Hi, I am rather clueless when it comes to setting up this equipment and at understanding the terminology and would really appreciate some help please. I just purchased a set of cheapy speakers, consisting of a subwoofer and 5 speakers which my teenage son set up for me. He connected the TV to the stereo input on the subwoofer and everything was fine and we are happy with the sound. The problem with the DVD is we are only able to hear DVD's through all speakers when this is also connected to the stereo input, which means my son has to switch the cables everytime we want to watch TV or a DVD. As I understand it the DVD should be connected to the 5.1 input, not the stereo input. The problem is our DVD only has the audio left and right outputs and digital output. Does this mean we are stuck having to connect the DVD to the stereo input and switching and back and forth or is there a way around this? Thank you.
I might be able to help and if I cannot, there are others who certainly can. Your DVD player certainly has both analog and digital outputs but it's unclear what your connecting to what. 1)What is the make and model of the TV...doesn't it have additional inputs for a VCR and/or DVD player? 2)Is there an audio/visual receiver involved in this and if so, what is the make and model 3)from what you wrote, it sounds like you connected directly from TV to these speakers you bought...tell us what they are. If worse comes to worse, there is a device to switch from one to the other but it seems to me that there's something wrong with the way you're connecting things. Unless its truly ancient, your TV should have at least one input for a VCR and another for you DVD. Then you would connect the TVs "audio out" to whatever these speakers are...Gerry
Hi, Thanks for replying so soon. I'm almost embarassed to post here because I am such a sound novice and realise I have purchased embarassing, crap quality speakers but they are ok for what I need for now. Ok, so I'm a little unclear about the whole receiver thing. What I have is a cheapy brand $100 AWA HT-288(not sure if this is a universal brand) that consists of a subwoofer with built in amp and the 5 other speakers. The subwoofer has a stereo left right input to connect the TV to. The TV is NEC stereo - unsure of make. Also on the subwoofer there is the 5.1 input to connect the DVD to. The problem is, apart from the digital audio output our DVD only has the 2 left and right outputs. The subwoofer has 6 5.1 input connectors, so we can only connect the DVD to two of these speakers at a time. We have only been able to get the DVD sound to play through all speakers when the DVD is connected to the subwoofers stereo input, meant for the TV. This means we can only have the DVD or the TV hooked up to the speaker system at any given time. I hope this makes sense.
Sounds like you need to go get an A/V receiver. Then everything will hookup to it, and life will be much easier. You can get receivers for under $200. They just won't have a lot of bells and whistles, at that price. Your speakers, including the subwoofer, will hookup to receiver, and dvd player will hookup with digital connection for audio, for 5.1 surround sound.
No need to be embarrassed; everyone has this problem when they first start putting equipment together...the thing is, I don't have any infomation to look up. I cannot find information on your speakers anywhere. "NEC" IS the brand name of your TV but I can't look up the inputs without a model number...what I want to look up is how to connect the DVD player's video and audio to the TV...seems you already have the video from you DVD player connected so there's got to be two audio inputs to go along with that video input... then you could at least use the analog (the audio left and audio right you spoke of) while trying to figure out the digital. Tell me, what is the make and model of your DVD player? I'd like to take a look at it...Gerry
Thanks for your input JVC, much appreciated, at this point a receiver is out of the question though. Thanks again Gerry, I have some more info for you... My TV is NEC FS-59V81S and the DVD is NEC NDV-24 Somehow I stumbled onto an online manual for what appears to be the speaker set I have - different brand name but same design manual. The only difference is mine does not have the AUX1 Input Connector, AUX2 Input Connector, or the 5.1 9-pin DIN Input Connector. Here is the website if it helps... http://www.midiland.com/images/MLi760 manual.pdf Thanks Forgot to mention that yes the dvd video is connected to the TV and the audio is usually connected to the TV, however now with these speakers I wanted to be able to connect the DVD to those.
I need to find specs on your DVD player. I took a look at your amp/speaker system and you would need to have those same six RCA plugs on the back of your DVD player(see the very last thing written in the manual); some have them, others not. You see, your amp/speaker is "digital ready" but not digital...(six seperate analog signals actually); it can't decode anything, instead, it needs to be decoded by the DVD player with each signal sent through those six RCA plugs; I'm going to try to find you DVD player but perhaps you could save me some time and tell me what kind of audio outs you have on your DVD player...I know you have the analog (R&L audio out) but what does the digital out look like: is it six RCA plugs like the back of your amp/speaker, is it an "optical out" (a small rectangular hole about 1/2" high "optical out" is usually clearly marked). You have the analog, but what form does the digital audio out take? I'll try to look it up but I don't seem to be having much luck today!
Hi again, My DVD player does not have 6 RCA plugs. Apart from the left and right audio out there is a digital out which is a coaxial, black plug. It seems my DVD and speakers aren't compatabile then. As I mentioned we can plug the DVD into the speaker's TV left right input but that's not really practical because then we don't have the TV set up through the speakers, do you know if there is any attachment to plug both into it at the same time?
Yes, you could get one at radio shack for not a whole lot. Tell the salesman you have to connect two components with Stereo RCA jacks into one input and you need a device to switch between the two. I'll look to see if it has a specific name though they'd know what you're talking about. What I don't understand is why you don't just connect the DVD's audio to the TV and the TV to your amp/speaker...it is exactly the same thing except the TV channel on which you get your DVD picture would function as the switch automatically. The sound would be exactly the same ... just a different way of routing the same signal. Be sure you connect to the two L/R audio in on the sub, not to one of the six RCAs but the two right beside it. Sorry the two units weren't compatible with the 6 RCA plugs...I hate it when I rain on someone's parade! ... Gerry
Thanks Gerry. We have tried just connecting the DVD audio to the TV and the TV to the amp speaker, what happens then is we continue to hear the TV through all speakers and the DVD plays through the TV speakers at the same time.
You should have two settings for your audio out...one is "fixed" the other is "variable" ...you want to use the "fixed". There must be a way to turn your TV speakers off ... I'm a bit surprised because with most TVs you have to turn the internal speakers off to activate the "audio out" in the back of the TV. I seem to remember some simulation devices that didn't cost much; I'll see if I can find it. It's not the real thing but might be o.k., I've never heard one. Still, even with the analog, it will still sound better than just your TV speakers. I'll look into the simulation things I say and provide a link if I can find them...I don't have a clue where I saw them. By the way, Happy New Year to you and your family!
Hi again, and happy new year to you too. I checked my TV and there is only 1 setting for audio out, I guess the internal speakers can't be turned off. The TV audio works fine plugged into the speaker audio in and for now we'll just unplug and connect the DVD audio to the speaker when we need to. Thanks so much for all your help, it is much appreciated. I don't feel quite so clueless.
you could always just mute the tv. sounds like most of your equipment is either just old and does not support what you are trying to do or the quality of equipment is low line. if you have a budget for newer stuff, perhaps we can go further. you can even buy a new HTIB (home theater in a box) for about 100-200 bucks ! but it's entry level low line stuff !
