Whats the best way to configure my system

[crusto]

Hello all.

I have recently bought a KDL46hx803 LCD tv and a BDVE380 home theatre system and am soon to be setting up the E380.

I would like to connect sky hd, a sony ps3, an xbox 360 and maybe a  nintendo wii to it! The TV has 4 hdmi slots while the receiver has 2  hdmi inputs and one output. I'm not sure what is the best way to connect  it all. If a 360 game has 'in game dolby digital' then I want to make sure that it is coming through the receiver that way. The same goes for the ps3. Im not as bothered about sky or the Wii but again if its achievable then I would love to.

Could I just plug them all into the tv via  hdmi? The guy at the Sony Centre told me this will work, as long as  the receiver is plugged into hdmi 1. Will the relevant dolby/dts signals  make their way into the receiver correctly? Or do my systems need to be  plugged directly into the receiver to get the best results?

Also, if I play a film on the E380 does it automatically choose the sound that it outputs in when it reads the disc/blu ray, or do I have to tell it what I want to hear? Sorry for all the questions but its been about 8 years since I last had a home cinema system and things have 'moved on' since then!

Cheers!

[crusto]

Wow, some 'support' forum this is. Funnily enough, Sony were much more helpful before I parted with my money.

[Bartley1]

Hey relax already...

Have you thought about getting an HDMI auto switcher to increase the number of inputs into the amp? Ideally you;d want the Xbox (you don't say if your model has HDMI) PS3 and Sky all using the HDMI connection.

[Educated_Pork · Accepted solution]

Ahoy,

I think the guy you spoke to at the Sony Center is mistaken.. neither the TV or your BDVE380 support the HDMI audio return channel, so if you plug your devices into the TV, you won't get audio piped back from HDMI port 1 back to your AV receiver (this functionality is on the new HX923 range). Although the TV does have an optical out, as far as I'm aware this is just going to be pushing stereo audio out (the manual confirms this, but for some reason the "technical specs" area of your TV on www.sony.co.uk descrive 5.1 channel output from it - but I think that might be an error) - so anyway it won't route the Dolby Digital/DTS signals you might get back from your SkyHD/PS3/360. Could be useful for the Wii though, as explained below.

My suggestion would be to do the following:

Plug your SkyHD into your BDVE380.

Plug your PS3/360 into an HDMI switch (they're pretty cheap now.. some even come with remote controls), plugging the output of that into your BDVE380 (so you'll need to switch between PS3/360 - but it's not like you're going to have them both on at the same time anyway).

Plug your Wii into the TV via SCART - and use an optical cable to get a feed containing the Wii's stereo audio out of the TV, plugging back into the BDVE380.

Finally, connect up the BDVE380 to an HDMI input on your TV..

If you're not bothered about SkyHD broadcasts in Dolby Digital (ie: Sky Movies HD, Sports HD, Sky One HD, Sky Atlantic HD etc), then by all means connect up both the PS3 and 360 to the two HDMI inputs on your BDVE380, and plug your SkyHD box into the TV directly using one of the other HDMI inputs. It's down to you..

Hope this helps,

Dean

[crusto]

Cheers dean, I took the second option. Im not too fussed about Sky or the Wii in all honesty. Im really impressed with the system, it sounds lovely. My old sony home cinema had a very overbearing sub. This is not the case with this one.

Thanks for the advice.