Connecting LED TV, HDDVR, non-Blu-Ray Home Theater, and PS3

Greetings:

This seems like a very helpful place! Thank you in advance.

I have a Panasonic 1200W Home Theater System from Costco a litle over a year ago that I love. It has wireless rear speakers which is very convenient too.

I just bought a Samsung LED TV and didn't see the need to do away with the HTS so I bought a PS3 for my Blu-Ray player (mostly for the ability to stream movies from Netflix).

I have had the TV, HD-DVR/Cable Box (Time Warner) and HTS hooked up for weeks. I went to connect the PS3 finally and I can't get sound.

My HTS does not have Optical but it does have an HDMI out port which is not being used. I have the PS3 connected via HDMI to 1 of the 4 ports on the TV itself. I have Component Video connecting the HTS and DVR and standard Audio (Red/White). The PS3 has it's own connector with the Red/White/Yellow plugs on the end. I'm assuming this would need to go into the HTS but I don't have any ports open for that. When I unplug the Red/White Audio going between the DVR and HTS and use those ports for the PS3 I still don't get sound through AUX on the HTS.

Scratching my head... is this a losing battle because the HTS is not HD and does not have Optical?

Thanks much for any help.

Please give the exact model # so we can find the manual and see exactly what input options you have.

Uh, a PS3 would be an odd choice for that, since it doesn't stream Netflix (natively, there are hacks for some SD capability but not HD).  PS3 would be the choice if you wanted to play PS3 games.  If you mainly want Netflix, you need one of the newer LG / Samsung players instead, or add a standalone Roku box.


This sounds wrong, at least the video part.  Most HTS only have component video *output* not component video *input*.  It seems you have connected an output to an output which is not doing anything, and probably should be disconnected.

It might very well be a losing battle; give us the model # to confirm.  Without a digital connection, either coax/optical, you are losing the discrete surround sound from both the Blu-ray & the cable HD-DVR.  You can get matrixed analog stereo sound (Prologic) at best, to get sound you probably have to go through the TV as a switch.  (You'd run the other components to the TV, use the TV's "audio out" red/white to go into the AUX input of the HTS).

It's too bad you weren't around a year ago when you bought the HTS, we'd have warned you off it for precisely this reason you are discovering.  Figure out what kind of budget you have to upgrade if you want to, also factor in if you are going to keep/return/sell the PS3 for Netflix capability.

Yeah, the HTiBs (home theater in a box) are cheap, but they often do ONLY what they do.  No room for expansion, or very little.  Some have a REAL receiver as the head unit, which is the only way to go, but too little too late.

I know this is not what you asked, but I have to throw it out here anyway (it is a HUGE pet peeve of mine )....

You listed your HTiB as a "Panasonic 1200W Home Theater System".  The thing that burns me up about this is the fact that Panasonic advertised it as a 12000 Watt system as if that was "THE THING" that made it better than all the others.  Please, don't fall for the watts diversion.  It is only part of the story.  In the case of cheap audio, it is a very small part...

OK, I feel better.  Back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

Thanks all! Even you, David!! Yeah, I know... it was just the easiest way to describe as I didn't have the model # handy and kinda thought those Costco versions would be pretty standard/obvious to the tech-head crowd if I just mentioned the USPs like 1200Watt and Wireless Rear Speakers.

Anyhoo.. had to go dig out the manual: it's a SA-PT950 and it doesn't have diddly for inputs, hence my dilemma.

I'm totally ok with getting something new and budget isn't necessarily my biggest concern, so if you guys want to make recommendations, I'm all over it. My biggest thing is the Easy Button. It's worth a lot to me! 

I did the PS3 thing cuz I do like to play occasional games and had read and talked to geeky friends that it was a great way to go cuz the firmware can be updated via internet whereas Blu-Ray players cannot, etc. I can take it back to Sears, no problem.

My "musts" for a HTS are wireless rear speakers, subwoofer, and enough wattage to rattle the windows and not distort.

And BTW, I had a PS2 and my old Tube TV before and never was able to get the PS2 to play through the stereo either. It only came through the TV. I think the HTS is just not supportive of multiple components, especially with old S-Video and no Optical.

Even though you say the budget isn't a concern you better offer some guidelines 'cause this stuff can add up real fast!

Wireless speakers are available but not real popular around here. And I think Infinity has or soon will come out with a wireless sub woofer but I don't know anything about it. There may be others but I've never looked into them.

As for an "easy button" look for a receiver with Audyssey automatic setup and calibration (which means Denon or Onkyo) and get a Harmony (by Logitech) remote. Can't get any easier than that.

