....
Also remember that not all sound from the cable box is going to be Dolby Digital 5.1. Only Movies that specify they are at the start of the movie are. There are some high def stations that are just 5.1 and some that at least have some dolby 5.1 content. So don't expect all of your stations to do this.
TV inputs: HDMI 1 with R/W, HDMI 2 with R/W, Component 1 with component jacks and R/W Component 2 with component jacks and R/W A/V 1 with Y/R/W and S-video A/V 2 with Y/R/W and S-video RCA for satellite TV out: Digital audio out Analog audio out with R/W
HD-DVR: RCA in (thats it) HDMI out Component out Video out (2) with Y/R/W Digitial audio out S-video out
Because you only have 2 devices, dvd and sat box, there is really no reason to use the receiver for anything other than sound. What I would do is connect you video sources, dvd and sat box, directly to the TV.
For the DVD video use the component output on the dvd to the component input on the TV using a component cable.
For sound on the DVD: You will need either an optical or digital coax (orange rca type connector) cable. The cable you need will depend on what your DVD has. The first choice is always optical then if you don't have optical use digital coax (orange rca type connector)
Connect the cable you end up with from the digital (optical or digital coax) output on the dvd to the digital (optical or coax) input on the receiver.
You are now ready to tell the onkyo receiver which digital input you used for the DVD sound in order to get sound. You should be able to assign the digital inputs to any input label. For the dvd select the dvd input option on the front of the receiver then press the digital input button on the front of the receiver to select the digital input you used for the dvd. The digital input will be called optical 1, 2, or 3 depending on how many you have or just coax (unless you have more than one coax input.) You can identify which digital input you used as it will be labeled on the back of the receiver where you plugged the dvd sound into the receiver using digital coax or optical cable.
If you do not have a digital output for sound on the dvd then let me know. }
For the video from the sat box connect the video to the TV using the HDMI output on the sat box to the hdmi input on the TV using an HDMI cable.
For sound on the sat box. You will need either an optical or digital coax (orange rca type connector) cable. The cable you need will depend on what your sat box has. The first choice is always optical then if you don't have optical use digital coax (orange rca type connector)
Connect the cable you end up with from the digital (optical or digital coax) output on the sat box to the digital (optical or coax) input on the receiver.
You are now ready to tell the onkyo receiver which digital input you used for the sat box sound in order to get sound. You should be able to assign the digital inputs to any input label. For the sat box select the video 1 input option on the front of the receiver then press the digital input button on the front of the receiver to select the digital input you used for the sat box. The digital input will be called optical 1, 2, or 3 depending on how many you have or just coax (unless you have more than one coax input.) You can identify which digital input you used as it will be labeled on the back of the receiver where you plugged the sat box into the receiver using digital coax or optical cable.
You will be using the input selector on both the TV and the Receiver. You will need to select the component input you used on the TV using the TV when you want to play a dvd. To get sound from the DVD select the dvd option on the receiver.
When watching satelite you will need to choose the hdmi input you used on the TV using the TV. For sound on the sat box choose the video 1 option on the receiver.
thanks a bunch Jeff. Won't be hooking it up for another week (closing on new home). I have hooked all this up before but I know I'm not getting the best out of the reciever.