Component placement??? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Brasi]

Forgive this one from a newbie, but all things being equal, should I try to place me component cabinet as close to the TV as possible to avoid long able runs, avoid interference, and keep cable costs down? The pieces I currently have to incorporate are:
Onkyo 575X Receiver
Sony 560S DVD player
Onkyo CD player
Sony B55 Sat. DirectTV Receiever
Zenith 36" TV(soon to be a RPTV when the 2002's come out)
Keeping all components in mind, all the connections become a big jumble in my head. I am throwing around a lot of ideas about placement(i.e DTV box on TV?, DVD in cabinet? on TV? Cabinet by TV? etc. etc.)
What connections are perfectly good at any reasonable distance (under 30ft.)? and which ones do I need to worry about signal loss? Which connections will cost more by increasing the length relative to the other? How would you set this up with these components?
Thanks in advance for even reading this far. By the way, if I did not have a GF, I would not have to worry about"how the apartment looks", and this would be a lot smaller problem.(she wants the component cabinet on another wall across from the TV.)

 

[Max Knight]

I'd say the major things to keep in mind with component placement are:
1. Make sure you have enough space to position your speakers with plenty of breathing room. Don't put the components right up against the TV and the speaker right next to the components (or vice versa). There are a lot of posts about proper speaker positioning, try a search.
2. Signals won't degrade noticable until you start to get really long runs, i.e. >50' (and then you could get an in-line amplifier).
3. Components have lots of little glowing lights! You may want to position them a bit away from the screen to avoid distractions.
Hope this helps,
-Max

 

[Ron-P]

Like Max pointed out, make sure your speakers have enough room to be set up properly. You will lose more in sound quality with a less than optimal speaker set-up vrs. longer cable runs.
At one time, I had my components next to the TV, but moved them into the closet. The reason I made the move was that all the lights from the components were distracting and it looked cluttered and busy in my small HT room. The only cable that I had to upgrade was the S-Video, it went from a 3' to a 16.5'. I actually noticed a slightly shaper picture and more vibrant colors going to a longer (also better quality) cable over the Monster I was using.
If you keep everything under 50', you will be fine. But, still try and keep your runs as short as possible.
Peace Out~

------------------

The Green Room

 

[Joe Brasi]

Thanks guys for the input. Right now the only run I have over 50" is the left surround speaker. I am thinking about actually putting the cabinet on the side like my GF wants and the DTV Rec. on top the TV. All that equates at this moment is a new 20' S-video cable. When I get the RPTV, I will probably need a 15' Component-Video run. How much $$$ is that gonna cost?
Other than that, I think I can make everyone happy here.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I saw an adaptor for sale somewhere that allowed you to take the normal "S" video connection of an S-Video cable and feed it into two normal 75 ohm coaxial cables (like the RF cables your cable company uses). Then on the other end a similar adaptor connected to the two cables and had an S-video jack on it as well. This seemed like a great way to get a high-quality S-video image across a long distance pretty affordably.
Anybody else seen this? I can't remember where so I'm asking too as I might end up doing this myself with my LD player.
-dave

 

[Joe Brasi]

That seems like a really cheap but effective way to transer the S-video signal. However I would be inclined to think that if we are still talking about a run of less than 30ft., I would prefer to use a designated S-video cable as it would be smaller and likely have no discernable signal loss at that distance.