TheFoothillsForum

HELP!!!! Is anyone good at setting up a home theatre system? I bought a new TV and need to get all my "stuff" set up correctly into the sound system. Or, if you know of anyone that could help me out, I'd surely appreciate it.

You may not need as much help as you think. On Monday we set up a new LG 60 inch TV along with an LG 5.1 sound system with Blu-ray player.

Between the manual, the DVD that came with it, and the ability to Google any specific question, I'm sure you can do this. Especially the Google part. Search for your model number(s) and you should find a bunch of helpful hints and tips.

Good luck!

60" LG. Exactly what I bought at Fry's last week. Sharp Home Theatre is about 5 years old. Ideally all I needed to do was to put in an optical audio cable, but the old HT system does not have a port for this.

Seems to me that everything should be backwards compatible though. So in other words, can you connect the TV using the older technology that is on the HT system? (Whatever that may be, RCA cables, HDMI, whatever).

Or, is there conversion or transition cables/devices out there that have old technology couplings on one end and newer on the other? Obviously you can't mix optical with anything else, but surely you haven't just made your old system obsolete.

Just thinking out loud here...........

You could always think out loud at my house and give me a hand.

Sunrider, I'm not understanding your question. By home theater, do you mean a 5.1 or 7.1 Dolby audio system? If you have one of those, it MUST have a way to put digital audio into it (or is it just for the built-in DVD or receiver?).

What is the source of the audio you want to put through the home theater?

This is why I was looking for someone to come help me out. This was all hooked up before with my old set. I had my step son over to help me hook this all up. He had to leave and didn't finish. What I want to do is have the TV, DVD and VHS players having the option of running through the sound system. I believe it's 5.1. I was told I could hook up ONE SDMI cable. That didn't work because the Home Theatre does not have a port, that I can see, for this cable. So, I'm assuming that I need to run the sound cable from each device. It's just overwhelming!

I'm no expert but, if the TV has audio-out (RCA) jacks, why can't you just plug those into the home theater?

That's why I mentioned this earlier. I believe the color code for RCA plugs is audio is the red and white plugs, video is the yellow.

However, that means the audio is actually coming from the TV and that's not how my HT works at all. My audio goes from the cable box directly to the HT receiver without going to/through the TV at all,

LOL! Were I not three time zones away, I'd be glad to!

A few tidbits of info needed in order to help.

What is the name brand and model of your surround sound
TV Brand model
other devices you are hooking up.

It may be as easy as hooking up an hdmi, optical, digital, component, or composite from the tv to the system. or from each.

The easiest is if the tv has a digital optical out and the surround sound has the optical in. then anything you have connected to the tv, will run out to the surround sound. one optical cable and your done.

Yes. That would have been the easiest. I picked up the optical cable at Radio Shack. It fits into the TV, but not into the sound system. I even took pictures of the back of each componet back up to radio Shack and they guy there just kind of gave me a blank stare. I'm going to put on the ole thinking cap tonight and give it a go. We're having friends over to watch Super 8 so I'm hoping to get it done by then. Thanks all for the input.

Well, the only thing I can suggest is online help:

http://www.geeksquad.com/services/tv-vi ... setup.aspx

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/30805 ... er-help-me

The optical cable doesn't fit in your surround sound? or no optical port?? are you sure there isn't a cap over the port, or a slider clip? strange. those optical cables are pretty standard, unless radio shack tried to give you a mini one.