Home Theater Set-up

[General Salty]

Hello all. I'm new to the board and also new to the world of home theater. Due to extreme budget constraints, I'm running with the Onkyo 605 and the Yamaha NS-SP1800 speaker set.

I'm curious as to what can I expect to go through, in terms of setting up my system. I'll be wall mounting the 4 satellites, obviously, so with that and the actual setting up of the system, what degree of difficulty should I mentally prepare for?

[Slec]

What your BD player and how are you going to connect everything? (HDMI, optical, etc...)

In terms of setting up the actual speakers, it's nothing major.

[Lucy Diamond]

Welcome to the family.

Mentally prepare for fun and the single greatest sub culture EVER!!!

Run the cables first.
If you can turn a screw with a screwdriver, then the mounting is nothing.

My speakers came with a safety catch, which is nothing more then a piece of steel braid with mounting loops on either end. One end of the braid is screwed to the back of the speaker and the other end is screwed to the wall.

The purpose of this is just in case your mounts fail the speaker won't crash to the floor right away. The odds of your mounts failing you are slim to none, but I just wanted to put the option out there for you to use or not use.

Good luck and enjoy,

[Deadset]

Welcome, as stated it's not that difficult. If you are mounting the speakers on existing sheetrock, I'd recommend getting the flat speaker wire. There's tons of sources online, here is one to help you identify proper speaker placement.

http://www.thx.com/home/setup/speakers/dolby.html

they also have a setup for 5.1 etc..

Just remember black to black, red to red when going from your receiver to speaker.

Try to mount the speakers to wall studs, and as some others have pointed out in other threads, mounting them off the wall on a bracket will lessen your chance for vibration.

[General Salty]

My BD Player is the PS3, I'm doing HDMI and I'm currently checking out mounts and speaker wire lengths.

[Deadset]

also, get an inexpensive HDMi cable online, you can find them at amazon or just about anywhere.

Good luck, post some pics when it's all done if you can!

[Slec]

Get your speakers situated using the info linked to above. Not all rooms allow for PERFECT setup of your speakers. Undoubtedly you'll have to make some compromises, don't let that get to you, just to the best you can using the info as a guideline.

Once you get all your wires run, the AVR is fairly straight forward.
You'll want to set the HDMI monitor to out (so you can see everything on your screen)
You'll have to assign the PS3 on the AVR in the menu as an HDMI input.
Assign the other inputs based on what you are connecting (cable box, DVD player record player etc)
The plug in the mic and run Audyssey.

On the PS3 make sure HDMI video and audio are set to HDMI and output is Linear PCM.

[General Salty]

Audyssey, is this pre-programmed into the Onkyo?

[Slec]

Originally Posted by General Salty

Audyssey, is this pre-programmed into the Onkyo?

Yes it is. It should have come with a little mic. When you plug the mic into the front, it will automatically start the program and tell you what to do.

[General Salty]

also, the sub, I have an entertainment center that has a spot that the sub can fit in. what are the opinions on placing the sub in here?

[Deadset]

Originally Posted by General Salty

also, the sub, I have an entertainment center that has a spot that the sub can fit in. what are the opinions on placing the sub in here?

I've always placed my sub up front near the TV, the sound emitting from a sub is not direction dependent, I've heard of people placing them on the sides too...the speaker link above recommends right below the TV. Mine has always been off to 1 side of the TV or the other.

The reason has always been room limitations. IF I ever build my own house, things will be alot different in my movie room.