Any home theater set up experts? Help

[Scribe]

I'm trying to connect a set of speakers to a tuner and connect the tv to the tuner so the tv plays through the speakers. Right now cable box feeds tv. It looks like the cable box has two hdmi in outlets available, the tv I think has three more hdmi in slots available. I'm trying to connect everything through a Yamaha RX v 477. Which should have more then enough inputs. Ideally I would like to just have the tv play the cable feed normal (no home theater speakers) but have the option to put the tuner on and play the tv throughout the speakers.

The tv is a Sony Bravia HDTV
The cable box is a Comcast box, xg1-a
Receiver is Yamaha RX v477

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Scribe]

That's what I would think too, but it doesn't seem to be working that easy. I shouldn't have to run a hdmi cable from the tv to the trciever should i? Right now hdmi goes from cable box to tv. Then another hdmi goes from cable box to receiver.

 

[greg0385]

The way i would do it is. Hdmi from cable box to tv.

From tv to sound system OR from cable box to sound system can be hooked up several ways.
1)optical cable
2)hdmi
3) rca

It just depends which outputs you have on your tv and cable box.

Just my thoughts on the subject. Use to do home installs years ago.

 

[Z06-Hec]

The way i would do it is. Hdmi from cable box to tv.

From tv to sound system OR from cable box to sound system can be hooked up several ways.
1)optical cable
2)hdmi
3) rca

It just depends which outputs you have on your tv and cable box.

Just my thoughts on the subject. Use to do home installs years ago.

I agree with above...
If you want to play sound from TV and sometimes play from the receiver/surround (like i do with movies) then the TV should have its regular inputs and have an Audio out...
Thats how i have my BOSE setup, Cable HDMI into TV and Optical Cable out from TV into my BOSE for sound and i turn on BOSE when i want to.
Any TV in the last 5-10 years has an audio out option. Optical, RCA, 3.5 mm jack (like headphones), etc...

In some cases you may need to turn off the tv sound or mute it so it doesn't echo depending on your sound system. Some more sophisticated systems have an adjustment for this echo to have them synced. Easier just to mute the tv or lower the volume to 0 so you don't see the mute signal floating on your screen.

 

[Scribe]

Looks the tv has RCA out and optical out. I thought hdmi was the way to go from the tv to the receiver since there are about 6 hdmi ports on the receiver.

It's a Sony XDL 32 XBR TV

I would think that this would be a simple thing to do with just an hdmi calble. I guess I'm more out of touch with home stereos then I thought. Been in the iPod world too long I guess.

 

[greg0385]

Looks the tv has RCA out and optical out. I thought hdmi was the way to go from the tv to the receiver since there are about 6 hdmi ports on the receiver.

It's a Sony XDL 32 XBR TV

I would think that this would be a simple thing to do with just an hdmi calble. I guess I'm more out of touch with home stereos then I thought. Been in the iPod world too long I guess.

Optical output is the best option. The cable is around $20-$30.

Rca will work too but not as good as the optical.

This is how i would hook it up.

Cable box-hdmi-tv
Then
Tv-optical-sound system(my opinion the better way)
Or
Cable box-optical-sound system

 

[Z06-Hec]

i just bought a 6 foot optical out on amazon, pretty sure I paid $9

 

[DaveMorris]

Either optical out of the TV or HDMI. There is absolutely no difference in audio quality between the optical or HDMI. They are both digital signals. Using a second output out of the cable box is usually a hassle because you have to set up the cable box to output both at the same time and some of them won't do that even though the outputs are physically there.

 

[Scribe]

First thanks everyone for chiming in. I'm not sure I was clear, the TV does have multiple open hdmi ports...they all say in though. I guess what is confusing me is, right now the wife has a Roku on the TV too, in another hdmi port. So if we want Roku, we just change the input on TV to say hdmi 3 instead of hdmi 1 which is where the cable comes in. So that leaves the hdmi 2 port on the TV and there is another one on the side, that I don't think says in or out. I'll have to double check that. So what I think what I'll try is to run the hdmi to the tuner I guess from that side port, and see where that gets me. I'm about to order a 25' optical cable and an hdmi cable, just in case this turns into a fight with my equipment. Ha. Please if there are more suggestions feel free.

 

[greg0385]

First thanks everyone for chiming in. I'm not sure I was clear, the TV does have multiple open hdmi ports...they all say in though. I guess what is confusing me is, right now the wife has a Roku on the TV too, in another hdmi port. So if we want Roku, we just change the input on TV to say hdmi 3 instead of hdmi 1 which is where the cable comes in. So that leaves the hdmi 2 port on the TV and there is another one on the side, that I don't think says in or out. I'll have to double check that. So what I think what I'll try is to run the hdmi to the tuner I guess from that side port, and see where that gets me. I'm about to order a 25' optical cable and an hdmi cable, just in case this turns into a fight with my equipment. Ha. Please if there are more suggestions feel free.

I may be wrong, but i dont think the hdmi port will work.

Most tvs have multi hdmi ports but they are "inputs". Meaning a hdmi cable plugged into that will only take a video/sound from a device into that port on your tv.

If your tv has a hdmi output then your idea will work as a output port on the tv take a video/sound from the tv to a device.

My advice is to see what ports are available on your tv. All the ports should be labeled as inputs or outputs somewhere.

Shoot me a PM if you need some help over the phone. Im far from the best when it comes to this stuff, but for 5 years while i worked for different tv service providers(charter cable,direct tv and dish network) i had to hook up a lot of sound systems.

Good luck and let me know if i can help.

 

[gcantu2002]

Technically, all connections should go into the receiver. Cable box --> receiver input, tv --> receiver input, receiver output --> tv HDMI input. Sound will always travel from the cable box to whatever device you want sound output from. If you want sound to come out of the tv then connect a secondary HDMI from cable box to tv and choose that input setting on the tv as needed. Then if you want sound from the receiver make that change as needed as well.

 

[Scribe]

So the only audio outputs are component and optical. I've ordered an optical cable. Thank you all for your help.

 

[Trex]

For the cable box, I would go HDMI out to the receiver, than HDMI out to the TV.

All sources should go into the receiver and than to the TV --- ie Blu-Ray player.

Is your ROKU a box or stick? Have an AppleTV, and its HDMI out goes to my pre-amp, and than to my TV.