hdtv + surround sound help

[emo serb]

So I just bought a HDTV and want to hook my surround sound up to it. I plug the cords into the audio out on the tv, then plug the other end into the aux in on the dvd/surround sound player. then im supposed to turn off the sound from the tv so i did that. now from what i know, everything should work. my problem is that only one speaker and the subwoofer work. i have no idea as to why the other ones arent working. another thing is that when i plug my ps3 into it with the standard cables, i dont get any sound out of it, not even when the surround sound isnt plugged in. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[TheSanityAnnex]

Sounds like you need to go into your tv's sound options and set those for surround sound.

[resistanze]

Do you have a HDTV box, either a set-top box or a PVR? I personally have an optical TOSLINK audio cable running from my HDPVR to my receiver. I'm not sure if you can get real surround sound without a digital audio cable (TOSLINK or coaxial), but I could be wrong.

[emo serb]

Do you have a HDTV box, either a set-top box or a PVR? I personally have an optical TOSLINK audio cable running from my HDPVR to my receiver. I'm not sure if you can get real surround sound without a digital audio cable (TOSLINK or coaxial), but I could be wrong.
you lost me, im pretty new to the hd stuff. i just have the hdtv and surround sound, nothing else. the only channels i get in hd are the local channels. so i dont have a box on top of it.

[TheSanityAnnex]

Even if the channel isn't broadcast in surround, you should still be able to have the receiver produce it. I have a setting on my surround sound that allows me to just pick the tv surround setting. The easiest thing I found was just going with HDMI. Made installation much easier and allowed me to run surround with TV, XBox360, DVD, and MP3 all separate.

[emo serb]

Even if the channel isn't broadcast in surround, you should still be able to have the receiver produce it. I have a setting on my surround sound that allows me to just pick the tv surround setting. The easiest thing I found was just going with HDMI. Made installation much easier and allowed me to run surround with TV, XBox360, DVD, and MP3 all separate.
hmm, well i ordered a hdmi cord for the ps3 to the hdtv. i have an older surround sound system, made in january of 2003, so it doesnt have an hdmi input in it. i checked the tv and there arent any settings for audio besides turning it on or off, mute-ing it, and balance. i looked in the manual and it says "speakers must be amplified using an audio receiver such as a home theater system to amplify the audio from the tv." would that have something to do with it?

[TheSanityAnnex]

You don't have a receiver? :lol

Yeah, that could be your main problem.

[emo serb]

You don't have a receiver? :lol

Yeah, that could be your main problem.
ok...care to explain? like i said im not very up to date with everything lol. i figured that if it worked for my old tv, itd work for this.

[TheSanityAnnex]

Guess not. It's really hard to help without seeing what you've got. Sounds like you need a receiver.

[emo serb]

alright, well i guess ill look into it, but uh, could you point me into the right direction for one of these things lol. thanks.

[resistanze]

:lol Oh damn, didn't know you didn't have a receiver.

Wait, do you have surround speakers (5.1/6.1/7.1)? How are you connecting them with the TV if you don't got a receiver?

[resistanze]

Your standard 5.1 receiver.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8251269&st=receiver&lp=15&type=product&cp=1&id=1169512520938

[resistanze]

you lost me, im pretty new to the hd stuff. i just have the hdtv and surround sound, nothing else. the only channels i get in hd are the local channels. so i dont have a box on top of it.
You need some kind of box to get HDTV programming, are you sure you're getting any HD channels?

[missmyzte]

Get a receiver and then get it all installed by a professional. Don't forget the calibration.

[emo serb]

alright, i have this tv http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/OLEVIA-32-LCD-HDTV-232V/sem/rpsm/oid/163702/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do.
and the dvd/surround sound system i have has a video out/audio out on the back, with an aux in for video and audio. what ive done with my old tv is plug the cord with the white/red/yellow things on it(cant think of what its called right now) into the output on the tv. then the other end of cord plugged into the aux in on the dvd player. and my ps3 plugged into the video/audio in on the tv and i had surround sound. so now with the new hdtv, i did pretty much the same exact thing, only it doesn't work. and yeah im pretty sure the local channels are in hd. like cbs for example, i put it on channel 3 and it was standard, then pushed the up button and it went to channel 3.1 and the picture was amazing, like nothing ive ever seen before. and same for abc, nbc, and wgvu. btw i think the surround sound i have is 5.1, not exactly sure but its older.

