Hello,
I am trying to hook up a new mitsubishi 82inch tv w a cable box, and a kenwood system (probably 10 years old - would like to junk it but I don't have a say in the matter) that includes a receiver, Dvd/vcr combo (yes, be jealous), 5 speakers and a subwoofer.
I was able to get the tv and cable box together just fine..but at a complete loss for the whole package. I don't even know what to google.
I would appreciate any help or direction given.
Thanks, Laura
Hi, Laura. Welcome to the forum
Since you have a NEW TV, but an OLD receiver, the easiest way to go about things is make all of your VIDEO connections straight to the TV, and make all of your AUDIO connections straight to the Kenwood receiver.
You have two SOURCES: your Cable Box, and your DVD/VCR combo. Let's hook them up one at a time
- 1st, your Cable Box. It should have an HDMI out connection. So, you will want to run an HDMI cable from your Cable Box to an HDMI input on your Mitsubishi TV. That will be your VIDEO connection. It will also let you watch TV and just use the Mitsubishi's built-in speakers if you like, since HDMI can carry both VIDEO and AUDIO on just the one HDMI cable.
If you want surround sound for you Cable Box though, you will need to turn your Mitsubishi TV's speakers OFF (there should be an option to do that in the Mitsubishi's menu), or you can just turn the volume on the TV all the way down to zero.
To get surround sound from your Cable Box, look for one of the following two options:
a) your Cable Box might have an ORANGE plug labelled "Digital Coax" or "S/PDIF". If your Kenwood Receiver also has an ORANGE plug labelled "Digital Coax" (or something similar like "Dig. Coax" or even just "Coax" or "Dig. In", or it might be labelled "S/PDIF"), then you can run a Digital Coax cable from the Cable Box to your Kenwood Receiver. A Digital Coax cable is just a regular cable with RCA plugs - the exact same cable and plugs as any YELLOW Video cable. Even though the Digital Coax plugs are color coded ORANGE, you can just use any YELLOW video cable to make the connection. You probably have a spare YELLOW video cable laying around the house somewhere
b) your Cable Box might have an OPTICAL plug. This will look like a small, black square plug. You might see a red light coming from the plug, or it will have a little black flap that you can push inwards. It should be labelled "OPTICAL" or "TOSLINK".
If you want to use this connection INSTEAD of the "S/PDIF or Digital Coax" connection - or if either your Cable Box or Kenwood does not have an "S/PDIF or Digital Coax" connection, you can! "OPTICAL or TOSLINK" is also a digital AUDIO connection. You will need an "Optical TOSLINK" cable.
With either a) or b), you will now have a Digital AUDIO connection from your Cable Box to your Kenwood Receiver. That Digital connection will allow you to have Dolby Digital surround sound
Now, let's connect your DVD/VCR. Since it is old, it probably does not have an HDMI connection.
Look on the back of your DVD/VCR for 3 plugs that are RED, GREEN & BLUE all together in a row right next to each other. This should be labelled "Component VIDEO".
If you have these plugs, you can now run a Component Video Cable (which will be 3 cables bundled together with 1 RED, 1 GREEN and 1 BLUE plug) from your DVD/VCR to your Mitsubishi TV. Simply match RED to RED, GREEN to GREEN and BLUE to BLUE.
If your DVD/VCR does NOT have the RED, GREEN & BLUE Component Video plugs, look for an S-Video plug. You would then need an S-Video cable and an S-Video connection on the back of your Mitsubishi TV.
Your last resort, if your DVD/VCR does not have either a Component Video set of plugs or an S-Video plug is just the plain old YELLOW Video plug.
For AUDIO, you have the same options as your Cable Box - either the ORANGE "S/PDIF aka Digital Coax" connection, or the "Optical aka TOSLINK" connection.
If your DVD/VCR does not have either of those digital connections, then you will have to settle for the regular old stereo RED & White analogue audio plugs. You will not get surround sound from these.
So those are all the options for your sources. Now you just need to connect the 5 speakers and subwoofer to your Kenwood Receiver. This is fairly straight forward.
When you are sitting in your seat and looking at the TV screen, the speaker that is in front of you and on the Left of the TV is the Front Left speaker. The speaker on the Right side of the TV is the Front Right speaker. Your Center speaker should be either above or below your TV screen and you should try to angle the Center speaker either down or up, respectively, so that it is "aiming" at your face when you are seated.
Your Surround Left speaker should go directly to YOUR left when you are seated. The Surround Right speaker should go directly to YOUR right when you are seated. The Surround Left and Surround Right speakers should be about 2-3 feet ABOVE your head when you are seated and they should be firing straight across the room at EACHOTHER - not aimed at your seat. The idea of the surround speakers is to put sound "around" and "above" you, creating ambience and envelopment rather than obvious sounds that you can pin-point.
With your 5 speakers positioned, now you just need to run speaker wire from each speaker to the back of your Kenwood receiver. The speaker wire is just two wires side by side. If you need to buy new speaker wire, get "16 Gauge aka 16 AWG" speaker wire. The LOWER the Gauge or AWG number, the THICKER the speaker wire. Thicker is usually better, but 16 Gauge is probably the thickest speaker wire that will easily fit into the connections on your Kenwood system.
Both your speakers and Kenwood Receiver will have places to put the speaker wire that are either screw-down connection, or more likely, plugs that you push down to open a small hole. You put the speaker wire into that hole and then release the button to hold the speaker wire in place. The speaker wire will have two wires side-by-side. One side should have a marking of some sort on the jacket - like writing, or physical bumps or a different color. It doesn't matter which side goes to which plug on the back of the speaker, but you want to make sure that the BLACK plug on the speaker goes to the BLACK plug on the receiver and the RED plug on the speaker goes to the RED plug on the receiver. So just make sure that if you put the MARKED speaker wire side into the RED plug on the back of the speaker, that you also put the MARKED side of the other end of the speaker wire into the RED plug on the back of the receiver. RED to RED. BLACK to BLACK.
The back of the receiver should have labels for each speaker wire connection. Front Left, Front Right, Center, Surround Left and Surround Right. Plug the speaker wire from each speaker into the appropriate plugs on the back of the receiver.
The Subwoofer will either have a BLACK or PURPLE RCA plug, or it might also have a speaker wire connection. It will NOT have both. It will be one or the other. Regardless, connect an RCA (same thing as any YELLOW Video cable) cable from the receiver to your subwoofer if that is the type of connection, or run speaker wire from the receiver to the subwoofer if that is the type of connection available.
If it is an RCA cable, you will need to plug your subwoofer into a wall with its own power cord. If it is speaker wire, you will NOT need to plug in your subwoofer to the wall - it will be drawing power through the speaker wire.
Put your subwoofer somewhere along the front wall of your room (same wall as the TV and Front Left & Right speakers and Center speaker). You can put the subwoofer in a corner, which will usually make the bass sound louder. Or you can put the subwoofer anywhere along the front wall. Bass is a bit tricky - where you put the subwoofer can make a pretty big difference in what you hear. So don't be afraid to try several spots. You might find that in some spots, the bass sound very uneven, with certain bass notes sounding MUCH louder or quieter than others. You want to find a spot where the bass sounds nice and even, no matter what bass note is playing.
That should be it! Hope that helps.