Panasonic probably makes a half dozen systems with wireless speakers, plus they change models #s & specs & number of inputs every year so that doesn't really narrow it down a whole lot .  And as David said, wattage is relatively meaningless so we don't pay attention to that number (more on that below).


You were right about the "diddly for inputs", so sounds like an upgrade is called for!  You'll have to better describe the "easy button".  Do you mean the "one touch play"?  In any case, ease of operation is best achieved by leaving room in the budget for a Logitech Harmony universal remote.  Anywhere from ~$70 for a refurb 670 to ~$180 if you want their fancy "One" model with color LCD touchscreen + Li-ion rechargeable battery + charging cradle.  These have buttons like "watch a movie", if you program it properly, it turns on all the appropriate components, switches everything to the right input, starts play (optional), + anything else you want to do.


You were misinformed.  All of the "2.0" aka "BD-live" Blu-ray players have Ethernet ports (some even have Wi-fi) and can be updated by internet.  Even the cheaper "1.1"ones, all you have to do is download a file onto a USB memory stick and stick it in.

Whether to keep the PS3 mainly depends on how much you want games vs. how much you want Netflix.  You can always get both by just adding a $100 Roku.  Main downside is for ease of use with the universal remote, you'd probably have to get the Logitech PS3 Bluetooth adapter for the Harmony (~$60), since Sony stupidly omitted any built-in IR control.


Good speakers don't come wireless, so this has to be achieved with something like the Rocketfish wireless system from Best Buy, ~$110.

Wattage -- Don't pay any attention to wattage specs!  They are totally worthless, because different speaker designs require vastly different amounts of power to achieve a given amount of sound output level, & the mfgs play a lot of games with the numbers anyway so you can't directly compare.  Plus one needs to double wattage to achieve +3db sound level ("a little louder").  Any receiver on the market has enough power to drive normal speakers to hearing-damaging levels, it's not a concern.

Basically, for a starter home theater system the best is to start with a receiver in the $300-450 range, depending if you want 5 speakers + sub (5.1) or 7 speakers + sub (7.1).  I usually recommend 5.1 for most rooms, as there is not a lot of 7.1 material anyway.  It mainly depends on whether there is room for speakers behind you as well as to the sides.  Since you want wireless, that's yet another reason to stick to just 5.1.

Then for speaker sets + sub, you don't specify any budget, so you'll have to give us more info.  One could spend anywhere from $400 to $2000 depending on what you are after.  Any decent $200-400 sub will crush the hell out of the puny Panasonic "sub" with it's tiny enclosure + driver.  But some of the real "bass heads" here like to go nuts with the subs, running 2 of them or even more, huge expensive ones (or huge cheaper "do-it-yourself") the size of a mini-fridge.

So how much do you really want to spend, how big is the room (w x l x h), how big (dimension-wise) speakers are you willing to go for the satellites (bookshelves or floorstanding for the front 2, center channel size constraints, do rears have to be wall-mounted or anything special like that?), and how much do you want the room to shake when something explodes ?

Until you get the new system together, this is what you do:
1. connect other components straight to the TV.
2. Locate TV's "audio out", connect this to the "aux in" on the Panasonic
3. Switch to aux mode on the Panasonic.
4. Mute/disable the TV spakers.



Edited by Stephen Tu - 8/2/2009 at 06:26 am GMT

I really appreciate your guys' thoughtful replies...

Ok, so Easy Button to me just means that I don't need to hire someone to install it and it won't cause me brain damage to figure it out! (Installation). I'm plenty tech savvy, but mostly just don't like to deal with drama and pains in the as* (like my current dilemma).

I guess I'm not such a techno-snob that I want to jump into the major high end like doing individual components and speaker systems at this time. I just don't watch enough stuff to justify the expense, especially after having forked over $4000 for the LED TV and necessary accessories to actually use it.

Thus, the Easy Button to me right now means things like the all-in-one HTS such as the Samsung 5.1 Blu-Ray system. After revisiting the specs tonight (after your responses), I see that it does the Netflix streaming and such, which is probably where I got confused with the PS3. The PS3 was a solution to not having to upgrade my HTS to Blu-Ray and HD, but like you guys have said, I won't be getting the HD sound anyway, so it's fairly moot. I may keep it for gaming and the nieces and nephews, I may return it. We'll see.

So anyway, I'm kind of leaning toward the Samsung HT-BD1250 Home Theater System after getting your feedback. What do you think? 

