Visual Learner Wiring help

[greenbaysuck]

Please help,
I just bought a 5.1 epic - 600 home theatre system and have no clue how to hook it up because the directions flew out the window. The three things I need to hook together is my panasonic 32" flat screen, my receiver, and my xbox. I bought the wire with the red and white ends and a coupler so the yellow wire off the xbox is in the tv and the coupler helps the red and white wires reach the reciever. For some reason the center speaker and the speakers labeled SL and SR dont work and the speakers that do work only work for the xbox, not tv. I don't know if there are any picture diagrams out there because I am not good with the speaker lingo.

I would apreciate any advice, thanks.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

Some good pictures often come with owner's manuals. You can often find electronic versions of those manuals at the manufacturer websites. If you'd like, let us know which receiver and TV you own (manufacturer and model number), and we should be able to find them online for you and provide you with links to them.

A couple of things:
1. The red and white connections for audio can carry stereo sound (the front two speakers) or matrixed surround sound (like Pro-Logic). They can't carry discrete 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. So, it's no surprise to me that you are only getting stereo sound from the Xbox. We can definitely help you with that.
2. How do you have the TV connected to the receiver?

Adam

 

[greenbaysuck]

The only info on the receiver I have is that its model: epic 600/700/800
My tv is a phillips 42" model: 42pfl5332d/37

I don't really have the receiver hooked straight up to the tv. Thats one thing I couldn't figure out. My xbox has the red,white,yellow hook up and I put yellow in my tv. Then I put a coupler on the red and white ends and attached the red/white cord to that and hooked the other end of the red/white cord in the top of the receiver plug labeled AUDIO IN and INPUT 1.

This is what I was suggested by radio shack lol.

 

[Adam]

I'll try to find those manuals for you (and me).

In the meantime, the way that you have the system connected won't allow for any audio from the TV to be played through the receiver. You would need to connect an audio output on the TV to an audio input on the receiver in order to do that.

Let me try to find the manuals. I'll post again in just a bit.

 

[Adam]

User manual for the Epic-600/700/800 system can be found here if you want to read through it while I'm looking around.

 

[Adam]

The Philips support page for your TV is at this link here.

The owner's manual is here.

 

[Adam]

Alrighty. Let's give this a shot.

1. Keep the Xbox hooked up the way that you have it.

2. The only analog audio output on your TV that I can find is the headphone jack on the side of the TV. If you want to listen to your TV through your surround system, you'll need to use that headphone jack because your surround system doesn't have a digital audio input. You have two options to connect the surround system to that headphone jack:

Option 1: Connect the TV's headphone jack to the "AUDIO IN - MP3" jack on the back of the subwoofer unit using a cable like this one here (available in different lengths and at places like Radio Shack, too).

Option 2: Connect the TV's headphone jack to the "AUDIO IN - INPUT2" jacks on the back of the subwoofer unit using a cable like this one here, with one option to make it longer being a cable like this one here. Again, you can buy these at places like Radio Shack, too.​

Now, I'll look through your surround system's manual and find some directions for getting sound out of all of your speakers.

 

[Adam]

Hee, hee. The manual for your surround system SUCKS. Maybe I just didn't find the "good" version. I just realized that it's not a stand-alone receiver, but rather the electronics are built into the sub. I just modified the post above to reflect that.

Well, the instructions will be pretty simple based on the manual not giving much detail. When you start listening to the Xbox or the TV, try changing the sound mode on the sub unit. You can do this in at least two ways (refer to page 3 of the manual, which is page 4 of the PDF file):
1. Push the "CH MODE" button on the front of the sub.
2. Push the buttons on the remote labeled as "2.1", "3.1", "5.1", and "DSP".

The easiest way is almost surely using the remote. If you only hear sound from the front speakers, as you've said, push the "5.1" channel button. That might do it all on it's own. You should also experiment with pushing the "DSP" button. I haven't found yet what surround sound modes that system will do, but you'd probably want to be choosing some version of Pro-Logic because you'll be wanting to play two-channel audio through five speakers.

If you would, let us know if that works for you or if you have any other questions.

 

[greenbaysuck]

Thank You

Thanks that worked great, but now I have a different problem. One of the bottom tower speakers has a little distortion in it. Its almost like the little speaker on the bottom is blown. Any advice on that? Maybe I need to take it somewhere to get fixed?

 

[adk highlander]

Adam is great.

If you just got it can you go back and do an exchange? It may be hard to find a replacement driver for it.