smirak

Harmon Kardon AVR-247 Help

I bought this receiver to replace a Yamaha RX-V461 that I just didn't like. My HT eq consists of the following:

HK AVR-247
Toshiba HD-A2 HDDVD
Panasonic TH-50PX75U Plasma
Comcast HD DVR
Klipsch Quintet III
Klipsch Sub 10 Subwoofer
Logitech Harmony 880 Remote

What would be the best way to connect everything together to get the best "bang for the buck"?

Currently, it is set up like this:

HDMI from TV to Cable Box
HDMI from TV to HDDVD
Optical from TV to Receiver

Also, I was trying to get out of the house last week when I unhooked my Yamaha and didn't label which speaker wire was to which speaker. Is there an easy way to figure that out without having to get in the attic and pull wire just to label the wire for speakers? I know this may be a stupid question, but oh well.

Thanks,
Kevin

Craig

Re: Harmon Kardon AVR-247 Help

If you're receiver won't accept the higher level audio formats (DD+ TrueHD, etc) from the A2 over hdmi, then your optical connection will generate high quality DTS.

As far as your problem with not knowing which speaker is which. I'd just plug one at a time into a speaker connection and play something, and then label that cable and move it to the correct connection after I was finished with all of them. I know that on a 7.1 receiver, not all the speakers have to be connected at the same time (not everyone has a center channel or rear surrounds for example). I think having just a single speaker connected would be ok

smirak

Re: Harmon Kardon AVR-247 Help

Got the speakers connected last night...

After coming from a Yamaha 461 to this one, I can say there is no comparison. The 247 sounds cleaner, crisper, clearer, OSD through HDMI, etc...Overall much more happy.

I tried watching a movie last night through my A2 and it played in what sounded like 5.1 but only my front two speaker lights were lit up on my receiver. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kevin

Craig

Re: Harmon Kardon AVR-247 Help

Ok, I misread how you had your system connected.

Try running HDMI from the A2 to the 247, then HDMI out from the 247 to the TV. See what kind of audio you get doing this. In the A2 audio menu you need to have Digital Out HDMI set to Auto.

FYI, I have a Panasonic 42" 75U, and on page 41 of the manual (the Recommended AV Connections section) at the bottom of the page it says when audio from other equipment is coming into the tv over an hdmi connection, the Digital Audio Out connection will only output 2 channel stereo. It's the same with my Samsung TV. It's all about copy protection. Pretty screwed up, but that's how it is.

You need to route the audio into your receiver first. Again, try hdmi from the a2 to the receiver, then hdmi from the receiver to the tv. I think you have two hdmi inputs on the receiver, so you could also have the cable box coming into the receiver with hdmi. Basically two hdmi sources coming into the receiver, one hdmi cable going from the receiver to the tv. Select the one you want to watch using the receiver.

smirak

Re: Harmon Kardon AVR-247 Help

I'll try that. Thanks for the help.

Kevin