?connection advice? (1 Viewer)

[andy kal]

Hi I'm new and need some advice as to how to connect my components or a place to find the right info such as a book called "ht for dummies"
My equiptment:
tv toshiba 43h71
dvd toshiba sd-k700
vcr toshiba w-614s
receiver pioneer vsx-d509s
regular cable signal with cable box (not digital)
I have front speakers left and right, rear speakers left and right, powered subwoofer, and use the tv speakers for the center channel
I know this is far from top of the line stuff but I want to make sure that I have it connected in the best way. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Andy
[email protected]
andcomcabinets.com

 

[Artur Meinild]

Hi Andy!
I would recommend that you acquire a dedicated center speaker that match the front speakers. Built-in TV speakers should not be used at all!
Besides, could you post what kind of cables you use and how you've connected everything now? That would make things easier, I think.

 

[Bill Catherall]

If it helps I've already got 2 diagrams that might work for you (we seem to get this question a lot ). The 2 diagrams show 2 different ways of running your cables.
Link Removed
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Good luck!

 

[Ted Lee]

bill - those diagrams are great!
andy -
arthur is absolutely correct. you should definitely get yourself a center speaker. imo, it's the most important speaker for ht. all the dialogue and most of the sound is usually "centered" on the screen, so a good center speaker is a must. i'm not sure what brand of speaker you're using, but i recommend you try to get them all "timbre matched" - so that way they all sound the same.
for wiring, i prefer bill's second method. i like running everything through the receiver. the only thing to consider doing it that way is whether you'll see any video signal degredation. in my setup, i do not. you should definitely test and see for yourself.
let us know if you have other questions!

 

[Bill Catherall]

Oh, one thing I should mention about those diagrams is that the video from the DVD player is composite (the guy I made those for didn't have S-video inputs on his TV). If your TV has S-video or even component video inputs then use those instead of composite.
By the way, I use the first method for my system (but I don't use a cable box so I don't have the splitter, slight change to the drawing, I also use S-video for DVD video). For me, it's simpler to run all the video to the TV and use the receiver for audio switching only. But that's just me. You're needs may be different.

 

[andy kal]

Thanks for the help so far. A center speaker is definetly on the list. I'll take these diagrams and compare them to what I have. Moving the equiptment to change cables is a royal pain so I'd like to do it once and get it right. i realize there are more than one "right" way. I'm trying to acheive the best surround sound for dvd but also keep it simple, ie: minimun number of remotes

Andy