Beginner...I need help setting my system up!

[bpmccaff]

OK, so this is my first time using an HDTV and home theater system. I moved into a new home, and the cable guy came and set my video from tv to cable box and a dvd player and 5 speakers and subwoofer. The speakers come on when I am watching a dvd, but not when I am watching tv (the sound comes from tv speaker) The cable guy set the system up as follows: component cables from tv to cable box (audio and video), S video from tv to dvd player. Can someone please help me? I know I may need additional cables and.or completely re-wire the system. My DVD player/theater system and TV are all LG products, new models. The DVD and TV have optical slotsand HDMI slots.

[Hakka]

bpmccaff wrote:

OK, so this is my first time using an HDTV and home theater system. I moved into a new home, and the cable guy came and set my video from tv to cable box and a dvd player and 5 speakers and subwoofer. The speakers come on when I am watching a dvd, but not when I am watching tv (the sound comes from tv speaker) The cable guy set the system up as follows: component cables from tv to cable box (audio and video), S video from tv to dvd player. Can someone please help me? I know I may need additional cables and.or completely re-wire the system. My DVD player/theater system and TV are all LG products, new models. The DVD and TV have optical slotsand HDMI slots.

If your TV and DVD player have HDMI why did he set it up with s-vid??? I would change this to HDMI connection.

I assume 'watch tv' uses the internal tuner in the tv. Look on the back of the TV for a pair of left and right audio outputs (RCAs) (it might be labelled 'monitor'). Connect these to a spare input on your receiver. I just noticed you r tv has an optical output, this is even better if you have a spare optical input on your receiver.

The sound will still play through your tv speakers, when you want to use the surround just mute the TV and select the input you connected the TV (on the receiver).

Harry.

[Otto]

Hi Brian and welcome to the Shack,

Let me ask -- when you say "watch TV", do you mean you are then using the cable box? I think that's probably what you're doing.

component cables from tv to cable box (audio and video)

This is kinda nitpicky, but I'd call that as going from the cable box to the TV -- the cable box is the "source" and the TV is the "target", if you will. So are there a total of five cables for this? Or three? Or something else? If there are three cables (red, white, yellow), I would suggest to connect your video differently. If there are five cables (red, blue green, red, white), then you're doing OK. If you are using S-video from cable box to TV, I think you can do better on video. Anyway, I think this cable box to TV connection is where you problem lies. Instead of sending audio from the cable box to the TV, we want to send it to your receiver. You said that the DV player and the TV have HDMI out/in, so I'm assuming that your cable box and receiver do NOT have HDMI. I'd bet your cable box and receiver both have optical out/in -- I would probably use that to connect audio from the cable box to the receiver.

I would remove whatever audio is going to the TV at this point. My TV has a way to say "don't use the speakers" somewhere in its menus. You may want to indicate to your TV that you are using all external audio. I think it just disables the amps and the on-screen display so that someone doesn't think they're turning it up, when in reality it will never get any louder.

So, I'd be interested to hear what you have going on there...

I also agree with Hakka that you should change the DVD to TV connection to HDMI (or at least component). I believe you will again get audio at the TV (when using a DVD w/ HDMI), but we can deal with that later. Your picture quality should improve quite a bit by getting away from S video).

[salvasol]

bpmccaff wrote:

OK, so this is my first time using an HDTV and home theater system. I moved into a new home, and the cable guy came and set my video from tv to cable box and a dvd player and 5 speakers and subwoofer. The speakers come on when I am watching a dvd, but not when I am watching tv (the sound comes from tv speaker) The cable guy set the system up as follows: component cables from tv to cable box (audio and video), S video from tv to dvd player. Can someone please help me? I know I may need additional cables and.or completely re-wire the system. My DVD player/theater system and TV are all LG products, new models. The DVD and TV have optical slotsand HDMI slots.

I think it will be a good idea to show pictures of the back of your TV, DVD, Cable Box, etc., so the experienced people here can suggest you how to connect the system ... if you can add pictures, you can give the brand name and models