All-new system. Question about necessary cables for OCCASIONAL use of Receiver only

[NBassett]

Thank you for admitting me to the forum. I have a question about cables required.
Set-up: All brand new kit as shown on the attachment: 4K HD TV, 7.2 AV Receiver, CD Player, HDD/CD Recorder/Bluray player.

Usage: I want home theatre sound through the hifi speakers sometimes but NOT all the time. Most of the time I want to watch TV or HDD recordings just through the TV speakers. Only occassionally I want to watch using the Receiver and the hifi speakers and that is the only time I want to switch-on the Receiver.
Just noticed that this forum will not upload my word document with the diagram so I'll describe it... Coax aerial from wall to HDD then from HDD to TV. HDMI from HDD to TV. HDMI between ARC Receiver and ARC TV.
Question: What if any should link the HDD to the Receiver? I can think of FIVE possible answers. Only one of them must be the correct optimum answer;
1) Leave as it is in the hope that when I switch on the Receiver the HDMI ARC cable will transmit the sound from the TV to the Receiver and thence the hifi speakers.
2) Connect an HDMI from HDD to Receiver. Oops can't do because the only HDMI OUT on the HDD is already going to the TV, but can do (3) below.
3) Connect RCA audio cable from HDD to Receiver. I would like to know if this one will work because I already have a set of high quality RCA leads.
Oh dear, this morning I can't even recall what the other two options that I thought of last night were...

So to summize, I have HDMI from HDD to TV. HDMI between Receiver ARC and TV ARC. I only occasionally want to switch-on the Receiver and listen to sound that way. Usually just want sound through TV. What, if any, cables do I need? eg anything additional between HDD and Receiver?

Thank you all very much in advance.

 

[lovinthehd]

By HDD do you mean a computer rather than simply a hard disc drive? Coax aerial is from a cable system or an OTA antenna or ? Does your HDD pass signal full time?

If you want sound only from the tv for some strange reason (personally I can't stand tv speakers audio quality), usually you need particular settings in your avr/tv to allow pass thru when avr is off. Offhand seems your cabling is sufficient.

Instead of vague descriptions/abbreviations always helpful to provide specifics of make/model of gear so we can look up details....

 

[BMXTRIX]

It may have been in his document, but I agree. ALWAYS list make and model of the equipment you are talking about.

If your TV has it, while ARC may work, you may have more consistent results by using a digital optical output from the TV to your A/V receiver.

Depending on the make/model of your receiver, you could hook the cable box up to your receiver, and while the receiver is powered off, it may be able to pass audio and video to the TV from the cable box automatically. Some do that, others do not.

ARC may work just fine, but it can also be buggy from some people at times.

At the end of the day, your TV speakers are crap and you are saying that you really want to do some 'crap' listening most of the time, and only use the top-dollar good stuff from time-to-time. You can see how this makes very little sense when worded as such. If you get a good remote, you can listen to your good speakers all of the time and it should be just as easy as using the TV speakers. One button to turn it on, and the volume up/down goes with the A/V receiver. But, it depends on what you have. Makes no sense to use lousy speakers when you have good speakers though.

 

[Good4it]

I think you should buy the most expensive ones you can find. Everyone knows COST = PERFORMANCE ....not!