noob questions

[bevisiscariot]

Okay, so I've got all this stuff (46" Sony Bravia TV, PS3, directTV box, old sony a/v receiver, fluance av-htb speakers, half-dozen blu-ray discs) and I'm a little overwhelmed. So many options - makes my head spin.
I know I can't get HD from the direct tv box because it only has composite hookups on the back, so right now I'm watching tv in sd. But I've got the ps3 hooked up to the tv via hdmi and the picture looks great with the blu-ray discs so I figure that's all good. Because the receiver is an older model, the best it offers is optical so I have that hooked up to the ps3 that way.
The speakers are all properly hooked up with decent cables and placed well and the receiver decodes dolby digital and dts. But . . . there are like a million settings on the tv, the ps3 and the receiver and I don't know if am getting all i can out of this stuff.
It's a good thing to have the black bars when watching blu-ray, right? I don't understand much about aspect ratios. My tv offers normal, full, zoom and wide zoom. Are their any dvds with aspect ratios that fill the screen without cropping or loss of picture quality? And what about the ps3s limited and full rgb options and the super-white option - what are the best? Finally, how should I set the upscaler on the ps3 for my reg dvds - normal, double?

[Slec]

Originally Posted by bevisiscariot

Okay, so I've got all this stuff (46" Sony Bravia TV, PS3, directTV box, old sony a/v receiver, fluance av-htb speakers, half-dozen blu-ray discs) and I'm a little overwhelmed. So many options - makes my head spin.
I know I can't get HD from the direct tv box because it only has composite hookups on the back, so right now I'm watching tv in sd. But I've got the ps3 hooked up to the tv via hdmi and the picture looks great with the blu-ray discs so I figure that's all good. Because the receiver is an older model, the best it offers is optical so I have that hooked up to the ps3 that way.
The speakers are all properly hooked up with decent cables and placed well and the receiver decodes dolby digital and dts. But . . . there are like a million settings on the tv, the ps3 and the receiver and I don't know if am getting all i can out of this stuff.
It's a good thing to have the black bars when watching blu-ray, right? I don't understand much about aspect ratios. My tv offers normal, full, zoom and wide zoom. Are their any dvds with aspect ratios that fill the screen without cropping or loss of picture quality? And what about the ps3s limited and full rgb options and the super-white option - what are the best? Finally, how should I set the upscaler on the ps3 for my reg dvds - normal, double?

Where to start....
PS3 set to bitstream out over optical.
PS3 upscaler set to Normal (i think, its been awhile for DVD for me)
TV should be set to normal (dot to dot if available). The others will alter the picture you see and you don't want that.

[gearyt]

upgrade your DirecTV box... you won't be sorry
read up on the black bars here..https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=38161

[bevisiscariot]

I already have the ps3 set to bitstream over the optical - when I hooked it up originally I couldn't get any sound at all through the pcm setting so I changed it and there it was. And I DO want to upgrade the directtv box but getting all this stuff set me back a bit so that'll have to wait for a little bit. I think the default for the upscaling is normal but i was reading ps3 magazine the other day and they led me to believe that as long as my tv could handle 1080p double scaling would give me an extra boost. Still not sure about the rgb limited vs. full settings and the super-white bit, though. Oh, and thanks for the replies.

[Slec]

Originally Posted by bevisiscariot

I already have the ps3 set to bitstream over the optical - when I hooked it up originally I couldn't get any sound at all through the pcm setting so I changed it and there it was. And I DO want to upgrade the directtv box but getting all this stuff set me back a bit so that'll have to wait for a little bit. I think the default for the upscaling is normal but i was reading ps3 magazine the other day and they led me to believe that as long as my tv could handle 1080p double scaling would give me an extra boost. Still not sure about the rgb limited vs. full settings and the super-white bit, though. Oh, and thanks for the replies.

RGB should be set to full
I have super white turned on, but my display doesn't benefit from this.

[gearyt]

IF you watch a lot of TV, the HD box should be next
DirecTV broadcasts a lot of HD and the difference will
justify the $100

[bevisiscariot]

Originally Posted by Slec

RGB should be set to full
I have super white turned on, but my display doesn't benefit from this.

I figured at first that rgb full was a no brainer (even though the default is limited) but when i turned it on the display seemed a little dark, especially with games. Also, I don't see much difference with the super white on or off - does that mean my display doesn't benefit from this setting either? What displays do benefit? Thanks again.

[aramis109]

So uhm... did you get the Fluance speakers from your son for Christmas perchance? What do you think of them?

[bevisiscariot]

Originally Posted by aramis109

So uhm... did you get the Fluance speakers from your son for Christmas perchance? What do you think of them?

No, I bought 'em myself from the website -- after researching them on the web for like ten million hours. I'm well aware that some people consider them a sketchy company or even white van speakers but there are a great many others -- including the reviewers at cnet, a former senior editor at wired magazine and many, many customers -- who think they're just decent, inexpensive speakers. And that's what they are. I know they're not great speakers -- far from it; but to answer your question: for $200, they beat the hell out of all the 3, 4 & 5 hundred dollar htib systems I auditioned at stores, so I'm happy as hell with them.