Digital/regular TV, Comp or S? LARGE or SMALL for floor stands? Can't get surround... (1 Viewer)

A few qestions:

1.When watching regular TV from my digital box, should i watch it on my component video cables or my S-video?

I watch my HD channels with my component video, but i was told when watching regular TV that the S-video looks better then the component....any thoughts?

2. When i watch my HDTV i only get sound out of 2 speakers...not 5 of them. How do i change that? I've tried everything.
I use a digital Coaxial from my HD box to receiver. When i put the receiver to COAXIAL, the sound from the 2 front speakers is BOOMING compared to if its set to ANALOG, but i can only get BOOMING sound from 2 speakers.
My set-up is listed below.


3. I have two floor stand JBL N38's with a Velodyne 10" sub and a Kardon 325 receiver.
I'm just starting to get everything set-up so i'm sure i will lots of questions over the next few days.

Do i set the two floor standing N38's to LARGE or SMALL?
I put them on LARGE and it didn't seem like much bass came out of my Velodyne.
When i put them to SMALL, a lot more bass came out of the Velodyne.
What do am i suppose to do here?

Thanks all in advance!

1) S-video is fine, I don't think you'll see any major difference between Component vs S-Video.

2) The only time you will get sound from all 5 speakers during an HD program is if that program has a DD5.1 soundtrack, and not all HD programs do. The other way to get sound from all of your speakers is to use one of the various DPL modes from your reveiver (ie: Cimema, Stadium, Concert Hall, etc.)

3) First and formost, get yourself a Radio Shack Sound Pressure Level Meter and a calibration disk. "Sound & Visions Magazines Home Theater Tune-Up" is made by ovation, the same company that makes the highly recommended Avia disk. Proper calibration of the ouput for each speaker will make a tremendous difference in your listening enjoyment. Here's a link for ya:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...&page_number=1 I got mine at MediaPlay for about $15.

Set your speakers to "Small" and set your receiver's crossover to 80hz., then calibrate your system. I think you'll be surprised at how much better it perfroms.

"but i was told when watching regular TV that the S-video looks better then the component....any thoughts?"

Yep, in some TVs the comb filter is better than in the converter box.

Try both and you judge.

Brent

Hooray,

I got my HT set-up this week-end. Thanks for all the help!
Dvd's sound and look great with component video. I am wondering though, I too only get 2 channel sound when watching Direct Tv Movies. I thought Black Hawk Down would be a good test. Do I need a satellite receiver that has an optical audio connection? Mine only has RCA. Will that allow me to get 5 channel sound? I tried all the different DSP modes, and it seems like the best surround sound came using "6 channel stereo"?

Paul :frowning: