Connecting all my stuff....

V

vern

Enthusiast
I have just bought a Panasonic TH-42PA20 and when I hook up the components it sounds like ****e - loud humming/distortion/interference and only the centre channel works when just on the TV mode; surround works for dvd and vcr. I think I just screwed up the connections. Is there a thread, forum or website with detailed connection instructions? All the manuals are contradictory and confusing.

I have a normal cable box, an Onkyo TX-SV444, a Panasonic PV-7661 and a Toshiba RD-3109.

Many thanks.....
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
The links are helpful but here's a little hint on how to reconcile all those manuals.

First off, get to know and love your receiver manual. That's where all your toys will be routed to and from. Once you have this idea firmly entrenched in your head. I doubt you had a problem hooking up the speakers. These arethe simplist and most direct connection back ther aside from the FM antenna.

Use your other manuals (DVD player, Cable Box, etc...) only to identify the needed outputs and how to make sure they are activated and then plug them into the corect jacks on the receiver.

Remember, simply plugging something into the receiver is no guarantee you're done. You maty need to "tell" the receiver that a certain input is hooked up and what type of signal it's looking for. Again, RTFM on the receiver.

Actually, as far as a DVD player goes, there's only one video signal (S-video, Component or whatever) and a digital audio link and once you know where to plug these into your receiver, you are mostly home. You mat or may not need to select between bitstream and PDC but ypur DVD manual will tell you this.

Additionally, you may choose to connect up a red/white analog interconnect from your DVD player to an analog input on your receiver so you can play CD's with a minimum of effort.

I assume you got the TV hooked up ok, right? I take it you somehow have the cable box hooked up to the receiver and then to the TV? ...and it's working, right? Good! there is NO standard cable box in this world. They all have their little quirks.

Sometimes cable systems introduce interference due to grounding issues. Ifthat noise goes away when you disconnect the cable, you'll need an isolater. If that's the case, ask another question or search the archives.

As far as that "TV mode" or whateveryou called it working only with thecenter speaker, well, that sounds like what DPL will do on a mono signal. A mono signal will come out of only the front centerspeaker.
 
V

vern

Enthusiast
Humming sound - Monster Cable Power Center HT-850?

Seem to have resolved the connectivity issues (thanks) but I still had the very irritating humming noise. I connected a Radio Shack surge protector on the cable into the cable box and the noise was materially reduced. However, after viewing the plasma for a while the surge protector appears to also "filter" out some of the digital signal so I get bad reception - clearly not an acceptable solution.

Is this surge protector an "isolater" that has been referred to and that I just need a better one than the $10 Radio Shack piece? A salesman suggest the Montser Cable Power Center HT-850 which has a cable input/output that he swears will solve the problem, make for a better picture etc etc but it sells for Cdn$175!!

Any suggestions. Thanks
 

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