Forgot to add... my room is 16' wide, 26' deep... it's a sizeable room. The 55" LED is wall-mounted and the perfect size. I wouldn't go bigger and I'm glad it's not smaller!! I plan to mount the rear speakers behind the sofa on speaker mounts and the front stuff, center and subwoofer will go on a console cabinet/stand that I haven't bought yet.

It's rather hard to recommend an HTiB solution for someone for whom budget wasn't the biggest concern.  It's certainly a possible way to go, and easiest to buy since it's just one item, but the sound quality won't be as good as a component system, mostly because of the speakers.  It's kind of incongruent sound quality compared to the video quality of your new TV.  A separate component system w/ Blu-ray probably would cost min $400-500 more, nearly double, but would sound a lot better. Also, parts like the receiver + speakers can last quite a long time, 10+ yrs, longer than disc players generally do.  So if the BD breaks in say 5 years, with separate components you just buy a new BD (probably < $100 by then), while with an all-in-one you can end up having to replace the whole shebang.

It's not really more difficult to install a separate component system.  After all the only thing you are really doing is combining the Blu-ray player with the receiver.  So you save like one power cord + one HDMI cable.  Next to nothing in complication, in reality. Just the stuff would come in a few extra boxes.  And there's plenty of help here if you need it for things like setup menu settings.  The back of the receiver is a lot more complicated since it has lots of connections for legacy devices, but since you have all newish HDMI stuff it's easy, just one cable per component, and you can ignore all the other stuff.

Also, be aware that on the Samsung HTiB, the wireless rear module is a separate purchase, just as it would be for a component based system.

Thanks Stephen. I hear you about the quality. I don't mind spending a grand vs. $500 if it makes that much difference. I guess my biggest point of resistance is simply not having a clue what to get if I go the separate component route. Add to that the fact that I pretty much then have to purchase online as I live in Hawaii and we only have Sears, Wal-Mart and Costco here on my island. So then shipping and returns become an issue and possible major limitation.

I can spend an entire day researching and reading reviews and forums about what to get and end up even more confused.

Hawaii does restrict things, a lot of the internet stores have free shipping but only to the 48 contiguous.  Having Sears be top of the line and not even a Best Buy is kind of limiting also.  I think Amazon still has friendly shipping policies though, for the stuff sourced from them rather than third party affiliates.

I do think it's worth it though for a component system, those Samsung speakers are really tiny.
I would do something like:   (Amazon unless otherwise specified)

Blu-ray -- decide whether want to keep PS3 or not.
If PS-3: add $100+ship Roku (www.roku.com) for Netflix streaming if desired.  Add $60 Logitech Harmony PS3 adapter.
If not PS-3: LG BD 370.   If you need wi-fi instead of ethernet, LG BD 390.

Receiver - Pioneer VSX-819
wireless rear speaker module- Rocketfish (bestbuy.com)
universal remote- Logitech Harmony 670 refurbished
speakers - Energy Take classic 5.0
subwoofer - get from Sears, BIC America model, something like a V-1020.  (pain to ship huge things like subs)
miscellaneous wiring - monoprice.com (1 HDMI per component + 1 to the TV, speaker wire, maybe a long RCA audio cable for the subwoofer).

Altogether, including the LG Blu-ray, would cost somewhere in the $1000-1100 range.  The Samsung HTiB you were looking at would be around $700 after you added the wireless rear module + universal remote.

Edited by Stephen Tu - 8/3/2009 at 02:47 am GMT

Wow, awesome! Thank you sooo much!

I have friends who say Crutchfield is good and they ship free here too. They seem to have a vast array of more options and quality. Can you recommend a Blu-Ray player, Receiver and Speakers from them? Is Onkyo any good or is it classic cheap Japanese knockoff stuff? 

Onkyo is very good, the 507 model is an alternative pick to the Pioneer.  Blu-ray, if you want Netflix you only have choice of LG & Samsung models.  I suggested LG since they are known for fast load times, and I see maybe somewhat less griping about them than the Samsung.

Crutchfield -- they don't really have much stuff that Amazon doesn't, and prices are usually a tad higher.  They don't really have any other speakers worth mentioning until you go maybe another +$300 or so on total speaker + sub budget.  If you want to check out other budget speakers besides the Energy / BIC sub combo, perhaps somewhat larger ones that might fill your large room better, try thespeakercompany.com  .  They have a number of possible systems in the $380-580 range (T-series, P-series home theater combos, or again could just get the sats, getting sub locally to save on shipping heavy sub).  However they don't ship free to HI, you'll have to call/email them and ask what the damage is.  The larger ones don't look as good aesthetically as the small Energy Takes, but tend to sound somewhat better; as smaller speakers inevitably run into limitations of the laws of physics for bass reproduction.