High-Def Adventures - Connecting a Plethora of Programing

After weeks of evaluating the latest HDTVs, you've finally made the plunge. A shiny (and expensive) set sits in your home theater, all dressed up with nowhere to go. What's missing? Content. Digital HD content, and lots of it. With the paucity of HD programming, it's not unusual for HD aficionados to use multiple HD sources, including DBS (direct broadcast satellite), cable, and OTA (over the air) HD transmissions. Hooking up this array of sources (plus other components such as your DVD player or VCR) can be quite a challenge. Trust us, we know. We've connected, configured, and cajoled more cabling than AT&T would know what to do with, in the interest of helping you enjoy your new HDTV with the least amount of pain. You may not need (or want) as many sources of HD as we demonstrate, but our examples will help prepare you for most setups. The Planning Stage Your first task will be to take an inventory of your current A/V gear and determine how many HD sources you want to connect to your home theater system. In our example, we used a total of five HD sources: cable, OTA antenna, DBS, D-VHS, and DVD. Our local cable provider issued us a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3100HD set-top box for HD cable broadcasts. We also installed an OTA antenna connected to a Samsung SIR-T151 ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) receiver. We used Dish Network's 6000U receiver for DBS HD broadcasts. We also connected JVC's HMDH40000 D-VHS (Digital VHS) deck, which we could use to record high-definition broadcasts from our other HD sources (in theory, anyway). We also needed to connect our progressive-scan DVD player, which used the same component inputs as our HD hardware. As we discovered, each additional device we connected to our home theater system complicated the task of creating a smooth, easily managed home theater. It's All About Connectors When setting up an HD-heavy home theater system, you'll need plenty of component inputs. Most HD signals use component cables and inputs, which separates the HD signal into three colors (red, green, and blue). Check your HDTV to see how many component inputs it has. They'll be labeled Y/Pb/Pr and will be green, blue, and red. Our HDTV was equipped with just two sets of component interconnects, and we had to connect four HD devices plus our DVD player (which also uses component interconnects). Clearly something had to give. We had three options. The first was to reduce the number of HD devices in our home theater. The second was to use a home theater receiver as a video switch. The third was to use an external video switch. Because our goal was to incorporate several HD sources into our home theater, we couldn't choose the first option. Many people would be inclined to use their home theater receivers as a video switch, but most home theater receivers only have two component inputs. You'd be hard-pressed to find a home theater receiver with three or more component inputs that costs less than $1,000, which is probably more than most consumers want to spend. If you plan to use your receiver as a video switch, make sure that it has the necessary number of video inputs. That being the case, an external video switcher is the best way for most people to connect several HD sources to a home theater system. Video switchers aren't terribly expensive, and you can connect several HD devices to a single switch. You can buy a video switcher for as little as $100, although some professional models cost several thousand dollars. Check out Inday's RGB4X-R video switch (www.inday.com), which you can buy for about $150. Audio Authority's Model 1154 (www.audioauthority .com) has both component and audio inputs and retails for $194. Look for a video switcher that has a lot of bandwidth, at least 30MHz per channel. Installation basics. It's easy to integrate a video switcher into your home theater. To connect a device to a video switcher, plug one set of component cables into your HD device (or DVD player) and plug the other end of the cables into the corresponding color-coded inputs on the switcher. That's all there is to it. Simply repeat this step for all your HD devices. Finally, connect a set of component cables to the video switcher's component output and connect the other end of the cables to your HDTV's component input. Most video switchers label their video inputs as 1, 2, 3, etc., rather than label each input by the device type (cable, DBS, DVD). You'll have to keep track of which device you've connected to which input. To select an input, simply use the video switcher's remote to select one of the numbered input sources. Video switchers are largely hassle-free, but home theater receivers tend to be a little more complicated because of the many inputs and outputs crowded on the back of a receiver, and the inputs may not be clearly labeled. But a home theater receiver is still the centerpiece of any home theater system, and if your receiver has enough inputs for your HD devices, you should use them (if you can bear the cost of a receiver with sufficient component inputs, that is). We decided to walk through the process of setting up a home theater system with several HD sources using a home theater receiver with six component inputs. We found that connecting all the devices to the receiver was a manageable task, but setting up some of the sources proved to be a little tricky, and in a couple of instances required professional help. We also discovered that we really needed a good universal remote to control this monster. We'll show you how we set up all of our HD sources using our home theater receiver. Cable connections. We made a trip to our local cable provider and ordered its digital HD package. Our cable provider gave us an HD set-top cable box. First, we connected the set-top box to the cable connection running from our wall, then used a set of component cables to connect the box to the receiver's component inputs, which were labeled CBL on our home theater receiver. We used Toslink cables (for audio) to connect the set-top box to the receiver. We also connected the receiver to our HDTV's component input. We powered up the TV, receiver, and set-top box, but there was no image. After reading through three sets of manuals, we realized that we needed to switch the HDTV to INPUT1 (its first set of component inputs) and switch the receiver to its CBL input. Once we did that, the set-top box worked fine. Over the air. We installed the OTA system next, or more accurately, we paid someone to install it for us. According to AntennaWeb (www.antennaweb.org), we'd need a medium directional antenna to pull in the majority of our local HD broadcasts. We consulted our local antenna gurus, who recommended a ChannelMaster 3016 antenna. The total price for the antenna and installation was $225. One look at the pitch of our roof convinced us that