[darkcloud]

The TV has 4 hdmi inputs so I'm more then covered on that front, it also has a digital audio out. I'm not so concerned about the xbox. It would be nice but I already think the normal connection is great and don't play all that enough to really care to spend more money on a receiver to connect it through HDMI.

Would following how I want to handle the blu-ray and hdcable be sufficient? Wanna come over and hook everything up haha. I would say I would detail your car but you learned how to do that on your own.

[Neurorad]

2 HDMI inputs on the receiver, but how many component connections?

I'm pretty sure that xbox could be connected to the receiver via component, in addition to the cable and blue-ray player connected via HDMI.

[Ru$$ell]

i was gonna get one of those HTIAB's myself till i wasted alot of hours researching stuff online as someone mentioned in this thread,trust me,you would be glad you did,i ended up getting a yamaha reciever with some polk audio R15's so far,things are really friggin expensive in my country so i gotta buy piece by piece.heres a nice place to start:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44

be sure to check out the home theatre pics post,you'll be drooling there for some hours,lol.

[darkcloud]

Originally Posted by Neurorad

2 HDMI inputs on the receiver, but how many component connections?

I'm pretty sure that xbox could be connected to the receiver via component, in addition to the cable and blue-ray player connected via HDMI.

I believer there are 3-4 component connections on the receiver. So yes that is a viable option.

I just want to make sure that my thoughts are correct on the sound transfer issue. The sound will go from the HDcable box and the blu-ray to the receiver it just wouldn't transfer the sound to the TV, which who really cares if you don't want to use the TV speakers anyways. Correct?

Originally Posted by Ru$$ell

i was gonna get one of those HTIAB's myself till i wasted alot of hours researching stuff online as someone mentioned in this thread,trust me,you would be glad you did,i ended up getting a yamaha reciever with some polk audio R15's so far,things are really friggin expensive in my country so i gotta buy piece by piece.heres a nice place to start:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44

be sure to check out the home theatre pics post,you'll be drooling there for some hours,lol.

I agree. I have 3 options right now.

1. Keep everything as is, shut up and be happy.

2. Return everything and begin putting components together, which I'll be on the low end as I don't want to spend more then $1k.

3. Keep everything for now. The speakers are a decent quality and sound good per the reviews. The receiver is what is lacking. Use it for a year or 2 and replace the receiver for something better and slowly phase the speakers out as well.

[Neurorad]

Originally Posted by darkcloud

1. Keep everything as is, shut up and be happy.

2. Return everything and begin putting components together, which I'll be on the low end as I don't want to spend more then $1k.

3. Keep everything for now. The speakers are a decent quality and sound good per the reviews. The receiver is what is lacking. Use it for a year or 2 and replace the receiver for something better and slowly phase the speakers out as well.

Do you have front and rear speakers right now?

If yes, keep what you have, skip the HTIB, and start doing your receiver research. It will take months to decide on which AVR to buy.

If you don't have front and rear speakers, then buy the HTIB which includes a base-level AVR.

My 2 ¢

[Nyulak]

Honestly, if number 1 works for you, that will be the cheapest path. Otherwise, you will end up in an upgrade circle akin to modifying our cars.

[darkcloud]

Originally Posted by Neurorad

Do you have front and rear speakers right now?

If yes, keep what you have, skip the HTIB, and start doing your receiver research. It will take months to decide on which AVR to buy.

If you don't have front and rear speakers, then buy the HTIB which includes a base-level AVR.

My 2 ¢

I have no speakers what-so-ever. So I'll go with option 3 then. Keep the stuff and slowly phase things out over time.

Thanks for the help everyone

[darkcloud]

I'm going over how I want to connect this stuff. Which is my better option.

1. Connect through the receiver. I can only connect 2 HDMI and the xbox must be connected via component. HDMI does not transfer sound to the TV and the receiver does not have a optical out. If I want sound through the tv speakers I must transfer it to the tv via component cables

2. Connect all 3 HDMI units to the TV and transfer the sound back to the receiver via optical out on the tv. TV does not have a HDMI out.

[TheAcAvenger]

Use option 3.

Everything you own should have seperate HDMI and optical outputs. Plug the HDMI outputs into the back of your TV. Plug the optical sound outputs into the back of your receiver.

Rarely (and I mean extremely rarely as in, I've only heard about it working) has an optical cord coming out of the tv into a receiver ever led to complex audio coming out of the receiver. It just sends out what the tv can process (which isn't much).

This will solve a lot of your problems
Pros
-HDMI into the tv means that your tv will have sound from everything without you running sound from your receiver to your tv
-Optical into the receiver means you get the best sound possible into the receiver without having it messed with by the TV

Cons
-Make sure all of your components let you select where the sound comes from (the 360 does have this option)
-You'll have to go to the component menus individually when you want sound through the tv instead of just going to your tv and turning your external speakers off
-More money on cables
-You have to change video on the tv and source on the receiver everytime you want to do something (go get yourself a logitech harmony remote)

Note for if you meant that you dont have HDMI on your 360: I have an xbox elite, but I used to have the old one. They make/made a dongle that includes optical out instead of the red white/black. If yours didn't come with that, go get one. Plug the component into the back of the tv and the optical into the back of the receiver.



EDIT after seeing last post of other thread: If it can indeed take audio in, you can just go ahead and hdmi the sound and video into the receiver and optical out/analog out the sound into your tv like I said in the other thread.

[darkcloud]

Update


Got the TV today. DAYUM. Incredible. Cnet rocks and their review on this TV doesn't do it justice. Blu-ray is ballin as well. Anyways I think I like my TV more then my car right now

[Nyulak]

lol. Glad you're happy. I'm waiting for OLEDs to hit the mainstream and come down in price before I get another TV. This should give me at least five more years to pay down all of my other bills.

[aus]

I'm late to this, but listen up.

The new HD surround formats can ONLY be sent to the reciever via HDMI, so there's NO REASON to keep your reciever if you can return it. You should be able to pick up an Onkyo 606 for less than $400 on line from an authorized dealer. I say again, you can NOT get the new surround formats via optical, digital coax or any other means except HDMI or via anoalog 5.1 input.

Edit: Here's a 606 for $350 shipped http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...X0DER&v=glance

You really should consider getting the PS3 for your BD player until something considerably cheaper or better is available. It's still right there with the best out there and loads considerably faster than any other player out there. Not to mention you have the hard disc to use as a music/vid/pic server, that you can control from anywhere with wifi via an PSP and then stream to the PSP.

And I hope you know tha Best Buy has a 15% restock fee on any opened item. They started to enforce it about 2 years ago. I never buy from them anymore.

And, if you have some cash for an AMZAING deal on speakers...

http://www.6ave.com/shop/category.as...=0133&pti=0100

Good luck.