I have a couple questions about hooking up my Samsung HDTV with my Samsung Home Theater and my PlayStation 3..

Question

Currently, I have an HDMI cable from the HD box to the rear of the tv, an HDMI cable from the receiver out to the rear of the tv, and an optical cable from the HD box to the receiver. How would I hook up my PS3 to the system so I can get the picture in HD with the surround sound? There is 1 more HDMI port on the tv, there is only 1 optical port on the rear of the tv, and an open HDMI in port open in the rear of the receiver. The HD box has no more ports for HDMI or optical, and the receiver has only one optical port, which is currently being used from the HD box. I believe my only choice would be to connect the HDMI from the PS3 to the rear of the tv, then connect another optical cable from the PS3 to the tv. Would this setup work, or is there a better alternative, as my solution would make me spend another $150 for another HDMI and optical cables? Is there a better way to do all of this with only 2 HDMI cables and 1 optical cable? Any and all solutions are greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You want to plug both the HD box and the PS3 to the HDMI inputs on the back of the reciever and then one HDMI cable from the recievers HDMI Out to the TV's HDMI input.

This will allow the reciever to do all the switching.  You will have to assign the HDMI inputs on the reciever, your receivers owner manual will instruct you to do this.  So everytime you watch TV or use the PS3 you do need the reciever on, but trust me using the reciever and your connected speakers will sound a million times better than the TV's cheapie 20 cent speakers.

With both the HD Box and PS3 hooked up via HDMI to the reciever, you will get Dolby Digital 5.1 from the HD Box and lossless audio via the PS3 (if you have updated the PS3 from Sonyplaystation.com).

Also do not buy HDMI cables from the store, it is a complete ripoff, stores like Best Buy and Circuit City sell highly inflated cables like Monster brand for 50.00 plus, Wal-Mart sells em for 20.00 and internet companies like Monoprice or Partsexpress.com sell em for 4.00 for a six foot HDMI and they are just as good as Monster brand.  If you use HDMI for both connections, you will not need an optical cable, bcause HDMI transmits both audio and visual signals together.

You will need a total of three HDMI cables through, One from the HD box and one from the PS3 to the reciever and of course one from the reciever to the TV.

Answer 2

What is model number of your receiver ? It sounds like you have a receiver has HDMI connections.