HDTV/Receiver/Cable Help

[cjb10350]

I just bought a Samsung HDTV (HL-R5067W) and the salesman (Circuit City) suggested I buy an HDMI cable. I then got a High Definition cable box (Scientific Atlanta 8300) from the cable company (Cablevision). I already had a Harman Kardon AVR130 receiver. My problem is that I don't know what the hell I am doing.

I hooked up the HDMI cable from the cable box to the tv and it worked fine except that I can't use the TV remote to change channels. So I programmed the cable company remote to control the TV which worked. But then I tried to hook up an optical digital audio cable so I could hear the sound through the speakers attached to the Harman Kardon. I attached the optical digital audio cable from the optical out on the cable box to the optical in on the receiver. No sound. I tried all of the source selections (eg Video 1, Video 2, DVD) that are available - none worked. The Harmon Kardon documentation is very unclear or I am very dense or both but I don't see what source I should select to correlate with the optical audio in. The manual suggests that I also attach regular audio cables to the audio ins as a backup. This works but I can't figure out why you would need a backup. And I guess I am out $25 on the optical cable.

I have got a tangle of wires (red green blue; red white yellow; red white; optical; HDMI; S video; speaker wire) and each of the above items has its own remote control. I am now stuck in the position of using the receiver remote to change the volume, the cable company remote to change the channels and the tv remote to make sure that the internal tv speakers are off so that the sound will come through the speakers hooked up to the receiver. Other than that I'm Ok.

Is there a tutorial somewhere that would explain all of these permutations and all these different types of cables? Any help would be appreciated.

Chris

 

[Aarong]

Wow, you've got almost the same setup I have right now, only instead of a H/K receiver, I've got a Marantz. I just recently stumbled through the same troubles you're having.

I wouldn't say you're out $25 for a digital optical cable, and the info about using regular RCA cables as 'backup' sounds like nonsense to me. It sounds like it's just a matter of mapping the correct digital sound input to the correct function selection on your receiver. I'm not familiar at all with H/K, but I know mapping the digital inputs on my Marantz was pretty confusing at first.

Ideally, you should have two cables running from your cablebox. HDMI to your TV, optical to your receiver, excluding the power cable and coaxial cable from your wall outlet.

You should check the manual that came with the remote from your cable company (if one was included). I was able to program my cablebox remote to control my TV, cablebox, and my receiver all at the same time. This remote can be set to change volume only on the receiver even while in other modes.

I'm pretty new to this stuff too, so if anyone else has some helpful experience, chime in!

 

[MDS]

It's definitely an issue of 'assigning' the digital inputs. In the setup for the receiver you have to indicate which source selector goes with which digital input; eg. if you want the optical connection labeled 'optical 1' to be active when you press the 'video 1' source selector. Usually there is at least one default digital assignment, but it's possible that none of yours are defaulted and every one is set to analog. Do the assignment and all should be well.

Also make sure that the Audioigital Out setting in the menu of the cable box is set to Dolby Digital, not Other.

Regarding also connecting the analog cables: It may sound like nonsense but there is actually a sane reason for it - not all of the channels on 'digital' cable transmit digital audio. That very problem had me confused a few years ago when I first got digital cable. Because the receiver can auto-detect whether the signal is digital or analog, having both connections means the receiver will automatically switch to whichever signal is present (digital is preferred if both are present) and you never have to do it manually.