basic question on setup

[ericl]

This is a fairly basic question on set up but any answer or direction to the right thread would be appreciated.

I am about to begin to build out may home theater room and had several questions.

1. I am likely getting a 58 in Panasonic plasma with 2 HDMI inputs. I will be using a high end Yamaha reciever and would like to know...

Don't most of the components connect through the reciever and then to the
plasma so that one or two HDMI slots should be enough on the TV?
( I intend to have a Blu Ray DVD, Xbox 360, HD Tivo and Time warner HD cable )

2. I will have the components in cabnets along the wall under and near the plasma (mounted on the
wall.

If I want to see few cables do they make electrical boxes that can accomidate all
the different wires going into one spot and coming out at one spot behind the TV?
Kind of like those plates that have a cable phone and ethernet outupt in one box.

3. I assume many of you have also hooked up a computer to the plasma and wanted to use the other
HDMI input on the TV for that.

I appreciate all the help and if you know of any examples of the wireing schematics for the various options on the forum I would really appreciate it. Eric in Austin

[salvasol]

First of all Welcome

ericl wrote:

1. Don't most of the components connect through the reciever and then to the
plasma so that one or two HDMI slots should be enough on the TV? ( I intend to have a Blu Ray DVD, Xbox 360, HD Tivo and Time warner HD cable )

Yes, that's correct ... but in this case you'll need to turn on your receiver to be able to watch anything on the TV ... that's why in my case, I always hook up the video signal directly to TV and the audio to the receiver; I avoid to turn on the receiver when I just want to watch the news, and also, I avoid having any problem with the conversion of video signals from DVD, SAT, etc. to receiver and from receiver to TV.

If you only have two HDMI, you can use component cable (blue, red, green) as the next option, but you'll need the audio cable too

2. I will have the components in cabnets along the wall under and near the plasma (mounted on the wall. If I want to see few cables do they make electrical boxes that can accomidate all the different wires going into one spot and coming out at one spot behind the TV? Kind of like those plates that have a cable phone and ethernet outupt in one box.

Yes they are some that you can use ... and remember to leave enough space in the cabinet to avoid overheating your components, specially the receiver

[tonyvdb]

ericl wrote:

Don't most of the components connect through the reciever and then to the plasma so that one or two HDMI slots should be enough on the TV?

As Salvasol has already stated, yes this is usually the way to go but the big issue is if the receiver has to do any upconverting of the video signal then it would depend on whether the receiver or the display does a better job of it. To get any of the new uncompressed audio signals like DTS HD or TruHD to your receiver you must use HDMI directly to the receiver and then to the display.

2. do they make electrical boxes that can accomidate all
the different wires going into one spot and coming out at one spot behind the TV?

You can usualy find boxes that have more than one connector for audio and video but not for all possible connections. You may find it better to have two boxes one for video and one for audio.

[ericl]

Thanks guys. I understand that some of the new universal remotes turn on the equipment in groups based on what you want to do like the reciever and plasma for tv and just the reciever for music.

Eric in Austin

[salvasol]

ericl wrote:

Thanks guys. I understand that some of the new universal remotes turn on the equipment in groups based on what you want to do like the reciever and plasma for tv and just the reciever for music.

Eric in Austin

That's correct ... macro function

You can program the way you want to use the components (example: movies = receiver+dvd+tv; satellite/cable= receiver+tv+sat; etc.)

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

ericl wrote:

Thanks guys. I understand that some of the new universal remotes turn on the equipment in groups based on what you want to do like the reciever and plasma for tv and just the reciever for music.

Since you're getting a high end receiver, its remote will be capable of running macros and operating the other components in your system. IOW, you may not need a separate universal remote.

Regards,
Wayne

[warren112]

In my setup, all the video goes into the receiver and a single hdmi cable then goes to the TV. I use hdmi cable for my blu ray dvd, tivo and xbox elite. I use a component cable for my wii.

With the best tvs, external upconversion is less important as the TV does a great job of displaying 480i. Also with a tivo more of your tv programs can be recorded from hd cable and already be in hd format or converted at the source to hd. However you will need a lot of storage since hd programming takes 6-8 GB per hour, and each person using the tivo will want 20 hours.

As much as possible you want to use hdmi cables. This guarantees that both the sound and video are transmitted digitally, and that there are a minimum of digital to analog to digital conversions. Component video cables are high quality but send an analog video signal that must be digitized by the receiver for hdmi output. If the blu ray dvd is connected by hdmi, then bitstream audio can be passed directly to the receiver for audio decoding in the receiver.

Many receivers only have 3 hdmi inputs, and the most expensive have only 4. So an external hdmi switch might be a necessary addition eventually (I am using all 3 of my receiver's hdmi inputs).

