I have no idea what I'm doing

[lawman]

Hi all

So I'm a total newbie to Home Theatre. I recently purchased a Yamaha HTR 5560 off craigslist. My prior experience with hi-end audio was limited to my H/K computer speakers.

I have my HTR 5560 connected to a pair of Yamaha speakers given to me by a cousin (just temporary - have ordered a set of Fluance SX-HTB+ after reading some of the reviews on this site, CNET etc.) Don't know the model number, impedence etc. of the speakers. My speaker wire is pretty good - 12 guage I think.

After connecting the TV to the HTR (cable connected to tv, tv analog RCA output to HTR) I noticed that the sound was pretty low when I was watching TV. It was loud enough when I was playing a CD or my turntable. Then today I tried plugging in my MacBook Pro and the sound was incredibly low. I pumped up the volume to maximum on both the AVR and the laptop but nothing. I have the laptop connected through a Belkin RVA jack.

Any idea what I've done wrong? This is a problem for me since I have a lot of music on my laptop (I know that's an abomination :-) but I'm a broke grad student who's just discovered the wonders of vinyl)

Thanks!

[johnny p]

If I'm reading this correctly, you're running the sound ins/outs incorrectly causing the T.V. to control the volume..... for a quick test, if you're watching something, and sound is coming from the speakers...... if you turn up the volume on the T.V. (not the receiver) does the sound from the seperate speakers increase, or just the sound from the actual speakers connected to the T.V. (physically... the actual T.V.) hope that's clear... not sure.

[johnny p]

If I'm reading this correctly, you're running the sound ins/outs incorrectly causing the T.V. to control the volume..... for a quick test, if you're watching something, and sound is coming from the speakers...... if you turn up the volume on the T.V. (not the receiver) does the sound from the seperate speakers increase, or just the sound from the actual speakers connected to the T.V. (physically... the actual T.V.) hope that's clear... not sure.

[GMichael]

Don't you have a cable or satellite box? You should run an optical cable from that box to your AVR.

[noddin0ff]

how is the laptop hooked up? What connections and what input on the HTR?

Does it matter what inputs you connect to? If you connect the TV analog outputs to the same inputs your CD is using does that change things?

[lawman]

Thanks for all the advice folks!

I've figured out the problem and it's really stupid. I just switched over to a Mac from Wintel and I mistakenly assumed that when I pumped up the volume on iTunes it increased the general laptop volume (stupid of me to think so when Wintel doesn't work that way).

GMichael - yeah I have a cable box but no optical cable yet! My next purchase once my new speakers arrive.