December 2000

Making a Connection: Installing Your Home-Theater System

So you have just purchased yourself a surround sound system from the local electronics warehouse and have brought it home only to find that you got a little more than you bargained for with the seemingly endless cables and connections. Not to worry -- there are just a few things that you have to keep in mind when setting up a home-theater system. If you are like most people, you have come home with a new digital receiver, a DVD player, and multiple speakers (including a subwoofer) that you will have to connect to a new or existing television and probably a VCR.

Providing that you do things systematically, making all of the necessary connections to get your system up and running is relatively simple. Although there are many ways to hook up a home-theater system, the simplest and most effective method is probably to direct all of the audio and video signals through the receiver to keep everything neat and tidy.

Types of connections that you will encounter

Let’s take a look at the type of connections that we will have to deal with in a typical home theater set up. Although it may seem daunting, there are actually only a few types of connections.

Analog audio (stereo interconnect)

Cables for analog audio signals that are often called stereo interconnects, consist of a pair of RCA connectors and carry the left and right audio channels of a stereo signal. Most regular stereo components such as CD players and cassette decks use this type of cable. They are usually color-coded red for the right channel and white for the left.

Digital audio cables

A digital connection is required to carry the signal for Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks from the DVD player to the receiver and it comes in two forms. The first type is a coaxial connection, which uses the same type of RCA connector as the analog audio interconnect, but only a single cable is required instead of two. Also, the impedance of the cable should be 75 ohms, which makes it identical to a composite video cable. The second is an optical or TosLink connector that transmits the signal through a fiber optic cable. You can use either one of these types of digital audio cables.

Video cables

The video signal can be transmitted via three types of cables. The most common is the composite or RCA connection, which is basically identical to the coaxial digital cable illustrated above. The second most common is the S-Video connection. This consists of a 5-pin DIN connector illustrated right, which is superior to the coaxial connector because it separates the chroma and luminance (color and brightness) signals. The third and least common type of video connection is component video, which is found on most DVD players, but only on higher quality televisions and receivers. Component video cables have three separate coaxial RCA connectors on each end.

Speaker cables

Speakers are often connected with what is commonly referred to as zip cord or lamp cord as illustrated right. The difficulty with speaker cables is that they can be terminated with several different types of connectors such as banana plugs, spades, pins, or just left as bare wire, and not all of them are compatible with each other. The simplest and most inexpensive option is to use bare wire. There is a positive and negative wire for each speaker (usually color-coded red and black respectively). Be sure not to reverse the polarity of the wires. If you do, sound will still come from the speakers, but it will not image correctly.

How to hook up each component in your home theater system

Now that we have discussed the types of connections that may be included in a typical home theater system, let’s look at exactly what connections each piece of equipment will require. We will assume that the television and VCR are already connected to each other and the cable outlet via the screw on "F-type" connectors that are used for the cablevision signal, and that all of the additional home theater equipment will be routed through the receiver. The pictures that follow are of the back panels of several Yamaha receivers and are typical of most receivers.

DVD player

As previously mentioned, the receiver must be connected to the DVD player via either a TosLink or coaxial digital cable to receive the necessary signal to decode Dolby Digital and DTS movie soundtracks (a typical set of output jacks is shown right). There is also a left and right analog audio output on DVD players that can be connected to the receiver, but this is optional. The digital audio connection is capable of transmitting all of the necessary information (including that from stereo CDs) to the receiver. If you do opt to use the analog audio outputs, be advised that this connection cannot transmit the Dolby Digital or DTS signal.

A DVD player also requires a video connection to transmit the picture. S-Video is the preferred cable as it is superior to composite cables and component while better still, is quite rare on receivers. However, there is one caveat to this. Most receivers cannot convert one type of video signal to another. This means that you must use the same type of video connection throughout your entire system and cannot mix S-Video with composite and component. So if your VCR does not have an S-Video output, and you are using an S-Video cable between your receiver and television, you will not be able to receive a picture from your VCR through the receiver.

VCR

The VCR like the DVD player requires audio and video connections, but because it is a recording device, it requires both input and output signals. The analog audio inputs and outputs of the VCR should be connected to the oppositely labeled connections on the receiver. In other words the jack labeled "OUT" on the VCR should be connected to the corresponding jack labeled "IN" on the receiver and vice versa. The same applies for whatever type of video connection you use. Note: if you do not connect the outgoing audio and video signals from the receiver to the VCR, it is still possible to record broadcast television programs as long as the VCR is connected to the cable television outlet on the wall.

Speakers and subwoofer

There are usually five speakers (two front or mains, a center channel, and two surround or rears) as well as a subwoofer in a home-theater system. Wire each connector on the back of the receiver to the corresponding speaker, making sure not to reverse the polarity of the wires. The subwoofer in a home-theater speaker usually requires a single analog RCA connection that is labeled as such on the back of the receiver (see the audio connector panel above). While there may be speaker type inputs on the subwoofer that will work when connected to the speaker outputs, the RCA analog audio connection from the receiver should always be used because this is where the signal for the dedicated LFE (low-frequency effects) channel for movie soundtracks is derived.

Television

Finally, the video input on the television needs to be connected to the video or monitor out connection on the back of the receiver (see the Video Connection Panel above). Choose the appropriate connector whether S-Video or composite (remembering that all of the video connections in your system should be of the same type). If you want to watch television programs such as the "Simpsons" in Dolby Surround on your new home theater system, be sure to connect the analog audio outputs from the television to the corresponding inputs on the receiver (See the Audio Connection Panel above).

All done!

And that’s it. Simple right? While it may seem very complicated at first, it is actually fairly easy. It is just that there are so many connections required. Remember to keep the instructions handy for each piece of equipment to check the specific requirements for each of your components. If something doesn’t work, don’t panic. Systematically check all of the connections to make sure that they are correct and consult the instructions to ensure that you have not overlooked anything. Good luck and happy listening!

...Roger Kanno
roger@hometheatersound.com

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