Basic hookup question

Ken1222

Hello - Forgive the questions I am a novice and need help. I have a digital cable box with Digital audio and L/R audio (RCA jack) outputs. I also have a Onkyo TX-SR600 Receiver, Polk RM6700 Speakers, Polk PSW404 Subwoofer, DVD player is TBD, TV is 6 yr old Toshiba with one s-video input.

1. What is the sound difference between RF cable, digital audio, and the RCA jack audio outputs on my box?

2. Where do I send the cable digital audio to, if my DVD player digital audio out is connected to the only dig input on the TSXR600?

3. Should I get a DVD with optical audio out?

4. If I connect cable and DVD s-video outputs to my TSXR600, does the receiver have to be on for me to watch TV? Should the s-videos go to a switch and then to the s-video input on my TV?

Thanks!

Ken

19ram98

1. The digital audio cable would allow you to play your xbox games in 5.1 Dolby Digital (Highest quality). RCA jacks would allow for Dolby Pro Logic II or DTS NEO:6 audio playback.
2. From the looks of it the SR600 has two digital optical inputs and one digital coaxial input. If both the cable box and the dvd player only offer digital coaxial outputs, then you will most likely need a new dvd plaer w/optical output if you want to use a separate dvd player. You could buy the $20 remote for your xbox and us it as a dvd player and move the other player to another room. 4. Yes the receiver will have to be on if you let it do the s-video switching for you. If you are worried about having to push too many buttons just to watch tv, program in a couple of macros, one to turn the tv,receiver on, and another to turn them off.

TonyPTX

Originally posted by Ken1222
Hello - Forgive the questions I am a novice and need help.

I have a digital cable box with Digital audio and L/R audio (RCA jack) outputs. I also have a Onkyo TX-SR600 Receiver, Polk RM6700 Speakers, Polk PSW404 Subwoofer, DVD player is TBD, TV is 6 yr old Toshiba with one s-video input.

Nice setup, sounds almost exactly like mine except for the DVD player and the TV (which only has one S-Video input as well).

1. What is the sound difference between RF cable, digital audio, and the RCA jack audio outputs on my box?

As far as sound quality, digital audio is best followed by RCA audio (analog), and finally the RF cable. Many people may argue that the analog signal sounds better than the digital signal, but it's a matter of personal tastes and the distance that you have to run between equipment (6 feet or less, use the coax digital line, 6 feet or more use the optical line).

The other difference between the different transport methods is the amount of information that can be carred on each line. Digital is capable of carrying the signal for all speakers (5.1, 6.1, 7.1, etc), analog can only carry one signal for each RCA jack (front L/R, rear L/R, center, & sub), and the RF cable, that probably can only carry stereo L/R at best. The connection choice should really be decided on how many inputs your receiver has and how many interconnects you're willing to purchase and deal with behind your system (can get expensive when considering RCA analog and premium quality cables).

2. Where do I send the cable digital audio to, if my DVD player digital audio out is connected to the only dig input on the TSXR600?

The Onk TX-SR600 has 3 optical digital inputs (two in rear and one in front), 1 coax digital input (rear), and 1 optical digital output (rear). See the pic below.

3. Should I get a DVD with optical audio out?

Get a DVD player that has at a min. one digital optical out. It would be nice to get one that has both optical and coax digital out. Even better if it has both optical, coax, and RCA analog out. If you're going to get a DVD player, you may want to get a player that is capable of DVD-Audio and/or SuperCD formats. If that's the case then it WILL have RCA analog out along with some type of digital out. Personally for a faily decent buget DVD player that has most of these features, the Toshiba SD-4800 would be nice but I'm only speaking from experience here with my SD-4700 model from last year.

4. If I connect cable and DVD s-video outputs to my TSXR600, does the receiver have to be on for me to watch TV? Should the s-videos go to a switch and then to the s-video input on my TV?

If you route everything to your receiver, then YES the receiver has to be one for you to watch TV. Run one S-Video from the back of the TV to the S-Video "Monitor Out" on the back of the SR600. If you don't want to route the signal directly to the receiver because you don't want to have to turn it on to watch TV, you'll have to get creative with S-Video Y spliters (if they exist) or some sort of S-Video switch that they sell. Split the signal and send one to the TV and the other to the receiver.

Thanks!

No problem. Glad I could help.

Ken1222

Thank you TonyPTX and 19ram98....good info!!!

HBombToo

The point I think trying to be made is... which DAC do you prefer.

An example of what I'm getting at is for instance a dvd player. If you use the dig out of the dvd player then your not applying the internal dac of the dvd player. Which dac is better depends on many factors.

HBomb

TonyPTX

Addendum:

Also, the SR600 can not switch between monitor video outputs between Component, S-Video, and Composite. If the signal comes to the receiver as S-Video, then the receiver can only send the signal out via the S-Video Monitor Out and vise-versa for the the other signals. So if your VCR doesn't have S-Video out then you'll either have to use the component video out or the RF cable and switch your TV from Video 1 to Video 2 (or whatever) or to Channel 3/4 to watch the signal from the receiver. That would also mean that you have a Composite Video or RG-6 Coax line running to the TV as well.

xelli

Originally posted by TonyPTX
So if your VCR doesn't have S-Video out then you'll either have to use the component video out or the RF cable and switch your TV from Video 1 to Video 2 (or whatever) or to Channel 3/4 to watch the signal from the receiver. That would also mean that you have a Composite Video or RG-6 Coax line running to the TV as well. [/B]

You could also use a Composite to S-Video converter on your VCR. This little gem from Camelot is only $25.

http://tinyurl.com/45fr

Ken1222

Thanks again all!