Wiring tv and harmon/Kardon receiver (1 Viewer)

[MBernal]

Hello all, I am a noob and in need of some serious help on wiring my flat screen LG PT350 Plasma, LG BD640 Bluray player and a harmon kardon AVR 510 receiver. Basically, I just dont know what I am doing when it comes time to plug everything in to each other. My surround sound is a 5:1 Energy speaker set up and I have them all plugged into the receiver but now I am lost. I have monster cable HDMI, component cables, phoenix gold composite cables and s-video cables, I can also get any cables I might need to add. Please any help would be greatly appreciated. Below are the links to my equipment info and a photo of what I am working with. LG 42PT350 Plasma 1080i [/B ]6 A/V inputs, including: 1 composite video 2 component video 3 HDMI v1.4 PC input RF input for antenna/cable signals optical digital audio output http://answers.lg.com/answers/7676/product/1000013459/lg-electronics-42pt350-questions-answers/questions.htm LG BD640 Bluray player Audio L/R Out1 (Rear )HDMI™ Out1 (Rear) Composite Video Out1 (Rear) Component Video Out1 (Rear) Ethernet/LAN (RJ-45) 1 (Rear) USB 2.01 (Front) Digital Audio Out (Coaxial)1 (Rear) http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/video/LG-blu-ray-dvd-player-BD640.jsp harmon/kardon avr 510 http://www.harmankardon.com/resources/Brands/harmankardon/Products ProductRelatedDocuments/en-US/OwnersManual/AVR%20510%20OM%20FINAL%20(REV%203.30.01).pdf Thanks in advance

 

[Jason Charlton]

Hi Mario,


The Receiver does not have HDMI, so the simplest option is to use HDMI for the video connection from Blu-Ray player directly to the TV, and use a digital optical cable to connect the audio out from the Blu-Ray player to a digital optical input on the receiver.


In this setup, you will get true 1080p video to the TV (but will need to mute or disable the TV audio when listening via the receiver). You can also listen via the TV speakers if you want to (not sure why - but since it's HDMI to the tv, the audio tags along).


Your receiver does not support the lossless audio formats native to Blu-Ray. You will get a slight audio benefit over DVD because the lossy audio formats of Blu-Ray are generally recorded at slightly higher bitrates, but it's not as clear an improvement as lossless audio.


You didn't mention any additional sources. If you have more sources, and would prefer to run everything through the receiver, then you should use component video connections for all devices into the receiver for video, then a single component cable out to the TV.


Since you only listed one source (Blu-Ray) this approach doesn't make sense if that's all you've got - you actually would use MORE cables going through the receiver with only one device.


Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[gene c]

The 510 was a very good receiver in it's day. I used a 520 for many years and still sometimes regret letting it go. The 510 would have supported HD audio if your BluRay had the 5.1/7.1 outputs but unfortunately it doesn't so I'd also hook things up the way Jason suggested. But that's only half the battle. You still have to select the approriate settings in the receiver and BluRays setup menu's, assign the input(s) (pg 20) and calibrate the speakers (set the Delay (pg 21), Volumes (pg 24) and crossover (pg 23). First off, make sure the Audio Output on the BluRay player is set to "Primary Pass-Through" and not LPCM/PCM (pg 27). Makes sure all the speakers are set to Small and the crossover at 100 or 120 depending on what Energy speaker you have. Then either buy an SPL (Sound Pressure Level) meter from Radio Shack or set the individual speaker volumes "by ear".

 

[MBernal]

Thanks everyone for the info, I am going to dive in now and hopefully get it done in time to watch some tv tonight. I should have mentioned I would be hooking up a high def cable box and game console as well. I suppose I will cross that bridge soon enough.