Home theater in box (1 Viewer)

[Jason Charlton]

For hookups, just remember that the receiver is the "hub" of the system, therefore:

- Audio and video from every source to the receiver (HDMI carries both signals, so only 1 cable for those devices).
- A single HDMI cable to carry video out from the receiver to your TV.
- Connect your speakers to the correct terminals on the back of the receiver, making sure to match red with red and black with black at both the receiver and the speaker.

The 5800 will upconvert all incoming video signals (even the composite, standard-def video signal from your VCR) and output them via HDMI. This makes your life easier, since you don't need multiple video outputs, etc.

However, since the DVD/VCR device will have separate connections for video and audio, at some point during the setup, you'll have to tell the receiver which audio input corresponds to the DVD/VCR video input. The manual should help with this.

A note on the speaker connections: The front L/R speakers use binding post connections on the back of the receiver. If you've not used binding posts before, you strip the speaker wire just like for the clip terminals, but you unscrew the red or black plastic binding posts to reveal a hole in the side of the central (metal) post. Stick the bare wire through this hole (it will be sideways to the binding post), then tighten the binding post back up to hold the wire in place.

Connecting to binding posts can be very difficult to do if the receiver is already on a shelf or in place and you try to do this upside down, on your back, or with a flashlight, etc. If possible, I would suggest disconnecting the wire from the front speakers and attaching them to the receiver before putting the receiver on the shelf. It'll likely be far easier to fish the speaker wire back to the main speakers than fidgeting with thin wires and tiny holes in the dark, lol.

Just take your time and review the manual before you start as well as during the process.

We'll be able to help with any problems you encounter. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Mike Frezon]

It's easy. HDMI = High Definition Magnetic Igloos

Now, I think I can hook up this old Sony to the new sound?

Not sure I understand what you're asking here. You want to hook up your old HTIB to the new one?

Why would you want to do that? The Onkyo is going to blow your old Sony system out of the water. I'm relatively certain it will do everything your old system can do and a whole lot more!

 

[Radioman970]

@Jason, thanks for that info, it helps. Hub system... I have to keep that in mind or my brain will go off in the wrong direction completely. One thing I noticed is that my vcr uses s-video and there is no connection on this unit. However, I have a box I use to convert that to composite. I wasnt' going to bother hooking it up to the Onyx but I will once I get other stuff worked out.

Oh, I did figure out those Onyx front connections after much time looking at the diagrahm in the book. Now, they don't go all the way through since the pre-cut wires that came with it weren't done very long. I guess it's okay for it to just go in one way...? I'm still looking for a ATMOS movie I might have. I think the Fifth Element blu ray does although it doesn't say on the back. Prob need a different edition.

@Mike, I need to use the Sony player for a little while. Amazon hasn't even shipped my player yet. I just disconnected the Sony speakers. I watched The Runaways on blu last night, lots of music. the volume was worrisome because of the dogs, but it's nice and loud. However, I noticed a scene with very heavy bass made something rattle near the sub. I hope there's nothing wrong with it. I need to check that out thoroughly. Also, there was no surround sound, but seemed like stereo was just being mixed to the rear. this morning I watch classic Star Trek blu and noticed that when the enterprise whizzzZZZZes passed in the credits it doesn't really cross to the back. I tried the 7.1 movie Ender's Game movie too and there is not rear sound except for what sounds like a stereo mixed.

I did use the mic and setup to set everything. I think I have something set wrong. Or the old sony player I have isn't doing right. I'll tell you, the instructions, which are 3 different books for 3 different systems! lol are not quite dummy proof.

fun playing around with it. Definitely better than anything I've had, but sure need to figure out the surround.

(update: it says this on the display...

Input: HDMI, PCM, 2.0 ch 48khz
Output: DTS NEO: 6 cinema, 5.1

so that might be the answer... i"m looking at the manual for the player now)

Update #2: hold the phones hold the phones, I fixed it! I changed an HDMI setting on the player and that chanced the 2.0 ch above to 5.1. Now testing... and yep we got rear action in Enders Game! I hate Ender's game, bad blind buy, but it sounds good! Next, to see if that rattling continues. I moved the sub a little bit...

