Going to the next level... still about connections

[donbart]

I'm helping my daughter hookup an HT system. The units involved are:
Onkyo TX-SR600 AV Receiver
Toshiba 36HF73 TV
Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVR
Memorex MVD2042 DVD player
A 5.1 speaker set

I'm having problems settling on the interconnections using the pictorials in the manuals. I must admit sparse knowledge of what is going on within the AV Receiver and thus the source of most of my problems.

Some questions:
1. If each of the units have "Digital Audio" connections (except the TV) is it necessary to also interconnect each unit's "L/R Analog" connections? This would keep audio out of the TV, using the AV Receiver's speakers for all the audio, right?
2. Since I have only one "Digital Audio" input on the AV Receiver, but have a "Digital Audio" cable coming from both the DVR and DVD units, can I "Y" connect them or should I use an A-B switch?
3. I understand that the AV Receiver's main function (aside from its tuner, processing and amplifying duties) is input selection and switching. In my case, getting the video to the TV is what I'm trying to do. Which video connection on the back of the receiver goes to the TV? The "Monitor" connection?

Any bits of information regarding these questions would be most appreciated. Thank you.

 

[MDS]

1. If each of the units have "Digital Audio" connections (except the TV) is it necessary to also interconnect each unit's "L/R Analog" connections?

In some cases, yes:
- Cable is sometimes a mix of analog and digital audio on different channels, so you'd want to hook up the analog audio as well and let the receiver automatically switch between the two when it detects digital audio vs analog audio.
- If you set up Zone 2 to play another set of stereo speakers in another room, you must have an analog audio connection if you want to send audio from that device to Zone 2.

2. Since I have only one "Digital Audio" input on the AV Receiver, but have a "Digital Audio" cable coming from both the DVR and DVD units, can I "Y" connect them or should I use an A-B switch?

You must use a switch but the receiver is already a switch. The TX-SR600 is a few years old but I thought it had at least two digital audio inputs - one coax and one optical.

3. I understand that the AV Receiver's main function (aside from its tuner, processing and amplifying duties) is input selection and switching. In my case, getting the video to the TV is what I'm trying to do. Which video connection on the back of the receiver goes to the TV? The "Monitor" connection?

All of them, but according to a few little rules:

- The Monitor out has both composite video and s-video. You can connect both (to different inputs on the TV of course) but it will only output the same video format; in other words if you used a composite video connection from the dvd player to the receiver, it will be sent out the composite Monitor out. The receiver will NOT convert down from component video to either s-video or composite.

- The video out jack (composite) is always active but only if the source is composite video. If the source were component video, there would be no output at the video out jack. You would really only use that output if you were connecting a VCR for recording.

- The component video out will output component video and again only if the source is component video. If you use component video for one of the devices you'd connect the component video out to the TV. I don't remember if that receiver can transcode composite or s-video to component but if it can and TV supports component video, you'd use the component video output and not the Monitor out.

 

[newb]

+1

Like MDS said, try to keep all your cables of the same quality (component to component, composite to composite, etc throughout). If you have component capability on all the devices, and separate inputs for each device on the receiver, and a component output to the TV, Video is covered. Audio is best with the optical/coax for the DVR and DVD and then the additional analog from the DVR.

If composite or S-Video is your connection, I think you get Video and audio? Not sure on this but others can confirm. This setup may need the analog cables too.

Hope this helps.

 

[MDS]

I looked up the TX-SR600 on the Onkyo site and it does not do any video conversion at all (not even composite to s-video). So if you want the convenience of using the receiver to switch the video and only have one cable to the TV, all the devices need to use the same video format. You can have one using composite and another using s-video but then they have to go to separate inputs on the TV and you'll have to switch the TV input when you switch the receiver input (an easy thing for a universal remote with macro capability to do).