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Home theater wiring Since virtually every single home theater ever set up has different audio/video components as part of the entire system, you might want to check out the support page for links to hookup diagrams, tech support, and home theater installation services, especially if you are not 100% sure about the exact types of cables you need to buy or how to properly hook up the entire home entertainment system.
For the best possible performance from your entire home theater, connect each of your A/V components, HD TV or projector, and speakers & subwoofer with decent quality yet affordable cables, always with the mantra of "digital trumps analog". Notice it doesn't say that you should purchase the most expensive home theater cables, but please don't allow inadequate cables or an "inferior" analog connection be the weakest part of the signal chain.
HDMI cable The best quality and simplest digital A/V interface found on today's home theater receivers, Blu-ray Disc players, HDTV tuners/DVRs, video game consoles, high definition televisions, and home theater projectors is HDMI, which stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. Because HDMI cable can carry both uncompressed 7.1 channel digital audio and Full HD 1080p digital video through a single A/V cable, you'll enjoy having less cable clutter to deal with compared to any other type of connection.
If both your home theater receiver and HD TV / projector feature HDMI connectivity, you should definitely connect them to each other using an HDMI cable. Likewise, A/V source components with HDMI output should definitely be connected to the home theater receiver's HDMI inputs using HDMI cables.
Ethernet cable Blu-ray Disc players with BD-Live and Internet streaming audio/video capabilities (and Internet-ready HD TVs) also need to be connected to the network using Ethernet cable to experience all the "extra" online entertainment possibilities, unless you will be using a Wi-Fi wireless connection.
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System w/ HDMI OUTPUT only? If you'll be setting up a Blu-ray home theater system which LACKS HDMI INPUTS and A/V switching, you will need to rely on the audio/video switching and processing capabilities of your HD TV. You'll need to connect each of your A/V source components to the inputs on your HD television and also run a digital audio cable from the output on the back of the TV to a digital audio input on the back of the Blu-ray/DVD receiver.
Component video cable No HDMI? The minimum type of video connection cable that can be used to transmit HD video is the red/green/blue component video cable. Because component video cable can only carry a high definition video signal, you will need to separately run digital audio cables from your AV sources.
Digital audio cable There are two main types of digital audio interfaces and cables used on today's home theater gear - optical (more common) and coaxial.
Speaker cable For 5.1 and 7.1 channel home theater systems, you will need to run speaker wire from the back of the A/V receiver to each of five to seven surround sound speakers, plus a separate subwoofer cable from the sub pre-out on your A/V receiver to your powered subwoofer. If you plan of hiding any speaker wires inside the walls, ceiling, or floor, you should go with in-wall speaker wire. (If you're setting up a system w/ two "wireless" rear surround speakers, you won't need to worry about wire for the rear surrounds.)
You may need to buy 100 feet or more of speaker cable, depending upon the size of your home theater room. Don't forget to calculate for going around any corners in your room or audio video furniture, and also be sure to leave enough slack in all wires for easier access to the back side of your surround sound receiver in the future as you add new A/V sources to, or upgrade the source components of, your home theater.
Surge protector Never plug the electrical power cords of your audio video equipment directly into an outlet! You should always run AC power, as well as any incoming cable, satellite, outdoor antenna, and phone lines through a home theater surge protector with enough outlets to protect your entire home theater system. |
