shepsan said:
jonnythan, your comments have special interest to me because I have an almost exact situation regarding new HT components that I am about to connect together beginning with either a STB or cablecard. I want to make the connections that will provide the best video viewing and audio listening quality.
You say, "One short HDMI cable to go from the DVD player to the receiver." I assume that you then go from the receiver to the HDTV with either a HDMI or component cable for video and a digital optical or coaxial cable for audio.
For my previous setup with aging DVD player, A/V receiver and TV, I connected component video cable directly to the TV from the DVD player and a digital cable to the A/V receiver.
Please educate me about this confusing matter.
Thank you.
If your receiver and TV have HDMI ports, you'd need one short HDMI cable to go from the cable box to the receiver, another short HDMI cable to go from the DVD player to the receiver, and one long one to go from the receiver to the tV
If only your TV has HDMI ports, you will want one HDMI cable to go from the DVD player to the TV and another to go from the STB to the TV. You will also need audio cables (digital coaxial or optical depending on the ports on your equipment) to go from the DVD player and STB to the receiver.
If your TV has one HDMI port, you can use a long HDMI cable to plug your upconverting DVD player into it. Upconverting DVD players such as the Oppo only upconvert over HDMI, so you want to be sure you're using HDMI for it. You will still need an audio cable to go to the receiver. You will then use a short component cable to plug the STB into the receiver and a long component cable to plug the STB into the TV. You can also just plug the STB directly into the TV, but that may limit your options to add other video devices (game systems, VCRs, that kinda thing) later by just plugging them into the receiver.
If your TV has no HDMI ports, you will use short component cables to plug all the devices into the receiver, and one long component cable to plug that into the TV. Add some digital audio cables to transfer audio to the receiver and you're all set.
A receiver that has HDMI ports will generally pass all video received through it. For example, if you have a STB plugged into it via component video or S-video, the receiver should convert that video into HDMI and pass it through the HDMI port. This process usually only works on the way "up," though. The receiver won't downconvert video from an HDMI source to output it via component or S-video.
Bottom line is that you want to use the best connection you can. Use HDMI wherever possible. Just sit down and make sure you're getting video to the TV and audio to the receiver (HDMI carries both).
