Right now I have the 2 DVD recorder players going to the HDTV. So if I leave it connected like that it sounds like I need to run an audio cable from the HDTV to the receiver?
You might think that, but most TVs will not pass a 5.1 signal from their inputs to their digital outputs, even if the TV will output Dolby Digital 5.1 from broadcasts (received through its tuner) via its digital outputs.
I recommend that you hook everything up to your receiver directly and use its switching.
The Receiver is a Yamaha RX-765 so I think it converts analog to digital? Maybe I should just go to the receiver with everything?
Tom
Yes, it will convert the video to digital to go from the receiver to the TV via HDMI. So what I would do is hook everything up to the receiver, with the best connections possible*, and hook up the receiver to the TV with HDMI for sending the video to the TV. If you use the tuner in the TV, you will also want to hook up the TV's digital audio output to the receiver for the best possible sound from it.
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*HDMI for everything that has it, then for your DVD players without HDMI, component video and digital audio (either optical or coaxial, it does not matter which). I would not bother hooking up any other connections from those players (unless you need it for output to your recorder), because that way you will not accidentally select a lessor audio or video option when watching things; you will either get the best possible connection, or if you switch to the wrong thing, you will get nothing for picture or sound or both. With a recorder, you will need to hook up its inputs as well, for both audio and video (again, I would use only the best connections possible, which probably means stereo analog for the audio for your DVD recorder).