Looks complicated doesn’t it? Nowadays home theater systems are getting cheaper and more affordable and I still can’t find a decent guide about installing, setting up and basics of these home theaters. Then I realized there are not a lot of good guides because there are hundreds of home theater variations and so I created this guide. This is a very basic guide for home theaters. It won’t deal with how DTS works or how HDMI works. I won’t bother with very technical details because technology changes but the basic fundamentals do not. This guide just tells you how to connect the devices, the two types of experience you get from a home theater and to understand what __ IN / __ OUT jacks are so that you can use the system without paying for the expensive installation cost.
A. Before setting up, try to read a little about these topics:
1. RCA Cables
2. HDTV
3. Component Cables
4. Digital Theater System
5. Surround Sound
6. TOS-LINK Cables
7. TRS Connector
A. Understanding the common setup for Home Theater Systems
Before starting the setup you need to understand that in a home theater there are only two things you can experience, the audio experience and the video experience each of which gets data from a source, and so by putting this in mind it will be easier for you to understand how to create basic setups and troubleshoot problems.
Video Experience Devices:
– Television / HD Televisions
– Projectors
– Computer Monitors
Audio Experience Devices:
– Amplifiers
– Speakers
– Subwoofers
Possible Sources:
– DVD Players / Blu-ray Players / VCD Players
– Xbox 360
– PSP / PS3 / PS2
– Digital Camcorders
– Digital Cameras
– Personal Computers
– Cable TV
How do these devices work together/communicate?
After knowing these, the next thing to understand would be to learn how these devices communicate with each other. These devices communicate using IN/OUT jacks. No matter how complex the jack may look like (RCA,TOSLINK,DVI,HDMI) or how many there are (RED,WHITE) they only can only do one action. IN jacks receive data/video/audio signals from other devices while OUT jacks send data/video/audio signals to another device. Like the principle of north and south poles of a magnet they need to bind together.
Now that you have read about the basics on the next page I will be showing some examples and jack scenarios on basic Audio and Video Experience connections for home theaters. Don’t like HTPC? I will also include a scenario wherein your PC will be used as a source. ^_^
On to Page 2!
Examples:
* To better understand the stuff mentioned above, I made some examples to show some scenarios of the devices working together with their connections and I also placed possible breakdowns on jack types that might be used on a connection.
[ Video from a DVD Player ]
*Source DVD Disc* –> [ DVD Player ](VIDEO OUT) –> (VIDEO IN)[ TV ] –> *Video Experience*
Sample breakdown of possible jacks to be used in this scenario:
For (VIDEO OUT) –> (VIDEO IN) connection
Jack Type: RCA
(VIDEO OUT)-(YELLOW JACK) –> (YELLOW JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
Jack Type: Component
(VIDEO OUT)-(RED JACK) –> (RED JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
(VIDEO OUT)-(GREEN JACK) –> (GREEN JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
(VIDEO OUT)-(BLUE JACK) –> (BLUE JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
* As you can see, the jacks will be color coded, less work for us! ^_^ It is also the same for the audio connection in this setup just follow the labels on the jacks.
Jack Type: S-Video to Component
(VIDEO OUT)-(S-VIDEO JACK) –> (RED JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
–> (GREEN JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
–> (BLUE JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
* Some jacks such as S-Video have split wires that convert into component cables yet still, the basic thing is that they still send signals to the TV in this scenario.
[ Improving sound by transferring cable television or dvd player audio to an amplifier ]
*Source Cable TV* –> [ TV or DVD PLAYER ](AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN)[ Amplifier ](AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN)[ Speaker ] –> *Audio Experience*
Sample breakdown of possible jacks to be used in this scenario:
For (AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN) connection for TV to Amplifier:
Jack Type: RCA
(AUDIO OUT)-(RED JACK) –> (RED JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
(AUDIO OUT)-(WHITE JACK) –> (WHITE JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
For (AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN) connection for Amplifier to Speaker:
Jack Type: Copper Wire through Speaker Wire Terminals
(AUDIO OUT)-(RED CONNECTOR) –> (RED CONNECTOR)-(AUDIO IN)
(AUDIO OUT)-(BLACK CONNECTOR) –> (BLACK CONNECTOR)-(AUDIO IN)
Jack Type: TOSLINK
(AUDIO OUT)-(TOSLINK JACK) –> (TOSLINK JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
A note on Surround Sound:
To know how to setup the speakers refer to the link above in wikipedia and also a here’s a simple tip, to calculate how many pieces of copper wire you will be needing when using terminals, just multiply the number of speakers and subwoofers by 2, e.g. 5.1, 5×2 + 1×2 = 12 pieces of copper wire. This is a useful tip especially when your planning to add more speakers in the future and only want to do the renovation in the roof only once. This way you can just position the terminals in the walls with the help of a carpenter for use next time.
[ Plugging in your PC to your amplifier and TV or HDTV ]
* I would recommend using HDTV instead of a normal TV because of the limitation of some video cards. Most video cards on computers only have a VGA Connector or a DVI connector.
*Source Blu-ray Disc* –> [ PC ](AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN)[ Amplifier ](AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN)[ Speaker ] –> *Audio Experience*
and
*Source Blu-ray Disc* –> [ PC ](VIDEO OUT) –> (VIDEO IN)[ HDTV ] –> *Video Experience*
Sample breakdown of possible jacks to be used in this scenario:
For (AUDIO OUT) –> (AUDIO IN) connection for PC to Amplifier:
Jack Type: TRS Connector/Jack
(AUDIO OUT)-(TRS JACK) –> (TRS JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
(AUDIO OUT)-(TRS JACK) –> (TRS TO RCA – RED JACK) –> (RED JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
–> (TRS TO RCA – WHITE JACK) –> (WHITE JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
* If you don’t have a TRS IN Connector in the Amplifier you can always purchase a converter. They are cheap and easy to use.
Jack Type: TOSLINK
(AUDIO OUT)-(TOSLINK JACK) –> (TOSLINK JACK)-(AUDIO IN)
For (VIDEO OUT) –> (VIDEO IN) PC to HDTV connection
* These jacks are meant to be connected to a video card and the converters are not usually built in. What most video card manufacturers do is they include the converters in the package. If the cables have a short reach you can always purchase ones that are longer in a video or a computer hardware store.
Jack Type: RCA (Converted from either VGA, DVI or S-Video Connector)
(VIDEO OUT)-(YELLOW JACK) –> (YELLOW JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
Jack Type: Component (Converted from either VGA, DVI or S-Video Connector)
(VIDEO OUT)-(RED JACK) –> (RED JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
(VIDEO OUT)-(GREEN JACK) –> (GREEN JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
(VIDEO OUT)-(BLUE JACK) –> (BLUE JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
Jack Type: HDMI (Converted from a DVI Connector)
(VIDEO OUT)-(HDMI JACK) –> (HDMI JACK)-(VIDEO IN)
* HDMI jacks send both audio and video signals to your HDTV, If you are using an amplifier you might want to set the volume of the HDTV to 0 because it might produce an echoey or delayed sound.
What I did is I connected my pc to the hdtv using an hdmi cable and I used the audio out in the tv and connected it to the audio in of the amplifier and then i connected the audio out of the amplifier using copper wires to the 5.1 speakers. I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse from a4tech. I suggest you purchase a4tech for wireless controls because I think a4tech is the only company that currently has wireless keyboard and mice that can be as far as 10 meters from the receiver.
That’s about it. The next step would be to learn how to adjust/tweak the device settings to be able to use the most out of them. I think I will right another article about this in the future. If you need to troubleshoot the device manual is the best place to start looking for a fix.