New Member

[shirts88]

Hello everyone I'm new to the forum and have been driving myself crazy for days searching for the best possible set-up for my home theater. I have a 7.1 Pioneer receiver with no HDMI inputs, 1 Optical Input, 2 Digital Coax Inputs, and the standard analog inputs, and a 42" Phillips Plasma with 2 HDMI Inputs. I have a PS3 and a Comcast DVR/HD Box that I want to get the best possible picture and sound out of. It seems my best option for the Comcast box is an HDMI cable to my Phillips Plasma, and digital coaxial to the receiver. Is this better than running YPrPb cables to the Plasma and analog (red and white) to the receiver? For the PS3 I will run HDMI to the Plasma and Optical to the receiver. However, if I run optical I need to change the setting on the PS3 to from PCM to bitstream to receive full 5.1 surround. Would I be better of using YPrPb to the plasma and analog (red and white) to the receiver for this reason? I plan to watch many blue rays from my PS3, and I would just like to know the best set-up. Also, I have read when using PS3 for upconverting regular DVDs it may be better to use the YPrPb and analog sound. For playing music from CD's would I be better using the PS3 through the analog or the digital coax?

 

[avaserfi]

The ideal situation for both of these is the same. Run video through HDMI to your TV and then run the audio to your receiver via digital. This will give you the best you can get with your current set up.

The red and white cables are stereo only and won't give you a true surround experience.

 

[shirts88]

Digital Surround

Thank you for the quick response.
Now for my speaker set-up questions...
I have excellent polk satellite speakers with matching center channel, an entry level 7.1 Pioneer Receiver, and a $99 Sony Subwoofer. I currently have the sub set up with the sub preout on the receiver, and I'm fairly satisfied with the sound. I read the polk website and they say its better to wire the front speakers through the subwoofer and not to use the sub preout, but that is with their Polk sub. Will the polk recommended set-up still be better even with the Sony sub?
Also, my living room is very large about the size of 3 normal sized bed rooms and I have it divided into 3 areas, bar room, tv room, billiards room. I will use the 5.1 setup for my middle "tv room" when I'm watching movies , but I also want to add one speaker in the far corners of each the bar and billiards room for when I play music and just change the receiver to 7.1 for music. Would this idea work, and how would it work out for watching movies in 7.1 as well? Basically I am taking the 7.1 recommended set-up and instead of having the channels directly behind the couch, I will still have them behind the couch, but spread to the far corners of the room.

 

[jcPanny]

Receiver setup

Keep the sub connected to the line level sub output on the receiver. This is the normally method of the sub and will work best for bass management.

For the bar speakers, you should be able to connect them to the Surround Back channels. You can use the 7-channel stereo mode to have all 7 speakers play. Some receivers have a Zone 2 or speaker B jacks that would make it easier to enable/disable the bar speakers. For movie playback, I would leave it in 5.1 mode. Since there is not much 6.1 or 7.1 source material, your receiver will output 5.1 by default unless you enable Dolby PLII or DTS Neo6 mode.

 

[shirts88]

Receiver

Circuit City is giving me the option of choosing a 7.1 Pioneer VSX 816 or a 7.1 Denon AVR 587 replacement receiver. Which one would be better for my 7.1 setup I have listed above?

 

[shirts88]

7.1 Setup

I purchased the Denon receiver. Should I connect the bar and speakers to the zone 2/surround back or the front speaker B jacks on the receiver? I want to be able to enable the bar speakers only when listening to music or sports, and I want to be able to disable them for movies and use my 5.1 set-up.

 

[Johnd]

Connect the bar spaekers to zone 2 (stereo only).

Connect the remaining speakers (5.1 ?) to zone 1.

 

[shirts88]

Zone 2

Thanks. I already have the 5.1 set-up and it sounds great. If I hook up the bar speakers to Zone 2 how can I get them to play whats coming though my comcast HD box for sporting events?

 

[jcPanny]

Denon Zone 2

You need to "turn ON" zone 2 on the receiver and set it to the desired source. Zone 2 on most receivers works for analog signals so if you have a digital audio source (cable box, DVD, etc.) you will need to run a set of analog audio cables (red/white RCA) from the source to the receiver. If you need cables, I have had good results with monoprice.