having professionals do the job was worth the extra charge. The pros also installed another coax cable plate in our wall, just like the one for our cable TV signals. The next step was to connect the OTA antenna to our Samsung SIR-T151 OTA HD receiver. The SIR-T151 has a simple back panel, with an input for the OTA antenna's coax cable, a set of component video outputs, and digital audio outputs. After connecting the SIR-T151 to the OTA antenna's wall plate with a coax cable, we connected it to the receiver's component inputs labeled DTV/LD. We used a Toslink audio cable to connect the SIR-T151 to the receiver. We switched the receiver to the OTA feed and turned on the SIR-T151. Using the Samsung's built-in signal strength meter, we rotated the antenna to view our local ABC affiliate's HD broadcast. Now we could watch "Monday Night Football" in HD. A quick check of our other local channels was also successful. Dish Network. If you want to install a DBS system, you'll need to set it up in a location that has a clear view of the southern sky. Our Dish Network system included free installation, though installing a small DBS dish is not as difficult as an OTA antenna. Dish Network's Model 6000 set-top box uses component video outputs and Toslink connections for digital audio. We grabbed another set of component and Toslink cables and connected the set-top box to the receiver's Sat inputs, negotiating the rat's nest of our other devices' component and Toslink cables. We were watching HDNet in a matter of minutes and waiting for the Sunday Night NFL game on ESPNHD. D-Theater. JVC's HMDH40000 looks like most VCRs, but it's quite a bit more expensive, because you can use it to record HD content. We planned to use the D-VHS deck to record HD programs, and this is when we realized our first major mistake. First, we had assumed that we could record HD signals using the component outputs of our source devices. Unfortunately, the only way to record HD content using the D-VHS deck is through the use of FireWire connectors. Our HMDH40000 has FireWire inputs, but none of our HD devices have FireWire connections. We contacted both Dish Network and Samsung and found out that newer systems will provide the required FireWire outputs, but that our current systems couldn't be upgraded. Our only option was to connect the D-VHS deck to the receiver's DVR inputs, once again using a set of component cables. This left us unable to record programming in HD but let us watch prerecorded HD content in all its glory. You'll want to keep this limitation in mind when building your own HD setup. If your home theater receiver doesn't have enough video inputs, use a component switcher such as Inday's RGB4X-R. DVD player. Our progressive-scan DVD player requires component connections to render HD video at a resolution of 480p (progressive). Connecting the DVD player to the Yamaha was no different than the previous components, and it worked as expected when we viewed a test DVD. We simply used component cables to connect the DVD player to the component inputs labeled DVD on our receiver. Refining The Experience With all of our sources functioning, we decided that we had to improve how all the components interacted. We realized right away that we'd need a good universal remote to corral all of these devices and to maintain our sanity. Simply finding the right remote out of the seven on our coffee table was a challenge. Our remote of choice is Sony's RM-AV3000, and after spending a considerable amount of time programming the Sony, we distilled our seven remotes into one. Important features to look for in a universal remote are macro programming options and a learning mode. With macros, you can create a one-button setting that will switch the video and audio to your HD source and even dim the lights if you have them wired to a home automation system. If your remote has a learning mode, you can train it to emulate your other remotes, keeping the remote control clutter to a minimum. We recommend that anyone with more than four A/V components buy a universal remote. Lessons Learned As you can see, setting up a multisource HD home theater system takes some effort, and we made some mistakes along the way. First, we should have installed a wall plate capable of handling three coax cable connections. This would have reduced the number of wall plates that eventually ended up in our wall. If we had shared our home theater plans with even one of the various installers we worked with, he would have been able to install the wall plate for us. Next, we had dramatically underestimated our power consumption needs. With so many devices running on the same circuit, it was only a matter of time before it gave way. A visit from our electrician solved the problem, but it's something for which we should have planned. We also had the electrician install a power line conditioner to protect our equipment from power surges. All's Well That Ends Well Not many consumers will choose to combine the array of HD sources we set up in our home theater. Even as HD becomes more mainstream, most consumers will rely at most on two HD sources. Yet for the true HD junkie who has to have access to the latest in HD programming, it isn't unusual to have three or more HD sources. Regardless of the number of HD sources, you'll need to plan your home theater system carefully to enjoy the HD universe. By Chris Jackson FireWire & DVI It's difficult to future-proof any electronic setup, and home theater systems are no exception. While most HD devices use component interconnects to transfer the HD signal to a TV, there are several new interconnects vying for the approval of the FCC and Hollywood. The first of these is the FireWire interface pioneered by Apple. Instead of three connectors, FireWire features a single connector that provides bidirectional connectivity. As we discovered when setting up the JVC D-VHS deck, the only way we could record HD signals to D-VHS was through a FireWire input. As none of our other HD sources had FireWire outputs, we could only view their HD broadcasts, not record them. A second proposed interconnect is DVI (digital visual interface). DVI is a unidirectional connector (already used in some computer displays) that will also help eliminate cable clutter. For most home theater components, DVI will be paired with HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) software, which prevents HD content from being pirated. Finally, there is another interconnect closely related to DVI: HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). HDMI has the ability to transfer audio data, as well as video data. Capable of transferring data at up to 5Gbps (gigabits per second), HDMI gives consumers and equipment manufacturers a bit of bandwidth breathing room. HDMI is also backward compatible with existing DVI devices and fully supports HDCP. Tags:

 

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