Update #3: well everything else is working fine. I tried The Runaways again and it really is like being at a concert. Great tester disc. The part with the heavy bass tone comes about 1:13 at the hospital scene into a scene of them riding down the road. It's giving the sub a workout. I have no idea where the slight rattling, really more like a buzz, is coming from. No telling, but it will probably be rare.

 

[Radioman970]

It's easy. HDMI = High Definition Magnetic Igloos



...!

I'll never remember that!!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Gotcha (about using the disc player in the old Sony unit).

Glad to hear you got the Onkyo system already and are getting things figured out! Bring any and all questions here.

As for finding a list of discs with Atmos soundtracks...try THIS ONE!

 

[Radioman970]

^^ that will help. I don't think I have any. I'll wishlist a few for after the smoke has cleared on my bank account. Fifth Element would be a great place to start. You know I read that you can't get Gravity with Atmos and 3D. Strange... seems a natural for that.

 

[Mike Frezon]

All right, James. Let me pull you away from your new gear for just a minute. Come up for air!

I might have another member who might be interested in the Onkyo 5800. What are your early thoughts on your purchase?

 

[Radioman970]

The sub moved. I could see the blue light on the sub just behind the TV at first now I can't. It moved! And I have carpet!
So if someone is looking for killer sub they can order this now. I love that damn sub. I have a Logitech z5500 for my pc and it has a sub almost end table size. This Onyx is similar only better. Just sweet sounding sub that I have turned down but still, like I said....IT MOVES! Maybe it's a ghost but I don't think so.

I noticed a little distortion in the center speaker while watching some things. And on other things I noticed the sub was rattling a little bit, or rattling something else. Not sure... its like when some dirty bass goes through it it might not be as good as something with good clean bass. Like a recent action movie versus a Little House on the Prairie bassiness. Overall the sound is extremely clear.

I'm glad I got this one. Although for someone wanting more watters they have that 7700 reconditioned for $600. I'm happy with this but that other might be worth the extra bucks. Of course I got this and the player for just under $600. Just seems a better deal for those with a small to medium room.

Btw, I've watched a few movies and shows, such as Young Guns and an excellent Xena episode called "Them Bones Them Bones" and both were extremely enhanced. The Xena was especially good with the psychedelic images and sound. ...now, amazon hasn't yet delivered my new player so I'm still using the old Sony player hooked up to this new sound system. I also was only getting stereo at first but now I have it set right and get the full surround. When the new player comes i"ll be watching a lot more. The old player has a buzz sound I couldn't fix.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nice.

I bet that rattling sound you heard wasn't the sub but something the sub was rattling. If you don't hear it every time, you can pretty much count on that being the case.

And thanks for popping in with the info. (Good to know about the 7700, too.)

 

[Jason Charlton]

It's always great to hear success stories when folks are able to truly enhance their movie experience.

FWIW, when I made the jump to lossless audio from Blu-ray, the audio clarity improvement was pretty significant - particularly the clarity of dialog from the center channel. Just be sure to set the player to Bitstream the audio and to disable "secondary audio" if that's an option within the menus.

Keep on enjoying your new toy!

 

[Radioman970]

I never hear it on anything other than something like Little House and The Waltons too. Old shows and when there's a bassy moment there's some rattling. I'll figure that out one day. I mean, I watched a few things that pounded the bass and it was good and strong thump THUMP! Like the Runaways Joan Jett movie, sounded perfect until a really low bass moment and it rattled too. Can't wait to really throw something huge at it. It's a shame I didn't have this a few months ago when I watched Lord of the Rings and The Hobbits. But next time those will be amazing, well they were awesome in spite of but now they will just be crazy amazing escapes. I have plenty of other things to throw at it. I need to watch King Hong this weekend. That should be a great way to try everything out! Been a while for it.

Now, I do have speaker stands made out of cardboard boxes and old VCRS!!! Bachelor furniture to the extremes! I tried to see if that was rattle but I don't think it was. I changed out one of the VCRs for my old Primestar satellite box but the rattling continued. No telling, all the crap I'm saving is all around so it was rattling some piece of junk.

I think Xena and Young guns just had me engrossed all the way thanks to the new sound. But I still need to make sure everything is set right. I did feel like the surround could be more dramatic at times. I guess output should be 5.1.2? But I'll work with it.

