AV equipment help please...........

hotpace · Post by **hotpace** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:19 pm

Can anyone help me out with this stuff please?

I've recently gone to town and splashed out on a load of audio visual equipment and now its getting complicated!

Basically over the last 6 weeks or so I've bought:

Samsung LE40M87
Sky HD
PS3

They were all connected quite easily as the TV has 3 HDMI connectors, so the PS3 went into one and Sky HD went into another. All easy so far. My problem was that when watching Sky HD in particular the sound wasn't much cop so I decided to buy a 5.1 cinema system which came today. Its a Samsung HT-THX25R system so as to match my TV and set-up generally.

Okay, so far so good. Here's where my problems are beginning. I obviously want everything to come out of the new speakers. The PS3 is very important to be coming out of the speakers as I am gonna be playing games on it but equally I want to be using that as the main DVD player as its Blu Ray AND it upscales normal DVD to HD looking DVD. Now I started setting up the new equipment today but I'm struggling to find a way to get the PS3 coming out of the speakers.

The DVD player/amp that came with the 5.1 cinema system only has one HDMI output on the back and no HDMI input. Maybe if it had an input then the PS3 may be able to connect to it and play through it.
Other connectors on the back of the DVd player/amp are:
Video output jack
Component video output jacks
Aux in 2 jacks
Scart socket

At the moment I have the Sky HD box connected to the DVD player/amp with the Aux In jacks which takes them out of the equation. And until I buy a HDMI to HDMI lead tomorrow, I have the DVD player/amp connected to the TV with a single Video jack (out of the DVD player/amp straight into the Video In on the TV)

That doesnt leave many connection options for the PS3 does it??

I though maybe if the DVD plater/amp had an optical audio in on it that would solve it but it hasn't. The PS3 has an optical digital out on it and the TV has allsorts on it!

I'm fucked! My minds frying just writing this now cos I can't figure an easy way to do it and I normally can which makes this doubly annoying! Help!

Oh yeah, and I want to keep 1080p settings on the PS3 for max quality as theres no point buying all this sh!t if it isn't gonna be the best quality is there!

cloutier · Post by **cloutier** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:26 pm

first off is your tv even 1080p capable, or are you doing all of this for no big reason?

why not buy an hdmi switch box? they have to make one by now, similar to old video switches or a kvm box for computers.

hotpace · Post by **hotpace** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:31 pm

element.8 wrote:first off is your tv even 1080p capable, or are you doing all of this for no big reason?

why not buy an hdmi switch box? they have to make one by now, similar to old video switches or a kvm box for computers.

Yes the TV IS 1080P capable. Its all for a reason yes. I've pretty much bought all the top stuff so as to futureproof for a good while hopefully. Well as much as you can in the world of electronics!

cloutier · Post by **cloutier** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:36 pm

so the amp for that unit wasn't really meant to be a hub for everything, correct? its more of a "home theatre in a box" kind of thing?

you might be better off doing a component set and buying a big amplifier, like a good denon or a mcintosh.

i'm also kind of blown away that that thing doesn't have an hdmi input. what other inputs does it have? two component video inputs, right? and no coax / lightpipe?

cloutier · Post by **cloutier** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:43 pm

what about running everything to the television, and then, somewhere in the menu's, there should be a "do not use internal speakers" function, and you have it do all the switching in to the amplifier?

the tv obviously has a bazillion inputs and a few decent outputs, so run everything to that, let it do the video / audio switching, and have the master out of the tv go in to the amplifier.

the only output for audio from the amplifier would be from its internal dvd player, using the hdmi output that it has on it.

hotpace · Post by **hotpace** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:47 pm

[quote="element.8"]so the amp for that unit wasn't really meant to be a hub for everything, correct? its more of a "home theatre in a box" kind of thing?
quote]

Thats what I meant for it to be but IT obviously had different ideas!

And yes it is a home theatre in a box kinda thing.

hotpace · Post by **hotpace** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:48 pm

element.8 wrote:what about running everything to the television, and then, somewhere in the menu's, there should be a "do not use internal speakers" function, and you have it do all the switching in to the amplifier?

the tv obviously has a bazillion inputs and a few decent outputs, so run everything to that, let it do the video / audio switching, and have the master out of the tv go in to the amplifier.

the only output for audio from the amplifier would be from its internal dvd player, using the hdmi output that it has on it.

I'll have to give this a go when I get my head around it cos yes the TV does have a gazillion inputs and outputs. I'm just looking at all these connections and thinking "there just HAS to be a way!"

Still sounds confusing though! Whats the 'master out' of the tv??

cloutier · Post by **cloutier** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:51 pm

hotpace wrote:I'll have to give this a go when I get my head around it cos yes the TV does have a gazillion inputs and outputs. I'm just looking at all these connections and thinking "there just HAS to be a way!"

i would do that. its a samsung tv, right? (assuming your brand loyalty here is strong

)

run everything in to the tv. there HAS to be a good audio out on it (not digital or coax, so it'll work with your amp). since you'll have to change video inputs to watch tv / dvd / ps3, that will automatically switch the audio. therefor since you have next to no good inputs on the amp, having the tv do all the heavy duty switching would be the easiest.