Sky+HD with XBox 360, PS3, DVD, Blu-Ray – you need an AV Receiver.
Adding surround sound to a Sky+HD system is far from easy and it is very important to choose the right equipment.
Yep, to get the most out of your TV it’s now back to the days of Hi-Fi separates!!!
The first thing that you need to know is that most all in one Home Cinema or Home Theatre system as sold by the likes of Argos or Comet will probably fall short of your long term expectations and this is simply because the all in one systems just don’t have enough inputs.
If you currently only have a flat screen TV and Sky+HD then you probably made sure that your new TV had as many HDMI and other inputs as possible so that you would be able to connect up all your extra equipment but this all changes when you go the surround sound route because now you only need 1 digital input on your TV and it’s your AV Receiver that needs all the extra inputs.
My Equipment
Toshiba REGZA 42RV635DB 42” Full HD 1080p LCD TV
Sky+HD (Amstrad 780-056)
Xbox 360 Elite
Onkyo TX-SR507 AV Receiver
Onkyo SKS-HT528 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System with Subwoofer
Toshiba 42” LCD TV
The Toshiba 42” LCD TV has 4 HDMI inputs but I only need 1 input when I use an AV Amplifier.
The Toshiba 42” LCD TV has optical digital audio output but this output only outputs audio from the internal Digital TV decoder and it can’t output processed audio from other digital inputs. This means that audio input using an HDMI input will NOT be output using the optical digital audio output on the TV.
Sky+HD
The Sky+HD satellite receiver has HDMI out which does include audio but only 2 channel stereo is output using HDMI.
To get surround sound we need Dolby Digital and the Sky+HD only outputs Dolby Digital using the optical digital audio output.
Xbox 360 Elite
The Xbox 360 Elite has a HDMI output which does include Dolby Digital.
Onkyo TX-SR507 AV Receiver
The Onkyo TX-SR507 AV Receiver has
4 HDMI inputs
1 HDMI output (connect to TV)
2 coaxial digital audio inputs
2 optical digital audio inputs
Plus more inputs and outputs
Surround Sound Speaker System and Subwoofer
The Onkyo SKS-HT528 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System has
1 x Centre Speaker
2 x Front Speaker
2 x Surround Speaker
1 x Powered Subwoofer
So a 5.1 Channel Home Theatre Surround Sound speaker system has got 5 speakers plus a subwoofer.
System Interconnects
Connect the system as follows
Sky+HD HDMI Out to TX-SR507 HDMI Input 1
Sky+HD Optical Digital Audio Out to TX-SR507 Optical Input 1
Xbox 360 HDMI Out to TX-SR507 HDMI Input 2
TX-SR507 HDMI Output to Toshiba 42” LCD TV HDMI Input 1
Also connect 5 x Speakers and Subwoofer to TX-SR507
TX-SR507 Input Assignments
Make the following assignments using the Onkyo TX-SR507 setup menu
Assign Sky+HD video to CBL/SAT on HDMI Input 1
Assign Sky+HD audio to CBL/SAT on Optical Input 1 and press [Enter]
Assign the Xbox 360 to AUX on HDMI Input 2
The Dolby Digital from The SKY+HD will be ignored by the TX-SR507 unless you press [Enter] during the input assignment setup. Pressing [Enter] will disable HDMI audio and enable Digital Optical audio on this channel. If you don’t press [Enter] then you will still get Sky+HD audio through HDMI but it will only be stereo. Very confusing.
Hint. Test that Sky+HD audio is using the optical cable by connecting and disconnecting the optical digital audio cable.
Where To Buy Your AV Equipment
Toshiba 42” LCD TV and Xbox 360 Elite purchased from Tesco.
Onkyo TX-SR507 AV Receiver purchased from Richer Sounds.
Where To Buy Your Cables
Don’t buy expensive overpriced HDMI cables at £25.00 or more. Tesco sells a basic 1m HDMI cable for just £4.99. Being a digital signal there is no need for a high quality cable.
Good Luck
I hope this little surround sound guide is useful and please post your comments and how you connected your own system.