 

[Radioman970]

Well my Sony player came yesterday finally. Tiny little thing but so quiet. That buzzing I think was tickling my brain with madness. Now it's gone and I can just sit back and enjoy. This player seems much better.

I have to say I have my rear speakers on their sides and just to the back of the chair and angled towards my head. I plan a big shifting around of furnitures in the room (and removing of rattling things of which there are many).. so I can put the speakers to each side and still give the dogs napping room. The rear sound is not as pronounced as I think it should be. But it's good and sounds much more natural than the old Sony system. The older Panasonic 7.1 I had I remember it comparing pretty good to this believe it or not. But this is overall the best I've ever had.

I think all will agree the best thing to do is throw Batman Dark Knight at whatever you buy since it tests the hell out of everything. The movie played pretty smoothly. Those building at the beginning chopped along on the the old Panasonic, but here they had a few minor chops but mostly acceptable. The sound in this film is amazing and dynamic. When something happened from behind it seemed subtle. I think there are moments when sounds move from front to back and it almost engulfs you. But it's just a little too subtle. So maybe the auto calibrations microphone isn't getting it for me. So I'll manually adjust when I figure out how to do that. I also dropped the sub a little since the dogs didn't need napping room because they left the room with wide eyes. Oops... I need to watch a wildlife movie to get them back in. Kong might work afterall!

Btw, the sub is on the left, a table is on the right with the receiver and player on it. There's also a stack of discs I was watching or using to test. And that sub was rattling those. I need to tape everything down!

Plenty of testing this weekend coming. But I think this system will be perfect.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Keep those updates coming, James!

Remember that you can tweak things just the way you want 'em. If the surrounds aren't doing what YOU want, raise 'em up a little bit in the Audyssey program's "manual adjustment" mode. Same with the center channel and the dialog.

Dogs all seem to react differently to the sub and other loud movie noises.

Glad to hear there's not any problem with the sub itself rattling.

 

[Radioman970]

aw, me too. It's an excellent sub.

yeah, scooter will look at each speaker if she likes the noise. Wanted to add, Scooter is the one who watches the most TV with me. She got scared during The Hobbit thought. But she enjoyed many parts of King Kong including the amazing T-Rex scenes.

I watched my DVD of War of the Worlds with the DTS sound. And Spy Kids 2 blu ray. Both outputted "5.1" and sounded FANTASTIC. Perfect everything including the surround. There's a scene in Spy kids on a amuse ride that juggles people and I could hear that thing all around. War had some very good moments with sound. Now, yesterday Batman was outputting 5.1.2 and the rear was a little weak. Maybe only use the 5.1.2 setting if the movies are 5.1.2?

I'll get brave with the tweakers soon. I did have problems hearing a little of the dialogue during Spy Kids. Sometimes you hear it just enough and that's really not too bad. I really like how dynamic the volumes are. Like far away people sound far away.

 

[Radioman970]

Well finally I noticed the sub was turned all the way up. The auto calibrations did that, all the way to 13dB. There seems to be 3 different level controls for the sub, a knob on the back of the unit which I have about half way and 2 adjusts from the menu one that was 13 and the other 0. So now I"m tweaking it each time to get it just right. There is less rattling of my various junk around the room. I have a crank window in there and it had started rattling for the fist time since my old Panasonic from a year or so ago.

I tested with some blu rays, an episode of Tyson's Cosmos and the bass was overwhelming to distractions. Then King Kong, where it was better... finally during Tree of Life I had enough and messed around and was able to turn it down and that was that. Btw, King Kong froze and shut off once. The disc looked clean until I look closely and there was a few smudges and maybe scratches. Not sure how that happened since it was new. Tree of Life was a $2 used blu and it played without a problem.

I also watch my new DVD of Cinderella 1977 rated R, such a funny movie! It looked wide screen and flat so I messed around some more until it was a rectangle in the middle of the screen I had to zoom in (kind of like parts of my anatomy hahaha!, uncomfortable, I know... ). Not sure if there is a way to make it so it fits the screen with zooms.

