First off, I’m pretty dumb when it comes to electronics. I need some help…I’ve been reading a lot at avforums but haven’t found anything exactly like my situation/question.
I have a 51” Hitachi rear projection TV (1080i), a Yamaha receiver (no HDMI input) with surround speakers (TV and receiver bought in 2004), a standard DVD player, and a Directv HD receiver. I currently have the DVD player hooked up to the receiver but not the Directv receiver.
I have several questions:
I want to get a Blu Ray player. A) Will it matter with my 1080i TV? According to avforums it should? B) How would I hook it up? Should I upgrade the A/V receiver to something with HDMI inputs?
How should I hook up my Directv receiver if I want to use the surround speakers?
Would it be worth it to upgrade my TV? I don’t really want to but would consider it.
Any other suggestions for the best TV/movie watching experience?
Attached is a pdf of the back of the Yamaha receiver.
Last edited by cycloneworld; 12-17-2009 at 09:04 AM.
First off, I’m pretty dumb when it comes to electronics. I need some help…I’ve been reading a lot at avforums but haven’t found anything exactly like my situation/question.
I have a 51” Hitachi rear projection TV (1080i), a Yamaha receiver (no HDMI input) with surround speakers (TV and receiver bought in 2004), a standard DVD player, and a Directv HD receiver. I currently have the DVD player hooked up to the receiver but not the Directv receiver.
I have several questions:
I want to get a Blu Ray player. A) Will it matter with my 1080i TV? According to avforums it should? B) How would I hook it up? Should I upgrade the A/V receiver to something with HDMI inputs? ***A blu ray will look great on a 1080i. I don't think you need to upgrade. I don't think you need a new receiver either. I would hook them up separately: HDMI from your blu ray to your TV, but separate digital coax out to your receive for audio. This way you will have audio and video from your blu ray on your TV, but when you want the big sound you can turn down your TV and crank up the receiver.
How should I hook up my Directv receiver if I want to use the surround speakers? ***Same way. I'd go separate HDMI to the TV and digital coax out to your receiver. If your receiver does not have enough digital inputs you should be able to add an adapter.
Would it be worth it to upgrade my TV? I don’t really want to but would consider it. No.
Any other suggestions for the best TV/movie watching experience?
Attached is a pdf of the back of the Yamaha receiver.
PS just looked at your schematic. You do have multiple digital inputs on your receiver but they are optical and I said coax in my original post. I don't know that there is an advantage to one over the other but in the interest of doing it the same way, since there are two I'd use the two optical inputs, one for DTV receiver and one for blu ray. This will get all the audio you need into your receiver, meanwhile the HDMI will take both audio and video to your TV if you ever want to use it without the receiver. I've never been a fan of looping video through your receiver back to your TV, I don't know why it's just a hangup I have, so I would not worry about getting a receiver with HDMI inputs. In addition to your two HDMI cables for blu ray and DTV you need two of these: Dynex® - 4' Digital Optical Audio Cable - DX-SF104
I think I can be of some help to you. I have basically the same setup, a 51" Hitachi rear projection, a Yamaha receiver, an HD receiver and a DVD player.
First up, for your directTV receiver, I would use an optical cable to one of your digital input jacks on your receiver. This will allow you to use your surround sound for your satellite and it will even give you Dolby Digital for the channels that proivde it. For the video signal, just run a component cable from the DirecTV to your TV set.
For the Blu-Ray, you have a couple options. If you want to use the fancy new upgraded audio formats for Blu-Ray, you need to get a player with built in audio decoding and a 6 channel output. You then connect that 6 channel output to the six channel input on your receiver with standard RCA audio cables. This will then give you the new Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, DTS Master Audio, and all of that good stuff. You can also use the same optical cable the DVD players have used for years, but this will just get you the same old DD or DTS audio, none of the upgraded stuff.
For the video on the Blu-Ray, just use a component or HDMI cable from the player to the TV. The picture quality will be the same with either. The only catch is that it will not "upconvert" standard DVDs to 1080 over the component connection.
You don't need to upgrade your TV. It will just take the 1080p signal from the Blu-Ray player and convert it to 1080i for display. It will still look great. And the picture quality from a rear projection will provide you better black levels than an LCD and it also doesn't have the issue of motion blur. Stick with what you have there, unless you really want to save space and wall mount or something with the LCD.
Thanks ruxCYtable and aeroclone...that's exactly what I needed.
Second question...I have Polk speakers and the center speaker recently broke (I think one of my cats knocked it off the shelf). Can I get any center speaker or should I stick with Polk or should I buy/replace the exact same one that I have now?
Just had my brother in law install mine for me since its a hobby of his. One suggestion he had was to angle your overhead speaker down towards the couch or else the sound waves go over the viewer's head.
Remember that stressed spelled backwards is desserts!
"The New England Patriots: As annoying as the Yankess, just with 23 fewer titles."
If your TV has it an optical or the coaxial digital audio out, I'd run HDMI and Comonent cables directly to your TV and send one audio cable to your receiver. That way you don't have to fumble with multiple remotes. If you can limit how many components you have switch when going from DVD to DirecTV then it makes it much easier to use.
#1 Your picture quality with the blu-ray player will be in 1080i so it will look similar to what you see on Directv HD today.
#2 With cheap A/V receiver's available with mutiple HDMI connections, I would be inclined to just buy a new A/V receiver with HDMI connections. Then you don't have to worry about all this jacking around with different wires and get the best sound/video possible with your system. You can get a very good receiver for less than $400.
#3 There is no such thing as a good sounding wireless speaker if you compare it to a good wired speaker.
True and the AVR-790 is the same as the Denon 1910 except
1. the 1910 has A/B speaker switching, whereas the 790 only has "A" front speakers
2. the 1910 adds a "room to room" remote control jack for wired control from Zone 2
In all other respects, the 1910 and 790 are IDENTICAL.
The Denon 1910 is at least $450 and has great reviews.
#1 Your picture quality with the blu-ray player will be in 1080i so it will look similar to what you see on Directv HD today.
#2 With cheap A/V receiver's available with mutiple HDMI connections, I would be inclined to just buy a new A/V receiver with HDMI connections. Then you don't have to worry about all this jacking around with different wires and get the best sound/video possible with your system. You can get a very good receiver for less than $400.
#3 There is no such thing as a good sounding wireless speaker if you compare it to a good wired speaker.
Thanks. That's what I thought and what info I could find said. My wife didn't want the wires anywhere b/c we have a 2 and 1 year old and they are drawn to that like candy.
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Originally Posted by cycloneworld 
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