Need help with connecting it all up

[andrewtayloruk]

Hi,

I've posted this before somewhere but it's not coming up in any searches so I'll try again.

I've just started down the path of my first real home cinema, I thought I'd know how to connect it up, but, starting to look at all the connections and it's clear there are many paths to enlightenment (ie, there's more than one way to do it!).

First a little outline of the equipment.

I've already got a Toshiba 42WH38 rear projection, it's got component in, 2 RGB scarts and a non-RGB scart.

I've also got a Panasonic DMR50 DVD recorder, that has 2 scart (not sure on the RGB status, at least one I think), and one S-VIDEO, it has an optical and coaxial digital out. It obviously has an aerial in and out as well for the recording.

I've also got a Philips freeview box, it also has two scarts, and coaxial digial out. It also obviously has an arial in and out.

I've also got (care of Jake James on the powerbuy forum) a nice set of Canton CD1's.

To tie all this up, I'm fairly convinced I'm going to buy a Denon 1906 receiver and a Multi-region Denon 1720 DVD. I've got a price from a local dealer of 400.00. Unless it's a really terrible choice I'd prefer to stick with it as I've spent weeks looking around already!!! I know one mans meat is another mans poison (or something?)

How do I go about hooking it all up?

I presume an aerial from the wall to the freeview box, an aerial from the freeview box to the DVD-R, an aerial back to the TV.

I also presume an RGB scart from the freeview box to the TV and an RGB from the freeview box to the DVD-R. Perhaps it's possible to skip the one to the TV and pass it through the freeview? I presumably then run an SVIDEO to the TV from the DVD-R and an optical to the receiver. That leaves a component to the TV from the new Denon DVD and an optical to the receiver. Any comments?

My next quandry is speaker position


Hope that comes out ok.

[---------------DOOR---|
|  SOFASOFASOFA                   
|                     S
|T                    O
|V                    F 
|                     A
|
|____WINDOWWINDOWWI____|

I was hoping to screw the speakers to the wall, three across the wall with the TV on pointing straight in to the room (or should I position them on an angle). But how far apart should they be?

The other 'SOFA' sofa is against the other wall, so any speakers that go up, will be right behind the seating position. I can't pull the sofa of the wall really (or possibly I could during a serious movie session?) so would they be better on the side walls, facing each other above the head?

Also, what about connection leads, my dealer reckons I should be paying about 200 on leads. 50.00 of that was on a digital optical lead.

Any comments.

Thanks

Andrew

[inzaman]

I've also got a Panasonic DMR50 DVD recorder, that has 2 scart (not sure on the RGB status, at least one I think), and one S-VIDEO, it has an optical and coaxial digital out. It obviously has an aerial in and out as well for the recording.

I've also got a Philips freeview box, it also has two scarts, and coaxial digial out. It also obviously has an arial in and out.

You could connect the Freeview box to the DVDR via scart and then go from the DVDR to the TV via scart, this should then daisy chain the Freeview box and the DVDR. I take it that the DVD recorder can record via scart input?

The denon dvd player can be connected to the tv via component as this will then make best use of that connection with your current set up. The sound output being connected to your amp via coaxial or optical.
You could also use switching on the amp, but i am not sure whether this model has scart inputs (probably not).

The digital outs for sound will go through your amp so you can use this whenever your tv is on, unless you want to use your speakers on the TV as the scart can also carry the sound too.

As for the speakers it would be best of you post that question in the speaker forum as you may get more responses.

[giger]

First of all, £50 on an optical lead forthe equipment you are looking at is a joke!. I could understand it if it where a long coaxial lead but that is ridiculous.

Hear is an example of what I'd be using on a setup like that
http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/PGD561.html

Have a look around on there for the other interconnectors you need as well as you'll get a more realistic price of what you'll have to pay i.e component leads (the profigold PGV332 is a good starting point)