Question by Elizabeth D: How to hook up old stereo receiver, old dvd player and HD Cable box to new LCD hd tv?
Just got a Vizio HDTV. New to LCD.
We have a our HD cable box hooked up via HDMI on the tv, Our old DVD player hooked up via hdComponent cables into the only set of component cables on the back of the new tv.
How the heck can we somehow integrate our old stereo receiver into all this? The stereo receiver is about 15 years old and uses only regular component cables.
We would like to use the nice speakers we have for movies on the dvd and the HD cable tv,
Best answer:
Answer by Nandu
Converters. I happen to know a couple of people from Best Buy and they said that would work. Ask someone in the Home Theatre department and they should be able to point you to a converter for your stereo system.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
A couple ways of doing this. One is like you have it all the video to the TV and audio out from each component to the receiver. To control this with multiple remotes will not be fun though, so consider a universal remote and spend some time to program it well.
The other option which would be easier to use is to run both the audio and video to the TV and come audio out from the TV (if you an audio output which most Tv’s have) to the receiver. Set the TV’s audio output to fixed (it may ether be on a switch on the back next to the audio outputs or in the menu settings, if it even has that option at all.
If it does not have a fixed volume output then the volume output on the TV will be critical as to much volume will overload the inputs of the receiver and will sound distorted at all receivers volume settings. To low a setting and the background noise from the TV will be to loud, it will sound noisy, and will not have good clarity. Take note of the TV’s volume setting that sounds good and always use that setting when playing it through your receiver.
Kevin
35 years hi-end audio video specialist
Run video cables to your TV, and audio cables to your stereo. You can optionally run audio cables to your TV as well. In this case, you’ll get audio from both the TV and stereo at the same time, giving you some more flexibility.
Details below:
Cable box to HDTV via HDMI is fine.
If you want audio to the stereo system as well, get a pair of RCA cables (the colors don’t matter – just make sure you match the plugs – red to red, white to white) and connect them to a pair of red/white audio outputs on the cable box. Connect the other end to one of the inputs on your stereo system. Audio will now be flowing to both your TV and stereo. Turn the volume on the TV down, turn on the stereo to the input where the cables are, and voila. TV sound on your stereo.
DVD player to your HDTV via component cables (NOTE: component video is the red, blue, green cables – not the single yellow cable! Yes, this means there are 5 cables total, and 2 of them are red – do not confuse the red audio cable and the red video cable. Composite video is the yellow cable, and also uses the pair of red/white cables for audio – DO NOT USE COMPOSITE VIDEO WITH YOUR HDTV. You’ll get a much better picture with component video cables!)
If you don’t care about audio from the DVD player to your TV, simply take the red/white audio cables from the DVD player and connect them to another input on the stereo. This means you will get no audio to the TV at all when watching movies, so you’ll have to have the stereo turned on.
If you want the flexibility of choosing either your TV or Stereo for audio while watching movies, go to the store and buy 2 Y-cables. You can get these at Radio Shack or any electronics store. The Y-cable allows you to take 1 RCA cable and connect it to 2 separate devices – in your case, the TV and stereo. Connect the bottom part of each Y cable to the audio outs on the DVD player. Now connect one arm from each Y to the appropriate red/white inputs on your stereo, and then repeat this for your TV. Remember to match red to red, white to white.
If your stereo doesn’t have enough inputs, you can get a simple RCA cable switch (sometimes called a composite video switch) from the store. Ignore the yelllow jacks, and just use the red/white ones. Plug the audio cables from the DVD player and cable box into the switch, and then plug the switch into the input on your stereo. Now you can switch between the audio from your DVD player and cable box.