Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HT Hook Up: Digital Cable Box/DVD/TV/Yammi 1400

I'm new to this Home Theater thingy and I need help determining the best hook up for my modest system. My newest piece of equipment has all the connections I need (RX V1400), where as my TV is the oldest.
The ins and outs are as follows:
Digital Cable Box (Time Warner)-
Video Out:Component & S-Vid; Audio Out: Optical & RCA

DVD
Video Out: S-Vid & RCA; Audio Out: Optical & RCA

TV
Video In: S-Vid & RCA; Audio In: RCA

I guess my question is which Video do I hook to the TV, the Digital Cable Box or the DVD? I'm not even sure that's the right question. Any help would be appreciated. By the way, speakers are Axiom M60, Axiom QS-8, NHT Center, EP350 Sub.

Well, you've got it pretty easy. Hook the DVD and Cable box into the reciever using S-vid and optical. Hook the TV to the reciever using S-video. The big question comes with the TV audio in. The way that I've done this is to run the TV audio off of the tape out. Others may have a more elegant way to do it. The downside to this is that the receiver will have to be on any time you want to watch TV. If your TV has S-video switching, then you may be able to do something else, but mine doesn't, so that's the experience I'm working off of.

I guess that sounds simple enough. Thanks K.
However, I'm not clear on why I would need to connect audio into the TV if I'm not using the TV speakers. I don't mind having the receiver on when watching TV.

Oh. You don't. I just prefer to use the TV speakers for TV, because it sounds so crappy going over 2.1. Apparently, the crappy sound cancels with the crappy speakers.

In that case, all you'd need is S-vid&optical from cable box to receiver, S-vid and optical from the DVD to receiver, and S-vid to TV.

Cool. I will give it a go this weekend when everything gets "hooked up"
Thanks for the advice k.

I also have Time Warner and am pretty familiar with their cable boxes. Maybe your area is different but none of my digital boxes or HD boxes have had a digital optical out. They are always digital coax. Just wanted you to make sure before you buy the cables you need.

You are right! I was posting from memory and just looked at the back of the box. It does have digital audio out. Looks like a RCA connection. What type of cable do I use with that? Is it a coax digital with a RCA connector?

Yes Pete, you use a regular 75 ohm coaxial cable with an RCA plug on each end.

Yup. A composite video cable will also work for this (it's the same as a digital audio cable). Note, I'm just talking about the audio here.

Okay, I think I've got it.

One more question though, there's only one digital audio out on the back of the cable box and the 1400 only has 3 coax digital inputs; one for CD, one for DVD, and one for DVR/VCR2. Would I be able to use either of those for the cable box? The only digital input I see for Cable/Sat is an Optical connection.

The receiver does have an input labled Cable/Sat with L R RCAs for audio and an RCA for Video. Would these be analog connections?