Anyway, things are coming together. I think I made some good purchases. I just hope the freeze/shut offs of the player aren't regular. That was annoying with the old Sony I had. Trying not to spend anymore money but of course after watching Black Knight the other day I decided to upgrade my Raimi spiderman Tril to bluray. Can't wait for those! Really cheap on email, $12.50. ... yep, I think I could recommend this unit to anybody looking for something good and cheap. If you have the money get the higher wattages one, but otherwise this will please most small/medium people. The bi-plane scene in Kong was the test I needed. WOW! And the player seems like an excellent upgrade so far.

 

[Radioman970]

Wanted to do a separate post for this. I forgot to mention it earlier, about the receiver getting HOT. I wish it had a quiet fan on the inside to move the heat out. When I put my old player on top of it I noticed the whole thing was heating like an oven. So I found something one of my hard drives came in, plastic foam type thing that would allow some heat flow from the bottom and keep the player insolated. I ended up putting another foam thingie on top of that for the new player. that seems to work. But friday I was watching something and noticed a burning smell. I examined everything and saw nothing odd and couldn't pinpoint where the smell was coming from. My big dog was to my right but I don't know why she's smell like burning. So that is worrisome. I plan to remove the player/foam tray from the top of the receiver as soon as I can find somewhere else to put it. Luckily, nothing seems effected. wish I had the money for a nice cabinet that would put the TV higher and I could get the center speaker at ear level and lay out everything so noting is on top of anything else.

 

[Mike Frezon]

James:

Don't put anything on top of the receiver! I would assume it's got holes in the top of the cabinet to allow the heat from inside the cabinet to escape.

I learned that lesson the hard way way back in college. I thought I was being a genius covering the grill on top of my Technics stereo receiver with a cloth. I thought I was smart keeping dust from falling inside the unit. Nope! the hot air needs to escape from inside.

All receivers get warm. They generate a lot of heat.

My receiver can get pretty warm after being on for an extended period of time. It is located inside a wooden cabinet. And even though there's nothing on top of it, I sprung for a small fan which sits behind the receiver. I only turn it on when the receiver's been on for a while to help move the air around it.

Even the Blu player--even if it has feet underneath it--will block the normal egress of heat from inside the cabinet.

I don't know why manufacturers don't build PC-like internal fans into receivers. There must be a reason. Maybe they do in higher end units? Wouldn't know having never had one.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Not sure what to make of your sub situation.

Setting the knob on the back halfway is exactly right for when you are using the self-calibration software to set-up your audio balance.

But I don't get the part about the two settings in the menu (0 & 13). That doesn't seem right at all.

And you definitely should not have to tweak the sub dependent upon what movie/music/TV show you are listening to. There should be "one setting for them all." 0 would mean the sub is off...I would think. And 13? That seems like such an arbitrary number...like the guy on Spinal Tap whose receiver goes all the way up to 11!

 

[Radioman970]

Oh I've done similar! I'll clear the top of it today. That little kind of shelf that was hard drive packing material is like a little table with the blu ray on it. It's thick plastic styrophomes. It does let heat out but it makes me nervous anyway.

Yeah, it is confusing. I was thinking one is a main setting that the auto mic sets, the 13, and the other is a fine tuning since it's near the trebble control slider. But it does sound a bit better now. Cosmos is still a little over bassed.

I'm so brain dead. I was watching Back to the Future sunday and Spiderman yesterday and it finally showed up under my nose. The cabinet I have my old boobie tube TV on in the same damn room a few feet over is nice and high. The center speaker will be ear level and the TV will be a bit higher making it more like being at the movies with voice coming out correctly instead of below. My old TV I use during storms will be fine on this short table. I think that's going to be great! I need to watch Matrix on blu for a test after I get all that moved around.

Really lovin this sound system. Huey Lewis and the News "back in time" sounded fabulous on the Back to the Future credits! I mean, better than any movie music I've listened to on any other system. I need to listen to more music on this thing. As long as the player has a screen saver.

 

[Mike Frezon]

When listening to music, my player (a Pioneer) keeps its damn logo on screen (white letters on black!) dead center the entire time!

I actually turn the monitor off when listening to music for long stretches at a time. Jut to keep that big blasted "PIONEER" from getting burnt in to my plasma.

Glad to hear you are liking that system! It's always fun to get something new and then tweak it and move things around until you get them just the way you want.

Part of the fun of getting the settings just the way you want 'em is the experimentation and viewing/listening to so many things that you maybe haven't had off the shelves in a long time!