My wii system is connected to my receiver using a component cable. So video output is 480p. And audio output is stereo. This is a limitation of the wii.

Question: When using component video, what are the options for routing the audio into the receiver. I know as much as possible you want to do this digitally.

[salvasol]

warren112 wrote:

... Question: When using component video, what are the options for routing the audio into the receiver. I know as much as possible you want to do this digitally...

When you said component you mean the green, blue and red cable, Right??? ... if is the yellow cable this is composite

The option to route the audio signal to the receiver will depend on the option you have at the source; HDMI is preferable, next will be optical or coaxial and the last option analog (red and white cable)

[ericl]

Thanks warren

Im getting fat and I heard a Wii is good for that so maybe I will get one as well. But who do you have to kill to get a Wii?

[JAKE 2544]

I just purchased the 805 and have a question about hdmi hook up.I have hdmi running from my hd cable box to the receiver,then from the receiver to the plasma.Is this the best possible hook up?The only thing that i dont like about it this way is that i have to have the receiver on all the time to watch tv.Is there another way of doing it so i dont have to have the receiver on all the time?Will there be any downfalls if i'm not using hdmi from the receiver.I will also be adding a blu-ray player soon if that makes a difference,while im asking all these other questions what will be the best way to hook up the blu ray player with the receiver?

[warren112]

A lot of the programs on the HD channels are recorded for 5.1 channel sound. Even the news often has surround sound effects and mixing.

Sound from TV speakers is only stereo but it does have an on screen volume control. This volume control will also control the stereo (red and white) TV audio outputs. However the TV volume control will not control any digital optical sound out of the TV. So I don't recommend use of the TV stereo sound as you lose the extra stereo sound effects. But your wife probably would love the convenienc of just turning off the tv and having the sound turn off also. (even if she left the receiver on burning 100+ watts even with no sound.

So the only way to control 5.1 channel sound is from a AV receiver such as your Onkyo 805. The easiest way is using hdmi cables as this guarantees that once digitized, no further analog to digital or digital to analog conversions will be necessary. And it makes sense to use the receiver to switch video signals.

All my audio and video components are in a separate equiptment rack 15 feet away from the TV with a single 20 foot hdmi cable from my receiver to my tv. This gives room below the tv for a large heavy center channel speaker.

However, to watch tv you must turn on both the TV and the receiver and the receiver must be set to the cable box and not some other input. Then if you only turn off the TV after a delay, the tv sound turns back on. Your wife better be ready to juggle at least two remotes to even watch the news.

Then you might want a single all in one system remote control. These remotes do work. And they will allow you to control many devices. I have just got a Logitech Harmony One remote but can not recommend it as the fast forward button is failing after only one month of heavy tivo use. You must be willing to spend the time to engineer and change the programmable buttons on the harmony to the ones you use on all your other remotes. If you push the wrong button or don't point it correctly your system won't work properly and the itsy bitsy screen is better suited for my son than for my own poor vision. I currently use the harmony to turn on my system and even to watch tv with tivo. But have yet to reprogram it to watch blu-ray movies and thus still need my other remotes.

My criticisms of the home theater user interface is true of all the receivers I looked at. So hopefully next generation AV receivers will be more completely integrated with the next generation TV displays.

[salvasol]

JAKE 2544 wrote:

... have a question about hdmi hook up.I have hdmi running from my hd cable box to the receiver,then from the receiver to the plasma.Is this the best possible hook up?The only thing that i dont like about it this way is that i have to have the receiver on all the time to watch tv.Is there another way of doing it so i dont have to have the receiver on all the time?Will there be any downfalls if i'm not using hdmi from the receiver.I will also be adding a blu-ray player soon if that makes a difference,while im asking all these other questions what will be the best way to hook up the blu ray player with the receiver?

If you want to be able to watch cable and don't use the receiver (just TV) ... What I will do is to connect the HDMI from cable box directly to TV, and use and audio cable (optical, coaxial or composite(red and white)) from cable box to receiver; just in case you ever want to use the receiver when watching cable or regular TV ..

For Blu Ray player, I said, go with HDMI to receiver, then another HDMI to TV or use the component output (green, red and blue cable) from Blu Ray to TV (I always like to connect any video source directly to TV and the audio source to receiver to avoid the conversions of the video).

You may want to check if the player will output signal to HDMI and component at the same time ... I think I read somewhere that is possible they will not work at the same time ... but don't take my word for it ... maybe I'm wrong and you'll be fine with this setup.

Most of the time we use the DVD player with our receivers, but if you want to be safe and someday you want to use your player and TV without the receiver, just add an audio cable from Blu Ray to TV ...

This is the way I hooked up my system, I have DVD, VCR and over the air antenna (got rid of satellite service) ... I have the option to use the receiver or not when watching anything on TV