Ideal Home Theater Hookup

[gamer2600]

Can someone clarify for me the ideal home theater hook up? I know there are probably threads on this but hopefully this thread can shine some light on a few questions that I have.

1. Is it better/more beneficial to hook all video and audio into the receiver and then take one HDMI cable to the TV? I have a PS3, and HD Cable box, Xbox 360 Core, and Wii. The cable box and PS3 are already 1080P is their any gain to hooking them up this way or is just cleaner cables?

2. Kind of a part of question 1, but How important is video upconverting through a receiver? I am looking to set up a home theater in the basement of my new house and have read some good reviews on receivers mainly the Denon AVR-3808CI and the Onkyo 805. From what I read the Denon has excellent video upscaling although it can't upscale 1080P over component, so I guess I am out of luck with my Xbox 360. The Onkyo 805 has excellent audio decoding but poor video upscaling.

Any recommendations would be great...I just get sick to my stomach sometimes cause although I love home theater stuff, when it comes time to buy equipment I compare and contrast things until my eyes bleed. Just a little insight would be helpful.

Side note...I read that the Denon AVR-3808CI has some problems when working with the PS3. Did anyone face any of these?

Thanks

[Chevypower]

HDMI upconverting really makes it simple. As many components as you can into the receiver with HDMI, and the ones that can only go Component, S-Video etc, plug them in also, then the receiver should be able to output all of those (whichever input is selected) to the TV through HDMI. Which means you only need to use one input on your TV. But you will need to have the receiver switched on, for the signals to pass through obviously. If your TV doesnt have HDMI, I am not sure if receivers are still made to upconvert to component. They used to do that before HDMI days.

[mdabb]

Be careful what you wish for. When you end up with one HDMI output to your TV/display you do lose control of picture settings meaning unless you want to tweak your settings everytime you switch sources. You will have one picture setting for all sources. Also some receivers also claim untouched passthrough of digital sources but that is always not the case. As you may or may not know some receivers process & upscale analog and/or digital sources. Some only analog sources and pass through the digital.

Example: I just recently purchased an Onkyo TX-SR875. I plan to experiment widely to achieve the optimum PQ. 1st my Moto HD DVR- I am going to try the HDMI to receiver to TV and See what happens. Then The component out on Moto to reciever to TV and See what it does with the analog source. My PS3 obviously to take advantage of HD sound will only be HDMI. My standalone (Samsung BD-P1200) Bluray player which already has Reon HQV and no HD sound except PCM will most likely get the passthrough. On and on until I like what I see with all possible variables. Wether I skip the Receiver or not for each source on analog and digital.

I have yet to experiment and are also looking at 4 x 4 HDMI switchers from gefen to have the ability to take the one HDMI out on the receiver and turn it into 4 independant sources to the TV. That way I can have each source callibrated the way I like. With the added benefit of sending the signal to my bedroom which is directly above. I may just skip the receiver with some HDMI sources and input directly to the TV.

After I do all this they will most likely come out with receivers with independant HDMI outputs. In any case I know I wanted a receiver that does what it promises. Welcome to the confusion and good luck as I barely scratched the surface.

[MacDaddyOJack]

The other thing with HDMI upconversion is that not all recievers upconvert to 1080p. Most only go up to 720p, so if your tv is 1080p native, then the signal will get upconverted twice. Once by the reciever and again by the tv.