Home theatre setup issues - Please help!
 

Hey ppls...

Scored myself a Sanyo DC-HT818 surround sound system which I'm trying to hook up to my 32" D series Sony Bravia TV. The speaker outputs are the basic stuff, just sprung clips which receive the speaker wire ends. Always did get confused with what is input & what is output, but so far all I've managed to get happening is sub with 2 front speakers on DVD mode (along with faint audio on centre & rears, all connected).

What I'm aiming to do is get the whole 5.1 happening in full blow on both DVD and TV without too much fuss and remote juggling.... don't mind having to buy a few cables etc. HDMI x 2 between the receiver & TV is the best answer I can get from Google, is this the way to go? Is there a better way? Don't have the $$$ right now for a big spend :( just wanna get this system up & running for a 1st timer. Not looking for high end an$wer$, just a working solution.

Can post up a pic of the rear/side ports of the TV & DVD receiver units if need be. If it helps, the TV is about 5 years old and the sound setup is about 3.

Appreciate any knowledgeable advice :D.

Super duper hard to diagnose over Internet. Pics may help. But I'll start by suggesting you put a good quality DVD (no Bali shit) on and find a button on the remote that says or implies "sound" work through a few settings see if any thing changes.

if the tv is 5 years old it may not even have hdmi...

[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/429654/Rear%20Bravia%20Panel.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/429654/Rear%20Sound.DVD%20Unit%20Panel.JPG[/IMG]

@ steve-lang... Pics added as suggested, DVD/control unit is a Sanyo ADM. Not a Bali POS.

@ teejay... The Bravia is a D series, mid range for its time, pics show HDMI two ports, but prob only 1.3.....

Hey TJ. I used to sell those years ago. Great TV for the time, one of the first 100hz TV's. D series Sony's definitely have HDMI unfortunately I don't think they have optical audio output for sound. Is there a stereo audio output port? Does your Sanyo have a stereo input (red & white plugs marked input or audio in) ? If so you could get a 3.5mm jack to stereo plug cable and connect the headphone socket on the TV to the system. This will mute the TV's speakers probably tho. For watching DVD's all you will need is a HDMI cable. That will pipe the pic to the TV. If all the speaker cables are connected you should get surround automatically on a 5.1 DVD. If your not there should be a button on the remote to change tha audio presets. Try changing the sound field. If you still have no joy come see me at The good Guys in Ozzy Park. Ben.

Ok your TV has optical but your stereo doesn't. The red and white plugs on the far right are your stereo audio out connection. Please tell me you didn't pay actual $ for that Sanyo..

[QUOTE=Duffman;755668]Ok your TV has optical but your stereo doesn't. The red and white plugs on the far right are your stereo audio out connection. Please tell me you didn't pay actual $ for that Sanyo..[/QUOTE]Nah dude, it was a freebie... but like I said, considering the circumstances, I don't mind forking out a few bucks for cables/mods/converters... just need to know what to get for this system to be up & running in all its glory.

From the looks of it the DVD/sound has no 5.1 input so only DVDs will be in 5.1 sound.
Now you have to remember rear speakers will not have sound all the time ONLY when there is a surround effect.
Check in your settings if there is a test tone to check the speakers are wires up and outputting sound correctly.

There is a Dolby test disk available as a torrent download. It's got all the test tones, 5.1 speaker setup tones, various 5.1 designated audio to test a HT setup.

Be careful with the low frequency sweeps as they go very low (10Hz) and can kill an average smaller diameter driver (speaker).

From the above images I'd suggest you'll only get 5.1 from a DVD playback and perhaps a 5.1 recreation from stereo input assuming the audio stream is encoded correctly.

[QUOTE=GTB Liberty;755686]There is a Dolby test disk available as a torrent download. It's got all the test tones, 5.1 speaker setup tones, various 5.1 designated audio to test a HT setup.

Be careful with the low frequency sweeps as they go very low (10Hz) and can kill an average smaller diameter driver (speaker).

From the above images I'd suggest you'll only get 5.1 from a DVD playback and perhaps a 5.1 recreation from stereo input assuming the audio stream is encoded correctly.[/QUOTE]Dolby test disk d/l as I speak, thanks for the info...

I don't care too much about the lack of 5.1 except for DVDs that comply, it's all good - I realise this system aint exactly high end... but is there any way I can at least have 2.1 with the extra stereo signal hitting the rear speakers for normal TV without having to change heaps of settings? (Don't matter about the centre). The manual which came with the HT isn't too clear on this.

On the point of cables or whatever, is there anything I still need to get?

Cheers.