Wick

I just recently bought a 40 inch Samsung LCD TV for my bedroom and it came with a 5.1 home theatre system. My friend and I tried hooking up some stuff tonight, and we had some problems. Please try to hold back the laughter - I'm a complete n00b.

We just got Bell Expressvu and I got an HD receiver, so I'm attempting to hook that up via a DVI cable I bought. The video works, but there's no sound (do I still need to plug in any of the component wires?) and I've noticed that (even after I turn the TV off,) I can still see images frozen in the crystals. Was going to DVI a bad idea, or can these problems be solved easily? I NEVER noticed any visual problems like this one, when I had it connected through component; however, since my TV only has one component input, I'm trying to hook things up through HDMI and DVI. The satellite receiver only accepts DVI.

Also, we just hooked up my home theatre system tonight and it sounds great. It's connected through my DVD player that came as part of the system, and it likes to turn itself off when there's no disc playing. I want to be able to use the surround sound for other things such as video games, satellite, my HD-DVD player, etc. How do I get it to stay on? It seems to work fine for everything, when it's on.

Last: Can an XBOX 360 be hooked up through HDMI? Will it give me better PQ?

Thanks

Spiky

First, the image retention is probably normal. It should go away fairly quickly. LCD panels have a tendency to do this. But it is only a problem if it persists. Waiting a minute or turning it on/off a couple times should clear that up. What is the panel refresh rate on your TV?

Next, DVI does not carry audio. You should probably run a digital audio cable from the Bell box to your new audio system. Most likely an optical cable from a digital cable box.

The Xbox does not offer digital video. Component video or VGA are your choices for high-rez video. These are both analog, but are perfectly comparable to HDMI or DVI for picture quality.

Don't know about the audio system turning off. There must be something quirky about it. Maybe if you give a model number, somebody will be familiar with it.

Wick

Thanks for the reply.

I was able to solve the home theatre system problem (with it turning off,) as it only needed to be put on Aux-1.

I'm not sure of what I'm going to do about the DVI cable, because I'm not interested in spending a ton of money on more cables. I may just take my HDMI cables and DVI cables back, and I'll just get a component switcher with a booster, for approx. the same price.

Spiky

Well, I'm not sure what you spent on cables, but there are places to get cables for very reasonable prices. To get a good component distribution amp (booster), you will be spending a couple hundred, at the very least. You probably don't need an amp, though.

Check out the various combos of HDMI/DVI at monoprice.com.