Home Theatre and TV help

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NZIRONMAN09

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#26306 17-Sep-2008 22:26

Hi i am new to this forum, and even newer to home theartre etc etc,

This could be a bit of a drag but after reading your forums sounds like you guys know what your on about.

We have recently had a tv and home theartre system installed on the cheap by a mate, my whole plan was to have it done so i couldnt see heaps of cables etc and that has been achieved in part basically the cables coming from the tv have been thread through the wall into colour coded jackpoints i guess you'd call them, then it gets messy as all the cables are then plugged in from my equipment to the coloured jackpoints .

I did buy hdmi cables and thought that would be all i need but have ended up with this unsightly birds nest.

What i really want to know is can my dvd player/recorder (panasonic Dmr eh57) - Yamaha rxv63 reciever/amp / kilpsch quintet speakers and subwoffer Mysky hd (being installed Friday) be linked into my Samsung 40" lcd LA40 without all the red white yellow blue and green cables i do realise the speaker cables are seperate and need to be there but i thought by getting hdmi cables i wouldnt need the others if so would the sky installer do this.

Without sounding rude could you make your replys in laymans terms as i really dont understand all of this just want it all to look nice and tidy

thanks

NZIRONMAN09

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#165220 17-Sep-2008 22:36

just to add to this would it pay to get one of those flash universal remotes as i get really confused as to what goes where and when to press which button to do different things on my 4 remotes. make that 5 come friday

NZIRONMAN09

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#165223 17-Sep-2008 22:45

also have a zinwell dv3 freeview tuner but guess that is going on friday tv has two hdmi inlets also have a optical cable as well but not sure what to doo with that

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#165260 18-Sep-2008 08:49

Just to get you started, so you can check how your system is currently set up:

To set up your components 'properly', you need to connect their best possible output to your TV. If any of these have hdmi output, then this is what you want to use, and yes with hdmi the video AND audio are sent in the same cable. So hdmi will make a clean install for you as it is one cable to the tv per device.

If there is no hdmi output, say on your DVD player, you'll have to send the audio and video signals separately.
Audio to the TV is via the red and white cables. The types of plugs on these cables are called RCA plugs.
The best video output after hdmi is called component video, and this also uses a cable with RCA plugs coloured Red, Green and Blue. This means you'll have two cables and 5 rca connectors in total at each end, 2 plugs for audio and 3 plugs for the video.

Sorry but yeah, you need a bunch of cables these days unfortunately, but you do get a much better picture and sound than you used to!

As for the remote, I've heard good things about the harmony ones. They'll take a bit to set up and maybe your friend can help with this, but once done you have buttons for common tasks like watch a DVD etc. The remote then takes care of everything you need to press to get this task going, so yeah would probably be worth the investment given what you've spent so far.

Good luck!

Dingbatt

6754 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#165268 18-Sep-2008 09:02

You need to answer these questions:

Are you going to use the Receiver to switch between sources (MySky, DMR-EH57, etc) and just use the TV as a display?

Are you going to use the Receiver and speakers for all sound, or the TV as well?

Are all the wall sockets the round RCA type (the same as the yellow, red and white ones on the back of your sources)?

How many sockets (jackpoints) are there at each end of the cable runs?

I can't determine the capabilities of your Receiver because I think there is a number missing off its model number. Is it possibly a 463, 563, 663 or 863? How many hdmi in sockets does your receiver have?

How far away from the TV is the rest of the equipment located?

It sounds like you have wired your house for composite (yellow, red, white) connections, or at best component (red, green, blue + sound). These won't take hdmi, so if you are determined to use hdmi then some rewiring may be required.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Spyware

3761 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#165271 18-Sep-2008 09:18

Is your Zinwell DVB receiver a DVB-T (digital terrestrial - Freeview HD) or a DVB-S (digital satellite receiver)?? If it is DVB-T then it can be connected via HDMI. If is DVB-S then NOT. Topfield do make DVB-S/DVB-S2 receivers that have HDMI out.