[emo serb]

oh and another big thing that gives away that the channel is in hd is the little logo on the bottom of the screen that says "HD" lol.

[King]

The 5.1 only has to do with how many speakers you're running. 5.1 is 5 speakers - 6.1 is 6 speakers, etc.

[King]

Also, make sure that you're set to the aux channel that you're plugged into. For example, if you're plugged into aux 1, and playing on aux 2 - it's going to be reading an empty plug, and you're not going to hear audio.

You should have more than one input on your receiver, so maybe it's set to read the wrong one.

[2Blonde]

So if I am understanding tis correctly, you are using your DVD/surround system as your receiver?

[PM5K]

Just an FYI, you can't get true surround sound with the plugs you've described, you were listening to stereo. You need some type of digital audio connection to get true surround sound as resistanze mentioned, which is six independant channels if for example you have a 5.1 system (front left, front right, rear left, rear right, center, lfe)...

Are you using an antenna to receive your HDTV, that's certainly what it sounds like.

If I had to guess I'd say your tv is sending stereo to your receiver and it doesn't know what to do with it, usually you'll have different settings on the receiver that will send the stereo signal to all of the speakers, or at least more than just one and the sub, depends on your make and model of receiver...

[emo serb]

Just an FYI, you can't get true surround sound with the plugs you've described, you were listening to stereo. You need some type of digital audio connection to get true surround sound as resistanze mentioned, which is six independant channels if for example you have a 5.1 system (front left, front right, rear left, rear right, center, lfe)...

Are you using an antenna to receive your HDTV, that's certainly what it sounds like.

If I had to guess I'd say your tv is sending stereo to your receiver and it doesn't know what to do with it, usually you'll have different settings on the receiver that will send the stereo signal to all of the speakers, or at least more than just one and the sub, depends on your make and model of receiver...
I do have a 5.1 system, I am not using an antenna for the hd. I just simply plugged in my cable and the tv scanned it and now i have like 10 more channels that i didn't have before, including 5 hd channels. i thought that was weird because it says im supposed to buy an antenna to pickup the local station, but i dont. i guess ill just mess around with the cords and stuff and see what i can get. how much would one of these recievers cost? the one mentioned earlier is 300 i think, and i really dont want to pay that after just buying a tv and ps3 lol. thanks for the help though.

[PM5K]

Which 5.1 system do you have?

Ideally you'd connect either a TOSLINK or Coaxial cable from your TV to your 5.1 receiver for true surround, but for whatever reason your TV doesn't seem to have any digital audio outputs, at least from what I've read, you could certainly double check and let us know.

Another route you could go would be with a set top box from Time Warner, you'd run the digial audio out from the converter to your 5.1.

Otherwise you can keep using the stereo connection and as I mentioned before you have to go through the settings on your 5.1 system, it will usually have settings where it will send a stereo signal to all of the speakers, not true 5.1 surround sound, but certainly better than two speakers...

[blizz]

his tv has a built in hd tuner...therefore, no box. is there any way you can tell us the makes and models of every component you have? that would help a lot. then i could even draw out what you need to do. i have an hd box from twc...so i go component video to my tv....then optical cable to my rec. my dvd player goes HDMI to DVI on my tv, then optical to my rec. everything works perfectly.

[emo serb]

thanks for all the help guys. i just got back from work but ill try to get some pictures up of what im working with and stuff in a little bit.

[emo serb]

Alright as I've already stated, I got this TV. (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/OLEVIA-32-LCD-HDTV-232V/sem/rpsm/oid/163702/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do)
http://www.circuitcity.com/IMAGE/product/enlarged/olv/EC.OLV.232V.BK.JPG
thats one part, and here's the other part
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/SwLLwS36/Picture008-2.jpg

Then I looked for my dvd player/reciever online and could not find much on it, its made by RCA and the model is HTS-1000. Here is the back to it:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/SwLLwS36/Picture014.jpg

so what I've done is put the white and red parts of the cord into the output on the second picture, and put the other end of the cord into the av in on the last picture. doing this i get 1 speaker and subwoofer to work. And when I would plug the ps3 in with just the basic cable, i didnt get any sound at all.

