Buying a 1080p HD TV, HD DVD player, and home theater for surround sound. What else do I need?

Question

Like what kind of cables do I need? How many HDMI cables. How many HDMI ports does my TV need. I am knew to this whole things, so someone please tell me what all I need. Thanks.

Answer 1

Ideally every SOURCE would have 1 HDMI cable coming out so your TV should have 1 input for each.

Sources are: HD-Cable box, Xbox360, PS3, HD-DVD player, HD-Sat receiver.

Most TV's come with 2 HDMI jacks. Better ones have 3.

The better AV Receivers often have 4 or 5 inputs and 1 output so you can run everything through the receiver.

You can also buy a HDMI switch for $200-$400 if you have more sources.

HDMI cables: these signals are digital so they are very insensitive to the cable. Cheap and expensive cables both give near perfect performance.

For short runs - buy your HDMI cables from Monoprice. For a few bucks more, the cables from BlueJeans are great for long runs. (We are talking $38 for a 10 ft cable here).

Answer 2

If you are buying the whole home theater, do you want a 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system? The first # represents speakers; after the . (point) this # represents subwoofers.

You will need a good quality HDMI cable for each one of the product that has HD. The speakers require 14 or 16 guage wire. The thicker wire will carry your sound over distance better. The subwoofer takes a different wire so the low sounds travel in the center of the wire, this brings you the treble and bass at the proper time.

Everything should be set up with a proper Power Surge Protector to make sure you have clean power, not too much. The more expensive ones clean up electrical noises better.

Answer 3

Based on your description, you need only 1 HDMI source on TV for the HD-DVD player, add additional ones for each other input you plan to use such as Cable, Sat, PS3, etc. My personal experience is that HDMI is no better than Composite 1080i except for the fact you get digital sound with the HDMI, However with a surround sound, you will need to go straight to the receiver anyways so no need for Digital sound to TV.

HDMI does reduce some of the wiring, but you still will have to have 2 HDMI per input, one to surround receiver and one from surround to TV. Or 1 HDMI from player to TV and 1 fiber-optic from player to surround. Most TVs sound-outputs suck. The only problem you may have will be a slight delay of sound with picture of TV, but almost all new surrounds have a delay feature to solve this problem, my delay problem only occurred through the satellite receiver using the fiber-optic set-up.

In short, look at what inputs your surround and Tv have, the salesman will try and sell you the highest cables but remember the fiber-optic and HDMI set-up work as good as two HDMI set-ups for about 40+ bucks cheaper.

Answer 4

Make sure your AV receiver has enough HDMI inputs for the componants you plan to have. You will probably have at some point satalite/cable, dvd player, x-box/ps3, tivo/dvr which means you would need at least 4. Then you connect an HDMI output to your tv's HDMI input.

A lot of stores offer home installation but before I would pay for that, I would go to a store and talk to a salesperson and have him show you not just the fancy picture quality, but turn the tv and receivers around and show you the different connections and how to do it. At least you'll know if it's going to be too complicated for you to attempt and worth the extra cash for the professional installation.

Answer 5

You can use your non-HD DVD player with your HDTV, but it won't be as 'clear and crisp' as an HD DVD player would be. If you have a larger collection (over 100 disks) of non-HD DVDs the do keep your old player ... and because of the competition between HD DVD and Blu-Ray DVDs, I wouldn't start buying those disks until the 'winner' is more clear. Right now the winner seems to be Blu-Ray, but my husband and I are going to wait until about June of next year before we decide which to 'upgrade' to ... and we WON'T be buying any 'new copies' of the stuff we already have, just getting the new ones in that format. Yes, we do have a 'larger collection' since we own something over 200 of the 'regular' DVDS so far!

Answer 6

Sounds like you could just use 2 HDMI cables:

one between the HDTV and 7.1 a/v receiver;

and one between the HD DVD player and the

a/v receiver. A Harmony universal remote too.

Answer 7

Just buy the Monster cable & a pop-corn.