Help please with connecting TV, V+ and Blu Ray to receiver for surround sound

garyboy

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Hi Guys,
Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong thread.

A newbie here and one who is not particularly clever when it comes to surround sound. I have searched your threads for an answer to my query but am still unsure about the best way to wire up my system so that I can get the benefits of surround sound from my V+ box and Blu-Ray player through my receiver.

A bit of background.
 
I have moved into a new house and was left 5 Shark gold-plated coax cables hanging from where their TV used to be (no scarts or hdmi's - I don't think they used hdmi cables). They left me their Yamaha HTR-5640RDS reciever which was connected to 7 speakers in the ceiling. 5 in the living room and 2 in the dining room.

I have purchased an LG 50PK590 TV and have a V+ box. I am about to purchase a Blu-Ray player but want to ensure I get one that has the correct digital output (coax or optical) dependent on my limitations before I buy one.

Anyway, I can connect my Virgin V+ and Blu Ray to the TV via HDMI but want to ensure I get the correct wiring for sound.

My TV doesn't have the digital coax out port (few do nowadays according to Currys).
I have an optical digital output port on my LG 50PK590 TV. Hooking up the Virgin Box (the V+ box has a scart if that helps any) and a Blu Ray player via HDMI is fine but I thought I would need an optical Digital cable to go from the TV to the receiver so I can get surround sound for both my cable and blu ray.

The Yamaha HTR-5640RDS receiver does not have any HDMI ports. It has one optical input (says DVD next to it but assume anything can be used in this port) and one coax input.

I thought we could just have the optical input cable running from the TV to the receiver but on many of the forums they say not to do this as you will only get sound in stereo this way as it downmixes the dolby 5.1 signal to 2.0 and sends that to the receiver.
They all recommend running the sound from blu-ray to receiver and cable to receiver to get proper surround sound.

I think the only way I am going to manage this is to have the following -
HDMI from cable to TV
HDMI from blu ray to TV
optical digital audio from cable to receiver (no coax port in V+ box)
buy a blu-ray player with a digital coax out port (as the receiver only has 1 optical port which will have to be used by the V+ box)

Is this the only solution for me to get the benefits of surround sound from my V+ and Blu-Ray? Could the scart in the V+ help with the sound in any way? I take it the optical audio from TV to receiver is not enough to get the full benefit.

Thanks in advance,
Gary.
 
Pretty much everything you've said is spot on. Optical for the V+ box and Digital Coaxial for Blu-ray is going to be your best option, to ensure 5.1 audio gets fed (when available) to the receiver.

The scart connection on the V+ box will provide a stereo analogue audio output. There is no advantage in using this if you can connect the V+ box direct to the receiver with an optical cable.

As you said yourself, most TVs will only pass through stereo sound via the optical connection. The few TVs that can through 5.1 audio is limited to doing this for Dolby Digital encoded signals. Most Blu-rays these days however use DTS.
 
Thanks ever so much StevieBuck.

I have another query about the set-up, again please let me know if I should put this in a separate thread in another forum.

I have 7 speakers and a Yamaha HTR-5640RDS receiver.
I have 5 in my living room (front right, front centre, left centre, rear left and rear right) and 2 in my dining room.

I think I can get some benefits of surround sound with the 5 in my living room, but would like to switch to play music
in both my living room and dining room at the same time, or maybe just even the 2 speakers in my dining room.
If I connect my 2 in the dining room to my Main B speaker terminals will I be able to switch to these to listen to music
in my dining room and ensure these don't get used when using my surround sound is in use in the living room?

Basically, is it possible to have surround sound in my 5 in the living room but switch to listen to music in the dining room (not at the same time) or even listen to music in both my living room/dining room. I assume that is what the A/B switch is used for but the manual is not clear (maybe just not clear to me)
 
The A/B switch changes where the audio for the front left & right channels go to, but I'm not sure if it also disables sound to the rest of the speakers in the system. If it didn't I suppose you could set the receiver to 2 channel mode, which means it only gives sound out the front left/right speakers. That would ensure no sound comes out the speakers in the living room when you set it to 'B' and want sound in the dining room only.
 
Thanks StevieBuck. I have connected it all and it works fine. Thanks for your help.
 

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