If Zinwell is DVB-T (Freeview HD) then I would keep it along with Sky HD as the Zinwell can provide TV1/TV2 in HD and even TV3 HD in higher quality than the Sky box.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

NZIRONMAN09

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#165529 18-Sep-2008 23:43

hey guys thanks for the reply, sky install is at 11.00am friday nz time, to answer the questions,

Jaxson
All components have hdmi outputs
the reciever has 2hdmi inlets (dvd +dtv/cbl) also has 1 hdmi outlet which i guess is used to send to tv, also has 2 digital inputs via optical ( labeled dtv/cbl and cd ) then has pinky orange hole labelled dvd coaxial plus numerous red yellow white and red green blue.
i have 2 hdmi cables one which is connected to the tv thru the wall but not plugged in to anything ie reciever and another spare hdmi cable plus 1 optical cable.

Dingbat,

Are you going to use the Receiver to switch between sources (MySky, DMR-EH57, etc) and just use the TV as a display?
Yes i guess so , So i can watch a dvd that we hire etc

Are you going to use the Receiver and speakers for all sound, or the TV as well? yes would prefer to use reciever n speakers for all sound

Are you going to use the Receiver and speakers for all sound, or the TV as well? Yes but there is also the wired up speaker ones and some red green and blue ones and the hdmi cable from tv is poking thru a cutout bit in one of the jacpoints

How many sockets (jackpoints) are there at each end of the cable runs? 3 sets of red yelow white plus a redgreen blue pluss the hdmi cable plus just 1 set red and white

I can't determine the capabilities of your Receiver because I think there is a number missing off its model number. Is it possibly a 463, 563, 663 or 863? How many hdmi in sockets does your receiver have? its a 363 Heres link to website http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=567569&CTID=5000300 it has 2 inlets as above

How far away from the TV is the rest of the equipment located? would say 2-3 meters

It sounds like you have wired your house for composite (yellow, red, white) connections, or at best component (red, green, blue + sound). These won't take hdmi, so if you are determined to use hdmi then some rewiring may be required. All of these by the looks of thing plus a hdmi cable that is hanging out an empty socket but connected to tv at other end

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#165642 19-Sep-2008 14:38

I'll try and make this quick and painless.

There are two ways to connect your gear to your tv.

1)
Each output goes to a different input on your TV. HDMI 1 might be your MYSKY input, HDMI2 might be your DVD player input etc. To watch that device, you turn it on, and then select the right input from the list on your TV. This way means you have to have a cable from each device to your TV.

A sound output from each device goes to the receiver as well. This means you can watch the device on your TV only if you want, or you can turn on the receiver and hear sound through all your speakers as well.

2)
Hook everything up is to take all your devices and put them into inputs on the receiver. You then take just one output from the receiver to your TV. This way means you have to have the receiver running to get an output to the TV.

You turn on the TV and only ever select the one input the receiver is plugged into. You then select the device you want on the receiver. The TV remote hardly ever gets touched.

These two options look like this:

DVD to TV but also sound to Receiver
Sky to TV but also sound to Receiver

or

DVD and SKY to Receiver
Receiver to TV.

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Drmchaser

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#165654 19-Sep-2008 15:27

Thats what we have

DVD,SKY and HDD recorder hdmi connecting to Receiver
Receiver hdmi connecting to TV.

Dingbatt

6754 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#165967 21-Sep-2008 12:04

I hope your MySkyHDi went well. I agree with the above. For the minimum amount of cabling, connect your HDD-recorder and MySkyHDi to your receiver using hdmi and then your receiver to the TV using hdmi. Connect your speakers to the receiver.
The other advantage is that you only ever use one AV input into your TV (hdmi 1 for example), so it is permanently left on that input and as mentioned above the only TV control needed is on/off - which can be programmed into the receiver's remote. Eventually you may want to get a universal remote, but I would get used to using the system with multiple remotes until you can assess what level of universal remote you need.
Because your receiver has 2 hdmi ins and doesn't upconvert analogue inputs to hdmi, if you decide to add any more sources later then you will need to connect them via component (red,blue,green) and connect component to the TV, or if the new component has hdmi you will need an hdmi switch to feed more inputs into your receiver

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996