HT connection question

[FoolForARadio]

I am trying out HT. Or, I've spent enough so you could say I'm trying to make it work. Anyway, I have LF, RF, center, and sub powered by a big old Marantz AV amp. When I am watching TV, it all works pretty good. I don't have the DVD player plugged into the AV amp. I'm just running the DVD player into the TV, and playing the sound through the AV amp's TV input. And that's not working so good. I really noticed it when I tried to watch the Pink Floyd "Pulse" DVD, and went into the audio setup menu and did the sound level checks on the various speakers. Sound was not getting to the proper speakers.

So do I have to run audio and video into the AV amp, and select the DVD input for Dolby digital and all that to work properly? That's probably a dumb question. I've been avoiding hooking it up that way so my wife won't have to remember to switch inputs, also because I can use component connections TV-DVD, but the Av amp just has s-video and composite.

Sorry this is so long....

[avguytx]

No, it's not a dumb question at all! But definitely run the output from the DVD player directly into the AV Receiver and use whatever digital connections both units can mate up with. Be it Optical or Coax digital connections. Thru either of these connections is how it sends the 5.1 (or stereo) soundtracks for the receiver to decode them and send to the appropriate speakers. Use the digital connections instead of the right and left stereo RCA connections. You could always still send a stereo connection to the TV directly in case you dont want to have the receiver on every time you watch a DVD. I have mine where it's always tied into the receiver. Personal choice. So first off, check to see what digital outputs your DVD uses...some use coax, some optical...some both. Then see what your receiver can take as an input. Some receivers can use both and you can designate what digital input is applied to whatever input you want. Then, you can unleash the soundtrack sound that you are missing! Hope that helps!

[avguytx]

Forgot the video part of the question. I know about teaching a wife how to run all the input selections! My receiver does component video upconversion so no matter what type of cables I run into the receiver, it outputs component video to the TV so the TV is always on "Component 1" input by default. Also use a universal remote to help take care of that.

You would have to run a component video cable to the TV (for the best picture) and you could still run an S-Video cable from the DVD to the receiver...then an S-Video cable from the receiver to the TV. This way, you can have her easily change the inputs on the receiver to watch whatever. You yourself would know that you could simply change the TV to "component input" when you want to watch something where you want better picture quality for yourself where whe may not care as much. Do you have any other video pieces such as Satellite receiver, VCR, etc? If so, throwing a composite (yellow) video cable in that loop could be interesting too! Unless your receiver will upconvert to S-video.

[FoolForARadio]

Thanks for that useful info. I've been hooking up stereo stuff all my life, it seems like, but this av stuff is baffling.

[Duane]

I'd like to offer up another connection scheme.If you're taking the audio output from your tv to your Marantz receiver and it sounds correct,it would be assumed that you have the left and right channels connected properly.Are you using the A/V receiver for everything from the tv? Do you have your receiver set for Dolby Pro-Logic or Pro-Logic 2 ? If so,then there should be no reason that your DVD player hooked into your TV's A/V connections should be a problem? I'm not talking about the digital audio signal,just the analog L/R stereo output from the DVD.You could plug the DVD straight to the tv and your wife would only have to change the tv's input.If you want to hear the DVD's digital output,all you have to do is change the receiver's input to the digital source.
There's no right or wrong way to do the switching,it's whatever people are comfortable with.If you had problems with the output channels on your initial setup to the tv,there must be something wrong in the configuration from you DVD player.If you use your receiver to do all of the decoding,DPL/DPLII DD/DTS,then you don't need the 5.1 output from your DVD player (I'm again assuming that your player has a 5.1 output).You would only use those if your receiver has the 5.1 inputs (separate RCA jacks) used for outboard processor or for the analog output for SACD,etc.

[FoolForARadio]

The optical cable worked like a charm! And while I was behind the cabinet, I saw that I had mixed up a connection from the DVD audio to the TV. So maybe I didn't have such a problem anyway - I haven't tried to play a DVD through the TV since to find out.

Do I have this right - the AV receiver needs a digital signal to decode to 5.1? I've got an HDTV, HDMI from the satellite box to the TV, then L/R phono cable from the TV audio output to the AV receiver. There's no digital audio out on the TV. So even if I'm watching something broadcast in 5.1 the AV receiver can't send the signals to the proper speakers? Which begs the question, is there such a thing as a 5.1 broadcast? I assume HD channels do that, but maybe not. There is a digital audio out on the satellite receiver, may that's what it's for.

Thanks if you can clear up this confusion.

[Duane]

Your HD capable satelite box's digital output is where the 5.1 output would come from.It can be used all the time for HD channels and non HD sources.Only the HD channels will have 5.1,although sometimes it's only 2.0,depending on the material.

[FoolForARadio]

Ok I got that. I ran coaxial cable from the satellite box into the AV reciever, since now the DVD is using the optical input. Now help me understand the difference between Dolby Digital (AC-3 is how it's labeled) and Pro Logic. When I select the Dolby Digital the center speaker doesn't fire, the center signal plays through LF and RF. Pro Logic does fire up the center speaker. This is opposite of what I thought, I thought Dolby Digital actually sent signals to all 5.1 (in my case 3.1) speakers.

Either way, though, I'm finally getting somewhere with all this! It's a good Labor Day project.

[Duane]

Double check your receiver's speaker configuration.On most A/V receivers,there's either an onscreen menu system(television) or via the receiver's own window that sets up the operational parameters .If you don't tell the receiver what type of center channel speaker (large/small,et.),it assumes you don't have one and will send the signals designated for the center to the L/R front channels.

[FoolForARadio]

Apparently the receiver defaults to stereo mode when you try to set it on AC-3 (Dolby Digital) but it doesn't get the signal to decode. And apparently the HDMI connection between the satellite box and the TV trumped the coaxial digital connection between the satellite box and the AV receiver. When I run video into the TV through composite cables, then the receiver recognizes the 5.1 signal from the satellite box and it sounds great. I still can't get the DVD player to play 5.1 sound through the receiver, I was playing a Pink Floyd disc which surely should be Dolby Digital encoded.

I am using a Marantz SR880 which is about 10 years old. The manual is almost indecipherable. Are the new AV receivers this much trouble to understand and hook up?

[Duane]

Without knowing your DVD player,this is only a generic guess.Have you gone thru the DVD setup menu and allow for DD/DTS to be output.Some players have these options off in the default setting.All of the DVD players I've owned,except one,have been Sonys.The digital options have to be set before the player will output DD/DTS.My brother had a similar issue with his Pioneer player.

You need to connect your DVD player's digital output to one of the digital inputs on your receiver.

[FoolForARadio]

That did it! I can now listen to 5.1 from DVDs and HD channels. And my wife and daughter can watch TV and DVDs the way they're used to. I just need to remember to reset the receiver to TV and jack the master volume back up. Gosh, it's loud coming through the digital cables. Thanks so much to all who helped me get this far.