help with audio and cables

[mercury187]

I am currently researching home theatres and am probably going to get the Onkyo 605, I currently have a comcast hdmi digital cable box and a xbox360. The comcast box is connected to the tv via hdmi and the 360 is connected using component cables, this leads me to my next question, how would I connect these to the Onkyo 605? I was reading some posts in the home theatre pics thread and someone said they had their 360 connected via toslink. I went to look this up and found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK
My tv has a audio port on the back of the tv that looks like theres red light coming out of the audio port, is that toslink? Is this how I would get surround sound out of my 360? I know the AV connector on the 360 has a port where something like this toslink cable can be connected to it but im not sure what cables I need. For the comcast box, does anyone else here have one? I believe they have the same port with the red light coming out of it but would I want to use that kind of cable or would I just run HDMI from the cable box to the reciever and then HDMI back to the TV??? I also want to get a ps3 and I believe that would have to have HDMI going from PS3 > receiver and then receiver > tv? so i should do cable box hdmi > receiver hdmi > tv so then all I do is connect ps3 hdmi to input and its already got hdmi > tv from receiver?

I noticed toslink doesnt support TrueHD and DTS HD streams.


Any help and information about all this would be greatly appreciated.

[Footloose301]

Yes, Toslink is essentially fiber optic digital connection. It is audio only. The opticals will be lit red because thats how it transfers, like a laser almost. If you connect one end to your XBOX360 and look at it you will notice the entire cable lites up red inside, kinda neat, but make sure NOTHING gets in there. Since you do not have an XBOX360 with HDMI then you woulld connect your component cables to the tv and run a fiber optic cable to your receiver from your XBOX360. You can connect the XBOX360 via toslink to the tv for now until you get the receiver which will allow you to atleast get a digital signal. You can do the same for the cable box. You're tv probably doesn't have 2 Optical inputs, so you'd have to connect the cable box to the tv using Digital Coax, which will basically yield the same audio. The cable box should be connected directly to the receiver via HDMI and then run a seperate HDMI from the receiver to the tv. Eventually when you get a PS3 you would connect the PS3 via HDMI to the receiver as well and then you're done. The single HDMI going from the receiver to the tv is all you need.

[mercury187]

Does it matter what kind of toslink cable and hdmi cable I get? I Found this toslink http://www.totalsignal.com/amazon/pics/00.main.jpg for 10$ shipped. It says heavy 4mm. I was also looking for a cheap monster hdmi cable.

[Footloose301]

you will not gain anything by getting a monster hdmi. Go to monoprice.com and get your cables there. You can search the board if u dont believe me. The ones for $15 will do the same quality.