Need help with setting up home theatre components

[eternity]

Hi,
I'm new here and need all the help I can get. I wasn't sure where to post this so I figured general would work. I have a number of components for my home theatre setup but don't know what order to set things up. I have
TiVo series 2
Digital Cable box
Older TV (will be upgrading eventually)
Denon Receiver (to hook everything up to) I have most of the speakers hooked up to that already
Tape Deck
VHS player (hardly use anymore- could do without)
DVD player
Xbox

I figure that the Tivo gets hooked to the cable box - cable box to the TV - TV to the receiver. DVD player & VHS player should they be hooked to the receiver or the TV?

Then I have just one small other problem. My speakers came from an out of the box HT system which the receiver died. That is why I bought a new one. I have the speakers all hooked in except for the subwoofer. This has a speaker wire only directly from the speaker inside. My receiver has a single orange (rca hookup?). I cannot find an adapter for this. Any suggestions?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I've been trying to hook this system up for the past few months. (Not steadily because of frustration).
Thanks
Joyce

[JCD]

First, Welcome! Glad to have you here!

Now, to answer your questions -- it depends.

First, which Denon receiver and TV do you have? It will depend on youre receiver's upconverting ability, how many inputs your receiver has, how many inputs your tv has, etc. as to what my "final answer" would be.

All that being said, here are some of the answers:

1. I would connect all of the audio connections, using digital (coax or optical) whenever possible to your receiver -- I would think your DVD, cable box and xbox all have digital connections
2. Connect the analog (RCA) audio from your Cable box directly to your TV -- this will allow you to listen to the TV without using the receiver
3. For your subwoofer, you can go down to Radio Shack and get a RCA connection that you can connect to the end of your wire. It's pretty easy to do.

The Tivo is more problematic. With a cable->Tivo->cable box->TV connection, you can (unattended) record all of the non-digital shows, but won't be able to record any of the digital shows that are required by your cable box. If you go with a cable->cable box->tivo->tv then you're stuck recording only what's on the cable box channel. All this assumes it works the same as my old cable system. I've since gone to using the cable box's (or rather satelite receiver's) built in DVR to record my shows. It solves most of my problems in this area, but isn't as "nice" as the Tivo was.

As for the other video signals, this is where it "depends". Some of the newer receivers upconvert all video signals, regardless if their RCA, s-video, component or the newer HDMI to one HDMI signal out. Some don't. If they don't, and your tv has enough inputs, I would have a direct connection from the video source to the tv and then just change "inputs" when you want to watch something specific. However, if you receiver can upconvert to HDMI, and your TV has the right connection, I'd probably route the video signal through your reciever. It's easier to manage.

And trust me, this stuff is confusing -- it took me all day to re-wire my system the last time I got behind there.

JCD