Little help, digital sound.

[krazeyeyez]

I was trying to help a friend over the phone get his stuff hooked up properly and i think i confused him as well as my self looking for a little clarification.

Trying to hook up a sony dav-hdx589w receiver, digital cable box, and tv......

The goal is to have the shows broadcast in surround actually come through as surround.

Since this receiver ONLY has one hdmi and it is an output, the video signal from the cable box should be sent direct to the tv either by component or hdmi. And then a coax output from cable box to receiver.

Now you should only need one wire, the HDMI going from the receiver to the tv since that will carry the video of the built in dvdchanger and all audio should play correctly?

I think this is right, but over the phone this is hard, so what is the verdict?


EDIT: Also if he only has the one HDMI atm, i could just have him connect the component video from the cable box direct to the receiver, and let that pass video from there through the one hdmi since their would be nothing to gain from direct to the tv?

[ewsjr]

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

I was trying to help a friend over the phone get his stuff hooked up properly and i think i confused him as well as my self looking for a little clarification.

Trying to hook up a sony dav-hdx589w receiver, digital cable box, and tv......

The goal is to have the shows broadcast in surround actually come through as surround.

Since this receiver ONLY has one hdmi and it is an output, the video signal from the cable box should be sent direct to the tv either by component or hdmi. And then a coax output from cable box to receiver.

Now you should only need one wire, the HDMI going from the receiver to the tv since that will carry the video of the built in dvdchanger and all audio should play correctly?

I think this is right, but over the phone this is hard, so what is the verdict?


EDIT: Also if he only has the one HDMI atm, i could just have him connect the component video from the cable box direct to the receiver, and let that pass video from there through the one hdmi since their would be nothing to gain from direct to the tv?

not an expert but this sounds like you got it right. What I found, though, was you may need to check the digital audio output in the settings on the cable box. I have my HD through Time Warner and I am using the coaxial connection from the box to my Outlaw 950 pre/pro. I have to change the audio output from HDMI to dolby digital every time I want DD sound when watching cable.(if I don't, audio light on the 950 registers as PCM instead of DD). It always defaults back to HDMI when I turn the box off. I assume it does this because I am also running HDMI for video into the tv. not sure if this helps but thought I should let you know if you are having problems getting DD.

[jonesyg27]

Krazeyeyez, your friend needs to run an HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV for the DVD player, then run another HDMI from the cable box to the TV and a coax/optical cable for audio to the receiver for surround sound. I don't think this system has any video inputs, so the video has to go straight to the TV from the cable box. If the TV doesn't have 2 HDMI inputs, then run component video cables to the TV.

Ewsjr, I'd get a new cable box. It shouldn't change its settings just because you turn it off, no matter what cable provider you have. Make them give you another box, if it does the same thing, make them give you another brand of box. You shouldn't have to put up with that.

[aramis109]

My cable box acts wacky when it's turned off too, not to mention the long boot-up period. I just leave mine on all the time.

Krazy, you told him right. There's no reason to do extra wiring on the cable box just so you can run HDMI on it. Running component will give you up to 1080i/720p, which is the most that cable's currently broadcasting in. Optical will give you up to DD/DTS 5.1, which is also the limit of broadcasting. No reason to run wires up to the HDTV and back down to the receiver- that's just extra cables. Run it all to the receiver and then run your single HDMI to the set and you're done.

[Zman2k2]

Okay, so looking at the receiver online, this is what I've come up with.

As for output on the DVD player, run an HDMI to the TV for video.

As for the cable box, the only option is to run either an HDMI or Componant cables to the TV directly for video, and the audio can be run to the surround system via S/PDIF. That should get your surround audio to play under the AUX IN on the receiver.