We are coming out of the dark ages of TV--round front TV with antenna--and need help.
We purchased a Vizio VX37L LCD HDTV and Samsung HT-X50 HTiB. Our cable is coming through a co-axle cable at a wall outlet; we do not have a cable box. Our plan was to run the cable through the DVD player like we have done in the past with DVD players/VCRs by using the ANT in and ANT out, but the DVD player with the HTiB system coes not have co-axle input and output. I have noticed that most don't. We want the TV sound to run through the HTiB system. Our TV is over the fireplace and the audio cabinet is a freestanding floor unit placed to the left of the fireplace. The co-axle cable runs inside the wall from behind the TV to behind the audio cabinet. What are our other options for running the TV audio through the HTiB? Thanks for any help! SweetT
You have a SLIGHT PROBLEM. HDTV's do not use a coaxial cable to get a HD picture unless your TV is equipped with a Cable Card slot or a QAM cable ready tuner which this TV has neither. This TV is equipped with an internal ATSC tuner that will give you local HDTV from a roof antenna. The optical out put on the Vizio is to feed Dolby Digital to your HTiB receiver but only from broad cast television from the roof antenna. You need HDTV Cable box from your cable company and it needs to connected to yhe TV using component RCA cables or a better choice would be to use an HDMI cable. Component is 5 cables HDMI is one.
Thanks for the explanation. Let's say that I am not worried about HD for now. I just want sound from the television coming through the HTiB. What are my options for that?
You will need a cable box. Modern audio connections include, Digital Coax, Optical, RCA. You can probably find a coax to RCA adapter. Problem is if your willing to spend the money on that you might as well just buy a cable box. Also, a HDTV will look like crap on a standard cable feed. Just so your prepared.
Nick is right standard TV on that set will look worse than your old set. Get a roof antenna or something and get free over theair HD from your local stations.
"I just want sound from the television coming through the HTiB. What are my options for that?"
1) You could use the stereo audio output of the Vizio. This is a problem since we're talking about a wall mounted TV where more wires would have to be run through the wall. [This inflexibility with wiring is why I hate wall mounted TVs.]
2) Bring back the VCR and use its audio output as you did before.
3) Rent a cable box. You can use its audio output into the HTiB as you did with the VCR.
I've had the Vizio VX37L for a few months now and I must say I've been very happy with standard def on this display. I have an SD cable box hookup via S-video and the basic cable going into the TV's ant input via splitter. The PQ is actually better on the basic cable line vs. the cable box. The TV's QAM tuner will only pick up 2 of the 5 local HD stations (plus music channels), but since this is a bedroom set I'm not that concerned. If I were, I'd be using a roof antenna.
BTW Teresa, how are you feeding the DVD video from the HTiB into the TV?
1) We have just built the house and THOUGHT we had outselves covered as far as wiring. The coax cable runs to behind where the TV is located and down to where I planned to put the audio/video cabinet. We also have speaker wire run from the audio/video cabinet area to where the speakers would be located.
2)We no longer have the VCR and most are DVD/VCR combos now.
3)Right now we aren't so hung up on the HD part since we are so far ahead of where we were. Acutally, we aren't huge TV fans which is why we are so far behind in this area. But for the occassional movie and sports program we thought the sound system would be nice to have.
3)We haven't used the DVD of the HTiB as we just thought that was the least expensive way to go for the 5.1 speaker system.
For now we have decided to return the current HTiB and do a little (lot?)more research. Any suggestions as to what to look for would be helpful. We have new questions at this point.
1. What kind of wire should we run from the TV to a speaker system (HTiB)?
2. We aren't interested in going really expensive, but want something decent. Would it be better to get a sound system and purchase a DVD player separate?
3. What do we REALLY need to look for when looking at systems?
1.) Buy a cable box, or rent one from your cable company. Connect your regular coax into the cable box.
2.) Buy a dvd player, and then a home theater system. If a home theater in a box is your budget that is fine, look at the Sony and Panasonic sets for a cheap, good in box solution. Or Spend the money on a good separate A/V Receiver. Buy a couple speakers, and when your budget is ready start upgrading your speakers. Overall this will get you a much nicer sounding system then a home theater in a box.
3.)Connect the DVD player to your TV via Component cable or HDMI. Connect the DVD player to that HTiB(Receiver) using a Digital Coax cable or a Optical cable for the surround sound.
4.) Connect your cable box to your TV using Component cable. Connect your cable box to your HTiB(Receiver)also using a Digital Coax cable, or Optical cable.
None of this has to be expensive, if you are on a budget, you can still make it all work for a cheap price. After doing this you will have full blown 5.1 surround sound with a good picture coming from your DVD player and a decent one(Until you get HD) from your cable. Cheers.
You can connect your tv straight to the HTiB using RCA or Optical(depending on the tv). I would try to go with is above, as this will give you crazy crap picture quality with your cable.