[TECTY]

Hi
Could anyone out there help me, i am a complete novice when it comes to home cinema.
I have recently purchased a 42" lg Lh5000 lcd tv( which has 4 hdmi connections), i have a cable V+ box and i am looking to buy a blu ray player and a surround sound system made up of seperates.
In basic terms how do i connect these items up to get the best hd viewing and sound experience?
Thanks for looking.

[davepuma]

I answered some of this in your other post HERE

What is your budget? Without that it is hard to answer.

The V+ can output Dolby Digital 5.1 over either HDMI or optical.

Bluray can output Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio over HDMI (and the lesser lossy formats e.g. standard DTS and Dolby Digital over optical and digi-coax connections).

A receiver with HDMI audio capability would be the way to go. The cheapest is the Onkyo 507 at £250. The Sony STR-DH800 costs £280 and is the most popular choice. Another cheap receiver with HD decoding is the Yamaha RX-V465. These three do not have any video features such as upconversion or upscaling. Then you're looking at the likes of Denon's 1610 that offers video conversion (upconversion), which is handy if you have any non HDMI sources. The Denon will convert these to HDMI resulting in a single HDMI cable to the TV. The Yamaha RX-V565 also offers this feature.

HDMI audio capable receiver(amp)

V+ ==> Receiver (via HDMI)
Bluray player ==> Receiver (via HDMI)
TV audio out ==> Receiver (via optical - optional for Freeview audio in pseudo surround sound*)
Receiver HDMI out ==> TV (via HDMI for passing video from V+ and Bluray player)

HDMI switching capable (passthrough) receiver(amp) - no HDMI audio capability

V+ ==> Receiver (via HDMI for video AND optical for audio)
Bluray player ==> Receiver (via HDMI via video AND either optical or digi-coax for audio)
Receiver HDMI out ==> TV (via HDMI for passthrough of HDMI video and audio to TV. Audio is untouched)
TV audio out ==> Receiver (via optical - optional for Freeview audio in pseudo surround sound*)

If the amp has no HDMI inputs at all, the HDMI connections would go direct to the TV and the digital audio cables would go to the receiver(amp).