A technical HD/Blue-Ray question

[Adam West]

I thought I would start a new thread rather than add my question to the Blu-Ray thread.

I just purchased an HDTV and have my HD cable box hooked to the TV directly with an HDMI cable. The cable is feeding directly into the box and out through the HDMI.

I would like to hook up my DVD player but am not sure how to do it. It is a Sony Surround sound. So far, I have only hooked up the sound with cables feeding out of the player and into the cable box which is fine for tv. The problem I'm having is hooking up the DVD player. My player does not have an HDMI outlet and I used an S-Video connection from my player to the TV but see that my tv doesn't have S-Video but my cable box does. I tried to run the S-Video from the DVD to the box and out to the TV through the HDMI but noticed immediately that the tv viewing was looking sluggish.

Should I purchase some type of S-Video, HDMI hybrid for the DVD player and should I hook the sound directly into the tv vs. running it to through the cable box?

Maybe this problem goes away with a Blu-Ray. I still need my regular dvd for surround sound so I will need to hook the old dvd to the Blu-ray and the Blu-ray to the TV which I'm sure will both have HDMI cable capability.

I am usually pretty good with this stuff in figuring where the video or audio needs go out and the appliance it needs to feed in but I want the ability to watch and hear both DVD and television through my surround sound and am not sure the best setup. Of course, the owners manual is no help whatsoever so any advice would be appreciated.

[EMCE Hammer]

Does your DVD player have the red/blue/green jacks for video out? How about your TV - does it have a set for in? If by a HDMI/S-video hybrid you mean an adaptor cable, I don't think there's such an animal. I am pretty sure you'd have to get a powered device to go from one to the other. I may not be understanding what you're asking too:-)

[Adam West]

I'm not sure, I'll have to look.

I had an S-Video cable that I plugged directly from my dvd to my tv but I see that my new tv doesn't have an S-Video so I'm trying to figure out the best way to run the audio and video in an out if I am trying to simultaneously hook up an HDTV, a cable/DV-R box, an analog dvd player with surround sound that I want to be able to use with TV and DVD, and potentially a Blu-Ray machine which I will need to use as my upconverter since I don't think it will be compatible with my current surround sound.

[Jeff1967]

blue ray answer.

Hi,
I have a blue-ray which is sent directly to my tv with the hdmi cable. I don't have a surround sound system yet. I think that there are audio and video out on the back as well. You should be able to run your red white and yellow outs for your audio and video from the dvd player to your surround sound system. If you get a blue ray, it should be able to be plugged in the same manner. You won't be able to go from the dvd player into the blue ray player then out again, unless it is one that records. Mine doesn't have that option. With your surround sound sytem, you should be able to use both, but you would only need the blue ray player at that point. It up converts videos. It takes a little longer to load blue ray disks than it does regular dvds. But the picture quality on the blue ray disks are phenominal. Especially with a hd tv.

I hope this helps.
Jeff

[cjefferys]

I wouldn't use S-video to connect a DVD player to an HDTV if at all possible. Your TV should have component inputs (three plugs for video only) and if your DVD player has that (it should unless it's an older model) I would use that connection. Component will give you a much better picture than S-video will.

[Adam West]

Great....thanks for the help and information.

[MegoSteve]

I am not an AV expert, but maybe you're making this more complicated than it needs to be.

Your HDTV should have a bunch of different connections on the back you can use to plug in various devices... you shouldn't have to run your DVD player through anything to hook it to the TV; go direct from the DVD to the TV with whatever cable/s will work.