connecting home theater to cable box and tv

[rampage]

I am having trouble connecting my home theater (samsung, incl. dvd player) to my hdtv and cable box. Right now it is connected, but a few things seem incorrect. I hooked it up according to the comcast manual that came with the cable box. That has me using a (five) component cable, with three video going from the tv to the cable box and two audio going from the tv to the receiver. The problems: I can't use the dvd mode on the receiver, and my center channel speaker is not working. My cable box does not have an hdmi input, so that is out of the question. I understand I need video going from the receiver to the tv in order to use the dvd mode, but don't see any other connections on the tv to make that work. Any solutions? Thanks.

[elapsed]

Hi rampage, welcome to AR! It sounds to me that you have a Samsung HTIB (Home Theater in a Box), and a TV with only one component input? Please provide model numbers for both units.

In regards to your questions:

1. The red/white audio cables from your Cable box will only provide stereo sound. For surround sound you must use either a digital coax cable or optical audio cable from the Cable box to the receiver

2. For DVD you will need to output video from the receiver to the TV. For highest picture quality I would recommend using either HDMI or component. If you don't have these inputs available on your TV, the next best option is S-Video, followed by RCA (the yellow cable).

Please clarify what audio and video inputs are available on the receiver, and what video inputs are available on the TV

Cheers

[rampage]

I actually figured it out. I got the DVD player connected by merely hooking RGB from the component into the receiver and the TV. Then as far as the center channel, I actually had all audio connected properly, I merely had to change from stereo mode (only LR) to cinema or matrix (all speakers). I actually didn't need coax or optical cables apparently. I just have the two audio cables from the component cable going from receiver to cable box. Thanks, if I need any more assistance I'll certainly come here!