Wiring for Home Theater

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Oskar, you really do need to upgrade your reciever so you can go all HDMI, simplify your wiring, and get the best quality out of your entire system.

At the end of this year the studio are going to flag the component outputs to be downrezzed to 480p. At that point even your Bluray output would be knocked down to 480p.

My advice is to upgrade the receiver to a HDMI based one.

[oskar22]

As mentioned, I do have plans to change the AV receiver but with 600 total watts of power or 100 watts x 6 in surround mode at 0.9% THD including Dolby digital, DTS-ES + Pro Logic II decoding +++ so many other goodies its not my priority.

Now if someone who knows how to properly connect all these gadgets together provide me with some recommendations, it will be more fun and interesting to see the results.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

As mentioned, I do have plans to change the AV receiver but with 600 total watts of power or 100 watts x 6 in surround mode at 0.9% THD including Dolby digital, DTS-ES + Pro Logic II decoding +++ so many other goodies its not my priority.

In the world of A/V today, none of what you mention are really goodies - they are sound formats of the past. This receiver cannot even process the new flavors or the old lossy formats. There are very few Bluray's that use the old lossy audio formats, Lossless DTS and Dolby codecs now dominate all releases. So what you think is goodies, are really nothing more than relics of the past. If you update the receiver, then a whole world opens up for you, and it become SO much easier to connect all of your components to the receiver and get the best quality out of them.

When you ask people for help, it is not wise to dismiss the advice that is given -especially if it is sound and wise. If you do, it make people less likely to help you again.

[oskar22]

Hey Sir Terrence, I don’t deny what you say is true and I appreciate your time but in my opinion not everyone likes or wants to have the latest in the AV gadgets and besides, the majority of us don’t even understand the difference between a high end system and a $100 Wal-Mart system. In my younger years, yes I used to have the latest and the best but now in my retirement, a low to medium end system is more than enough for my needs, lol.

Forums are a great place to exchange ideas and help each other and over the past 20 years or so I have helped and got help on numerous occasions from the various forums I subscribe and never thought that I must have the latest equipment to get help.

Sorry, I don’t want to sound stubborn but I find it strange that in an AV specialized forum like this one, the only reply I have to my question is to get a new receiver

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Hey Sir Terrence, I don’t deny what you say is true and I appreciate your time but in my opinion not everyone likes or wants to have the latest in the AV gadgets and besides, the majority of us don’t even understand the difference between a high end system and a $100 Wal-Mart system. In my younger years, yes I used to have the latest and the best but now in my retirement, a low to medium end system is more than enough for my needs, lol.

Understood.

Forums are a great place to exchange ideas and help each other and over the past 20 years or so I have helped and got help on numerous occasions from the various forums I subscribe and never thought that I must have the latest equipment to get help.

You don't have to have the latest equipment, you just have to recognize that many folks have moved past the inputs and outputs you are using a loooooong time ago. Most of us have moved on to HDMI, because that is the optimum way of doing A/V in this day. I haven't used component outputs since 2004 myself.

Sorry, I don’t want to sound stubborn but I find it strange that in an AV specialized forum like this one, the only reply I have to my question is to get a new receiver

Here is the rub Oskar. Here is what you said.

Got a new TV and revised my wiring but not sure if all is ok. The system works good but perhaps there is room to improve.

A. You state that you are not sure if all is okay, and then in the next sentence you say it works good. This kind of conflict makes it difficult to respond to your question. If it works, then all IS okay. If it does not, then you have a problem.

B. There is no way to improve what you have done based on the fact that your receiver is outdated. If you really want to improve your setup, follow my advice - get a new receiver. It is not going to get any better with what you have now.

[noddin0ff]

oskar22

You don't have a blu-ray shown but you indicate that one is connected to the TV via HDMI?

Given the outs on the JVC combo, that's how I would have hooked it up. If you do have a Blu-ray most would probably and preferably feed it BR>Receiver>TV so the Receiver can handle the AV switching.

If everything you want to have work works, then I'd say you've got it hooked up as best you can.

I'm a bit rusty on HDMI pass through via the TV. If you do have a BR and you are passing the audio from BR HDMI > TV > TV optical > Receiver.... I don't think that should work. My argument being that I don't think most TVs will decode and pass through multi-channel audio that way.

Basically, I suspect that if you upgrade to BR you will by necessity need to upgrade the receiver. OR find one of the rare (or nearly non-existant) BR players with 5.1 channel analog outs for sound... But then it doesn't appear that you have 5.1 analog IN's on your receiver, so its moot that way too.

When Sir T. says "There is no way to improve what you have done based on the fact that your receiver is outdated." ...it's possible to read this translated as "You've done the best you can with what you currently have."

[BadAssJazz]

I probably would have connected the Bell HD Receiver to the Panasonic AVR via Digital Optical cable, so that I could take advantage of 5.1 Dolby Digital TV broadcasts where available. But that's more a personal choice and not requisite for everyone's appreciation.

Aside from that, as others have indicated, it appears that you've achieved optimal connections/settings/performance for the equipment at hand. As long as the experience is pleasing to your eyes and ears, that's all that matters. Enjoy!