Need some hook-up help...
03-26-06, 08:04 PM
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Need some hook-up help...
Ok, so I just convinced my friend to purchase a Harmon Kardon AVR-140 to go along with his new TV. He got a steal on it at Circuit City for 249.999 (thanks to what I think was an online error since that price is no longer available).
So, now we are mired in hook-up hell, in way over our heads, and we are in serious need of some guidance.
Here is his setup:
1.) Sharp Aquos 32 inch LCD television. This tv has 2 component inputs and 2 s-video inputs, and HDMI which he can't really use right now.
2.) A combo DVD/VCR recorder (I forget the exact brand right now). This has one component output and a optical audio that we are hoping to use.
3.) Direct TV (standard box with DVR...he will be upgrading this in the future to fully get use fom his tv and receiver). This does not have component, but does have a S-video output and a optical audio output
So we tried to hook all his up and failed miserably after many attempts. Here is a picture of his Harmon Kardon's back panel...
http://www.harmankardon.com/images/p...ge/AVR140B.jpg
Ok, so ideally we would like to have everything going into the receiver and use that to it's fullest capacity. But we have not been able to do this yet. The closest we came was getting the DVD player to work fine with the component and optical connections, but we were unable to get the Direct TV to broadcast through he S-video connection...
Could someone please help give us some A/V 101 tutoring?
So, now we are mired in hook-up hell, in way over our heads, and we are in serious need of some guidance.
Here is his setup:
1.) Sharp Aquos 32 inch LCD television. This tv has 2 component inputs and 2 s-video inputs, and HDMI which he can't really use right now.
2.) A combo DVD/VCR recorder (I forget the exact brand right now). This has one component output and a optical audio that we are hoping to use.
3.) Direct TV (standard box with DVR...he will be upgrading this in the future to fully get use fom his tv and receiver). This does not have component, but does have a S-video output and a optical audio output
So we tried to hook all his up and failed miserably after many attempts. Here is a picture of his Harmon Kardon's back panel...
http://www.harmankardon.com/images/p...ge/AVR140B.jpg
Ok, so ideally we would like to have everything going into the receiver and use that to it's fullest capacity. But we have not been able to do this yet. The closest we came was getting the DVD player to work fine with the component and optical connections, but we were unable to get the Direct TV to broadcast through he S-video connection...
Could someone please help give us some A/V 101 tutoring?
Last edited by dave-o; 03-27-06 at 12:03 PM.
03-27-06, 12:05 PM
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Ok, after trying to resize that picture several times, I just decided to edit it and make it a link to the picture. I hope it will be less annoying to read now. I would really appreciate any suggestions you guys might have...
03-27-06, 12:14 PM
#3
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Why bother with going through the receiver for video? How about just going straight to the TV for the video and using the receiver for audio?
Component DVD to TV, with coax to the receiver (since it looks like the receiver only has one optical)
S-Video DVR to TV, with optical to the receiver.
Buy a Harmony remote and you won't have to worry about pushing more than one button to have all the various inputs set properly to watch something.
Component DVD to TV, with coax to the receiver (since it looks like the receiver only has one optical)
S-Video DVR to TV, with optical to the receiver.
Buy a Harmony remote and you won't have to worry about pushing more than one button to have all the various inputs set properly to watch something.
03-27-06, 01:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Chew
Why bother with going through the receiver for video? How about just going straight to the TV for the video and using the receiver for audio?
Component DVD to TV, with coax to the receiver (since it looks like the receiver only has one optical)
S-Video DVR to TV, with optical to the receiver.
Buy a Harmony remote and you won't have to worry about pushing more than one button to have all the various inputs set properly to watch something.
Component DVD to TV, with coax to the receiver (since it looks like the receiver only has one optical)
S-Video DVR to TV, with optical to the receiver.
Buy a Harmony remote and you won't have to worry about pushing more than one button to have all the various inputs set properly to watch something.
That is a good point. I think he wanted to use the receiver for the video too, just b/c he bought the new receiver and wanted to use it to its fullest.
It actually has several digital optical inputs (including a front panel one), so that shouldn't be a problem.
I believe my friend was hoping that he wouldn't have to switch inputs on the tv and the receiver to go back and forth between Direct TV and DVD. But I think that is not going to be possible, since I am assuming that an S-video in connection to the receiver cannot be fed out through a component connection without a special upconverter (at least that is what I am gathering from what I have read).
Is it better to just have both video sources feed directly to the tv? B/c when we tried to send it through the receiver that is when we got pretty confused.
I also suggested a Harmony remote for him, but since he is already over what he wanted to spend, that might be a little while...
If anyone has experience with this unit or a similar one, I would love to hear your thoughts about how everything works best (i.e. connections and settings used on the receiver)...
