Some Questions RE: My New HT Setup (1 Viewer)

[Mixed Nuts]

I just purchased a mid-range plasma HDTV and home theatre, both LG products (42PB4D and LHE922PB – these are Canadian model numbers, I’m not sure if the American equivalents have the same). Haven’t set anything up yet because I’m moving into a new pad in 3 weeks and I’m going to wait until I get in instead of having to pack this stuff for the move. Anyway….I’ve been researching the best way to hook this all up and this is my plan:

1)Local cable provider offers 2 digital HD boxes, the Motorola DCT6200 and DCT6416. As far as I can see, both are the same except the 6416 has a DVR. My TV has a built in DVR (with the same recording capacity as the box), so I plan to go with the cheaper 6200.

2)These digital boxes are not HDMI equipped, but do have DVI video. The HDTV I have is HDMI equipped (2 HDMI ports). I plan to use a HDMI-DVI cable for the video from the box to the TV.

3)For the audio from the box, I’m going to run a digital coax cable or an optical cable to the home theatre receiver/DVD (which has one “in” of each optical/coax).

4)The receiver/DVD is HDMI equipped, so I plan to run an HDMI cable from it to the HDTV (so now both of the HDMI ports on my TV are occupied).

5)The final piece of the puzzle will be an Xbox 360 or PS3. I think I’ll have to run a component cable from it to the HDTV for video and then a digi coax or optical to the receiver/DVD (which ever port I don’t use for my audio coming from my digi cable box) for the audio. **I’m assuming the Xbox360 and PS3 are equipped for this type of audio…I haven’t really checked.**

This all seems to make sense in my head, but we’ll see how it goes when I get it all setup. Some questions for the gurus:

Anyone know any reason I should go with the 6416 cable box instead of the 6200 (i.e. are there other differences aside from the DVR)?

Based on what I listed above, does anyone have suggestions that might give better video/audio or make the system better in another way?

Everything I’ve read says digital coax and optical for audio are on par with one another and any differences are essentially negligible. Anyone have any info on this (true/false/true unless you have very high end gear/etc.)?

Any other tips or considerations?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Robert_J]

I'm not familiar with your TV or its built in DVR but are you sure you can record high def material from an external source? I don't know of any stand alone DVR that can do this so I am pretty sure that your TV can't do it either. Is the cable company DVR a dual tuner model? Most are and that's a HUGE advantage in my book. I am using three DVRs from DirecTV so I can record six programs at the same time.

-Robert