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Do you want to enjoy watching movies in excellent quality without leaving your home? Home theater is your best assistant in this. We need to break the myth that the connection varies greatly depending on the TV manufacturer, be it Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Philips, etc. Not at all – the scheme is the same, but there are some nuances in the connectors used, and they do not depend on the brand, but on the age of the TV. “KP” will tell you how to connect a home theater to a TV quickly and correctly.
IMPORTANT!
Make sure that when connecting the home theater to the TV, all devices are disconnected from the mains and de-energized!
HDMI
The most convenient and modern option, but it is not available on older TV models. This format is suitable for transmitting audio and video in high quality and saves you from a large number of wires and lengthy settings.
On the receiver, you need to connect the cable to the HDMI connector marked “OUT”, and on the TV to the connector marked “IN”. The convenience of this method, as already mentioned, is that we connect both video and audio signals with one wire.
Now you need to connect the receiver to the signal source and audio system. First, connect the set-top box to a DVD or Blue-ray player. To do this, on the rear panel of the player we find the HDMI connector or analog connectors (simple “tulips”) marked “OUT” and connect them to the corresponding jack on the receiver, but marked “IN”.
Next, connect the speakers and subwoofer to the console. There are two types of connections – clamping (wires are attached under small clothespins) and threaded (wires are screwed to the contacts). It is important to follow the order – for example, do not connect a center speaker in place of a subwoofer or rear speakers in place of the front ones.
Do you want to enjoy watching movies in excellent quality without leaving your home? Home theater is your best assistant in this. Photo: pixabay.com
Optical cable
If HDMI or SCART, when connecting a home theater to a TV, allow you to immediately set up both video and audio signals, then if you use the analog video connection method, you need to connect the sound additionally. Optical (or fiber optic) cable is the best option for this quality. The advantage of such a cable is its resistance to electromagnetic radiation.
In order to connect a home theater, you need to connect one end of the cable to the “OUT” jack on the receiver, and the other to the “IN” jack on the TV. This will make the sound clear, without any interference. True, not all TVs have the ability to receive a signal through optical fiber – sometimes they only work on the “output”.
After successfully connecting the sound, you need to connect the video transmission from the receiver to the TV (you can use HDMI or “tulips”), and then connect the set-top box to the signal source and audio system according to the algorithm specified in the first paragraph.
Coaxial cable
Another way to transmit audio when connecting a home theater to a TV is through a coaxial connector. In terms of quality, it is slightly worse than fiber optic, but the cable itself is more bulky and less flexible, which can cause certain difficulties during installation.
This type of cable must be connected to the “Coaxial OUT” jack of the receiver and “Coaxial IN” of the TV. In appearance, it resembles an “antenna” entrance.
After successfully connecting the audio, you need to connect the video transmission from the receiver to the TV, and then connect the signal source and audio system to the set-top box.
Analog connectors
The oldest and lowest quality way to connect a home theater to a TV, which should only be used if no other method is available. Tulip wires should be connected to the receiver’s audio and video jacks marked “OUT”. The other ends of the wires are connected to the same jacks on the TV, but labeled “IN”.
It is important at the same time to observe the color marking – it will help you to correctly deal with the connection. Most often, the yellow “tulip” is responsible for the video, and the red and white – for the audio. Thus, they should be connected to the connectors of the corresponding color.
SCART connector
This method of connecting a home theater to a TV is somewhat similar to connecting via HDMI, but has a worse transmission quality. As a rule, such a connector is used on older models of TVs and equipment.
We connect one end of the wire to the SCART connector on the TV. There is usually only one, but make sure it’s marked “IN” anyway. We find the corresponding socket on the back of the receiver. If it is not there (this may be if the home theater is of a new generation), then you will need a SCART-RCA adapter (ordinary “tulips”), or a ready-made cable of this type. We connect “tulips” to the receiver, to the jacks marked “OUT”. It is important to observe color marking here. As a rule, yellow “tulip” is responsible for video, and red and white – for audio.
Thereafter? according to the already known scheme, we connect the signal source and the audio system to the receiver.
S-video connector
Connecting a home theater to a TV via an analog S-Video (separate video) connector is quite old, as is the way to connect through “tulips”. Suffice it to say that these days this connector is not on every device. Given this, it should be understood that the video transmission will be of poor quality, as when working with the mentioned “tulips”.
To connect the cinema to the TV in this way, you need to connect one end of the special S-Video wire to the receiver, to the jack marked “OUT”, and the other end to the TV, to the jack marked “IN”. It is worth noting that it is almost impossible to mix up the sockets – this connector has a specific Mini-DIN interface.
After successfully connecting the video via S-Video, it remains to connect the sound from the receiver to the TV (using an optical, coaxial or analog cable), and then assemble the cinema setup. To do this, as mentioned above, you need to connect a power source and an audio system to the receiver.
How to output sound from TV to audio system?
In order to use high-quality speakers not only for watching movies from a home theater, but also for normal TV viewing, you need to make small manipulations with connecting audio cables. If, when connecting a cinema, you connected a wire (or wires in the case of using “tulips”) to the “OUT” jack of the receiver and the “IN” of the TV, now you need to do the opposite. That is, connect the audio to “OUT” on the TV and to “IN” on the set-top box. After that, in the audio settings on the TV, you need to change “Speakers” to “External audio system”.
Enjoy!