Home Cinema Advice

[Bishop Beesley]

Ok, G, here's my two-penneth worth.

As far as your sound from your DVD player goes....to get proper Dolby Digital 5.1 sound you need to connect your DVD player to your amp using either an "optical" lead or a "coaxial" lead. Most good DVD players will have outputs for both, as practically all amps will have inputs for both.

An optical lead is a thin thing with a sort of stubby plastic looking end, while a coaxial lead is just like a single audio lead.

Opinion is divided on which gets the best results. I've heard people in high class entertainment retailers swear coaxial is best....while others swear by optical...I guess if you have a choice it's up to you....personally I have a coaxial....you should pay somewhere between ?10 and ?20 for a decent one.

You can also connect your DVD player to your amp with a pair of audio leads....as a back up....but remember these will only carry the stereo signal....not 5.1.

If you want to connect up your VCR, same thing, just a pair of audio leads will do the trick.

And once again, with your Sky box...another couple of audio leads will do it. I don't think Sky are broadcasting much in 5.1 as yet.

Now there is a way to save on all these audio leads. Most TV's have a coule of audio output jacks on them somewhere. Connect audio leads from the TV outputs to say the Aux input audio jacks (or any others your not using) on your amp, then select "Aux" or the relevant selection on your amp, and anything you play through your TV will come through your speakers.

Ok, picture wise. Component is the best picture quality, but it's generally only available on high-end TV's...usually Plasma's and LCD...so probably you'll be going with a good quality Scart lead.

Scart carries the second best picture signal, RGB (Red, Green, Blue). On a lot of DVD players you need to select RGB output on the "Set-Up" menu screen or else you will get the bog-standard composite signal.

Sky boxes also output the RGB signal, again adjustable on the Sky set-up screen....so you need to find out if your TV has only two Scart inputs if they both accept the RGB signal. Quite often, only one of the two will. Or typically on a TV with 3 Scart inputs, two will accept RGB, one won't.

Check your TV manual. If only one Scart input is RGB, then either you're going to have to compromise on picture quality with either your Sky picture or your DVD player, or you can buy a Scart junction box and route two or more leads into the same input. Make sure when buying one that all sockets on the junction box accept RGB and that it's a "switchable" make....none of this "auto" rubbish, they don't work properly.

I think that's about it. You should be getting a good sound if you've bought some decent speakers, as Yamaha are one the best makes for amps. Hope some of that helped. Happy viewing.....and listening.

[Guilbert]

Thanks for the great advice.

>Most good DVD players will have outputs for both, as practically all amps
will have inputs for both.

Unfortunately my current (inexpensive) DVD player only has digital COAXIAL
output, and the Receiver only has digital OPTICAL input.

If you look at the picture here you can see the optical input in the bottom
left. There is a coaxial above it, but that seems to be for CD only, not DVD
(according to the book anyway).



I do plan to buy a DVD player with optical output, just surprised the
Receiver does not have coaxial jack input.

[mart]

Sorry to sound pedantic guys, but isn't it incorrect to talk about "coaxial" unless you are referring to TV or FM signal inputs. Audio and video are usually called Phono or RCA connectors, Black and Red (L and R audio) and Yellow (video).

Mart

[Bishop Beesley]

Well it says "coaxial" on the back of the amp, Mart. So if it's good enough for Yamaha, it's good enough for me. lol

That is most peculiar, Guilbert. I can't believe a Yamaha amp wouldn't have a coaxial input for a DVD player. I mean why would you need a coaxial for a cd player? Very few of them use 5.1.

I suppose if you've already got the lead you could try it and see if it works for DVDs....but if the manual says for cd's only...well who am I to argue.

Most odd.

[Bishop Beesley]

Just had another thought, Guilbert. There IS another way of getting 5.1 sound. Notice on your amp...sort of top left...."5 Ch input"....you've got five individual inputs there...one for each speaker....now if your DVD player has five corresponding outputs....?

Ok, five wires is not as good as just one....but if it's between that and buying a new DVD player....?

Hope that helps.

[Angel Kaci]

Hi Guilbert

Firstly, in reply to your original question. The only benefit you will get from passing the TV, DVD and VCR picture through the amp is that when you select the TV, DVD etc through the amp, instead of just getting the sound changing the picture should also change. Plus it could save a load of cables going to your TV.

The best quality picture you will get from a DVD player (if we don't go into HD) is via component connections. These are the three phono leads coloured red, green and blue. The best quality from sky is currently RGB scart and VHS is just scart.

Now this all depends on what connections your TV has. If you have component connections on your TV then you should probably connect the DVD player straight to that. If you only have scarts then you should make sure the DVD player and Sky box are connected to the RGB scarts. If you TV only has one RGB capable scart then to get the best all round picture you should connect the DVD player to the Sky Box then connect the Sky Box to the TV using the RGB scart.

As for sound, you mentioned your DVD player only has coaxial output. That is no problem as coaxial and optical both are similar quality. Even though the amp says CD for that connection, why not try connecting it from the DVD player and seeing if you get the full 5.1 sound. If this doesn't work then you can buy a convertor here:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... doy=23m10D

Then you should connect the DVD to the optical as marked on the amp, then the Sky box (if it has optical out) to the other optical connection. If you just have normal Sky digital (not +) then connect it to the amp via the red and white phono connections. Do this also with the VHS sound and the TV sound.

Hope this helps. I'm quite a Home Cinema geek so if you have any questions, just reply and I will answer them for you.

[Guilbert]

>Audio and video are usually called Phono or RCA connectors, Black and
Red (L and R audio) and Yellow (video).

Ah, if only life were that simple.

DIGITAL audio is carrried through Digital Audio Cables that are Coaxial.

See this page here which is a guide to cables, right hand column shows
Digital Audio Cables, that are coaxial.



Connectors are coloured ORANGE, as the back of this unit shows, bottom
left, clearly marked Coaxial.



Guilbert

[LoveLover]

Too bad your receiver doesn't have Y/C inputs (S-video).

I have an old Yamaha Audio/Video amplifire and it has both compostite and Y/C inputs. Why do I use it for the picture? Simple, my TV has 2 scarts. Yet I have DVD, LD, VHS and a Laptop. By connetcing them all to the amp, I can switch device with my remote.