[PM5K]

I'm sure you've checked but maybe there's a problem with the connection to the speaker, there isn't any situation where only two speakers work with one of them being the sub, it should at least be the front left and right speakers, or both and the sub, so maybe one of the front speakers isn't connected right or is damaged, you could try swapping the one that works with the one that doesn't...

[blizz]

I think what you need to do is get a cheap upconvert dvd player...and a cheap receiver/amplifier. what you have now is one of those all in one home theater systems....dvd player/rec in one but it's not a rec. that system does not do DTS decoding so....hate to tell you but it kinda sucks. the manual for that rca doesn't even give intructions on how to get the audio to the unit for it to be played through the speakers that are connected to it. what i think you need to do is....from the tv audio OUT connectors, go to the audio IN on the rca and you should be good. the sound will not be as good as it could be, but you're stuck with what you have at this point. if you're budget conscious...have a look at these two items...they'll work MUCH better than what you have now.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Toshiba-Upconversion-DVD-Player-SD-5000/sem/rpsm/oid/176419/catOid/-12873/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-5-1-Channel-Receiver-STR-DG510/sem/rpsm/oid/176878/catOid/-12949/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

[blizz]

Oh and here's the manual for your RCA

http://support.radioshack.com/support_audio/doc69/69236.pdf

[nsrammstein]

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/8821/failmk9.jpg

[emo serb]

I think what you need to do is get a cheap upconvert dvd player...and a cheap receiver/amplifier. what you have now is one of those all in one home theater systems....dvd player/rec in one but it's not a rec. that system does not do DTS decoding so....hate to tell you but it kinda sucks. the manual for that rca doesn't even give intructions on how to get the audio to the unit for it to be played through the speakers that are connected to it. what i think you need to do is....from the tv audio OUT connectors, go to the audio IN on the rca and you should be good. the sound will not be as good as it could be, but you're stuck with what you have at this point. if you're budget conscious...have a look at these two items...they'll work MUCH better than what you have now.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Toshiba-Upconversion-DVD-Player-SD-5000/sem/rpsm/oid/176419/catOid/-12873/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-5-1-Channel-Receiver-STR-DG510/sem/rpsm/oid/176878/catOid/-12949/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
hey thanks, ill look into the first one. but for something like that, would it go from the tv, to the Toshiba 1080i Upconversion DVD Player, to my rca dvd/receiver, and then the surround sound should work right?

[blizz]

i wouldn't get just the player...you'll be in the same boat. the video quality would be better, but you wouldn't be any better off with the sound. that's the problem when you buy those all in one units.

[emo serb]

i wouldn't get just the player...you'll be in the same boat. the video quality would be better, but you wouldn't be any better off with the sound. that's the problem when you buy those all in one units.
hmm well i dont really need the player, i have a ps3 which should do the job. i just want sound. but from what i understand, is that i need to buy some thing thats about 300 dollars just to have surround sound. btw i did check my speakers and that they all work which they do.
edit: alright, after a quick look around, i found this, (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sherwood-Surround-Sound-Receiver-RD-6500/sem/rpsm/oid/108452/catOid/-12949/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do) would this do the same job as the one you showed me for 300?

[blizz]

eh...it'll get you sound...but you want something that does dts...and since you have a PS3...then no you don't need a player. this one is much better for just a $40 more.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-5-1-Channel-Receiver-STR-DG510/sem/rpsm/oid/176878/catOid/-12949/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

[emo serb]

alright, thanks again. i guess ill just stick with the standard sound for now until i can afford that lol.

[lbwats]

alright, thanks again. i guess ill just stick with the standard sound for now until i can afford that lol.


You need a new receiver. I have that same rca dvd/receiver. You can only produce 5.1 surround by playing a dvd. Everything else will give you 2.1 sound (left, right, and subwoofer, i believe). I happen to be looking online to see if there are any "tweaks" and ran across your problem. I'm shopping for a new receiver myself. good luck

[lbwats]

to hear sound from your ps3, you may have to change your settings on the ps3 from 5.1 to stereo (2.1 or something). i don't know i don't have a ps3.

[BacktoBasics]

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/8821/failmk9.jpgI'm not entirely sure why but that made me laugh out loud almost uncontrolably.

[emo serb]

nevermind.

[emo serb]

.

[emo serb]

/