Need help with Sony STR-DN1000 a/v receiver hdmi inputs with component output please (1 Viewer)

[indianac]

Hi all. My wife bought me this great receiver for my birthday but she's sad that I haven't been able to set it up. I need some help please. Here's the simple breakout and what I've done.

Components:
Comcast HD cable box/DVR
XBOX 360

Receiver: Brand new Sony STR-DN1000

TV: Older 42" Toshiba Plasma screen with max 720p resolution. No HDMI. Only Component and standard inputs.

I had an older 5.1 surround sound system where I spliced the wires and hooked them up to the receiver. I haven't even had a chance to play with it yet. I hooked up the cable box and xbox 360 via HDMI to the Sony receiver and then hooked up the receiver to the TV using component cables. When I turn the tv on, I can get the GUI for the receiver, but no picture or sound from either the cable box or the xbox 360. I tried resetting the receiver to factory and doing a clean setup, but still nothing. I've also hit the HDMI buttons on the remote as well as all of the other inputs and nothing while both the cable box and xbox360 were left on. Nothing. Help please! Is there a setup or is there an issue with the output being to only a 720p tv without hdmi? Thank you in advance!

 

[Jason Charlton]

While some receivers - including yours - will do analog-to-digital upconversion of video signals (i.e. component in, HDMI out) it seems they don't do the reverse (HDMI in, component out). Would that be "digital-to-analog downconversion"?

Your best bet is probably to get component cables (and separate digital audio cables) for both sources.

A great source for high-quality, but inexpensive cables is Monoprice.com: Component cables, coaxial digital audio cables, optical digital audio cables. For the XBox360, you need a special cable, Amazon.com has several to choose from.

Edit: Just to clarify - the XBox cable is all you need for the XBox - it has both audio and video connections. For the cable box, you will need one component video cable, and either a coaxial digital audio cable or optical digital audio cable. Either audio cable will work equally well, it's simply a matter of what's available on the cable box. I prefer the coaxial (if it's available) simply because the connection tends to be a bit tighter.

 

[indianac]

OOps. Thought I'd posted a reply, but it doesn't look like it took. I'll try again .

Thank you very much for the quick response. That's what I'd feared. I figured since the xbox and hd cable box were both native 1080p, that the receiver would have issues with "down-converting". Weird, but oh, well. That leads me to my second question.

The back of this receiver has 3 separate component inputs for video, but no corresponding audio inputs. I got the xbox to work via component and that seemed to be ok but was having issues with the cable box. Does this make sense? For example, the old analog inputs would have a single section for audio/video. The component inputs seem to have a separate input from the audio. How would I make sure that the audio is ok?

Also, are all stereo's pretty much the same. I had taken the speakers that had proprietary plugs from a previous home theater system and then cut them so that I could get the bare wires. Thanks again! Great website and forum. This is my first time here.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Your reciever has three "assignable" digital audio inputs - two optical and one coaxial. In addition, the three component inputs are also "assignable". This means that within the setup menu for the reciever, you can match a digital audio input with any video input (or a component video input to any audio input) to make sure they all work correctly together.

You should be able to use one of the digital connections for your cable box, and assign that digital audio input to whichever component input you connect the cable box to.

You could do the same for the XBox, provided it has a single digital output. If it only offers L/R stereo (sorry, I'm not that familiar with the XBox) then you should be able to plug those audio cables into, say Video 1 Audio in, then assign the corresponding component video connection to Video 1.

As for the speakers, it's probably not the best idea to cut off the connectors to get to bare wires. Often times the speakers that come with basic home-theater-in-a-box systems have odd impedances and low tolerance to high wattages. In a sense, the proprietary connectors are a warning that the speakers really shouldn't be used in anything that wasn't specifically designed for them. I would highly recommend you consider getting a new set of 5.1 speakers as soon as you can. In the meantime, if it's working for you, I would definitely avoid cranking the volume too high as you risk damaging both the speakers and the receiver.

There's a great section of this forum dedicated to speakers with some extremely knowledgable and friendly folks that are more than happy to offer buying advice.

 

[indianac]

Jason. You are awesome! I'll give that a try. I'll have to wait a bit on the speakers, but I'll get on that too! Thanks again and happy holidays.

 

[indianac]

What's the minimum wattage of 5.1 speakers I can get for this receiver? Any advice? I have a small room that this is installed in so I don't need something that's going to shake the house down to the ground.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Wattage is a mostly useless statistic. What you should be paying attention to is speaker impedance. Measured in ohms, the impedance of a speaker is essentially a measure of how much resistance there is to the flow of power from the amplifier to the speaker. A speaker with a low impedance will draw MORE power from the amplifier in order to drive it. So pairing low ohm speakers with a receiver designed for higher ohm loads could damage the receiver.

In a nutshell, your receiver is designed to be paired with 8 ohm speakers. You can get away with 6 ohm speakers, but you won't want to get speakers that are any less than that.

Did you have any particular speakers in mind? What about budget? With a small room, you can go with smaller bookshelf-sized speakers, but you'll need to make sure you get a capable subwoofer to supplement the low end.

 

[indianac]

Thanks again Jason. You are the awesomest! I'm not looking for anything in particular. Inexpensive would be the best. I'm not one of those people who has bass rumbling through the house or need volume to blow my ears out. My wife and I are one of those mellow couples that would like a better sound experience then what regular tv speakers can offer. Any ideas?

 

[Jason Charlton]

Here are some possibilites based on many of the recommendations I've seen made on this forum:

Energy makes some decent yet inexpensive speakers - their Take Classic series in particular are known for being very good performers and at the same time are quite small so they can blend in to almost any decor. You can get a 5.0 set for about $200.

A step up in price, but another highly-regarded brand of speakers around here are by SVS. You can get a 5.0 set of their S-Series speakers for $400 directly from SVS (these are closeout prices, hopefully they still have some in stock).

Hopefully others will chime in with additional options.

Either of these 5.0 sets will need a subwoofer to extend the low end of the audio spectrum. Parts-Express.com offers several model of Dayton subwoofers at very reasonable prices that would complement these systems pretty well. There is a small 8" model for $75. A step up would be the 10" model at $99 and there's also a 12" for $120.

Keep in mind with the subwoofers that each one has it's own "volume" control that can be used to keep things from getting too boomy (the 10" and 12" are advertised as having "House Shaking Power" - but don't let that scare you). My preference would be to go for one of the larger models and simply crank it down. It's better to have a little extra power in reserve for those times that you do want it, than to be stuck lacking when you do throw down those rockin' parties!

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by indianac . I'm very happy to help.