Was wondering the best way to connect a tv/receiver/sd set top box/blu ray/vcr/cd player together?

Question

The tv/vcr are older and only have the red/white/yellow composite connections. Receiver/ SD Set top box has all connections except for hdmi/dviand blu ray all types.

Answer 1

I'm going to try to make this really easy.

Good: Composite Video (480i max)

Better: S-Video (480i max)

Better-yet: Component Video (1080i max)

Best: HDMI / DVI (1080p max)

If your older TV cannot accept anything better than composite or S-video, you could connect everything through your receiver, having all source pieces (VCR, DVD, Blu-ray, etc...) be assigned to their own input on your receiver. Then, connect the "monitor out" to your older TV. The one thing you have to remember here is, stick with either composite or S-video. If you mix and match, you may run into problems. Hint: Research the video upconversion capabilities of your receiver. If your receiver will upconvert to S-video from composite, then run S-video cables from as many sources as possible to the receiver and then run an S-video cable from your receiver to your TV. Otherwise, stick with composite cables throughout.

Now, if you were to upgrade both your receiver and TV, and your receiver performed composite -> S-video -> component -> HDMI upconversion, you could just use the best cable connections possible for each component, and make a single HDMI or component video connection to your TV. This really works well if you're buying better quality equipment that is at least HDMI 1.1 compliant, and the video upconversion may help your SD components look better. Best to go with HDMI 1.3a compliant stuff if you're upgrading though.

I hope this answers your questions. Good luck!