The Basics of Home Theater: Sample Wiring Diagram

Sample Wiring Diagram:
Home Theater – Cable/Satellite, Etc.
Last updated 4/5/2006

The old TV "rabbit ears" have been widely replaced by cable and satellite services. Those services will both require you to connect another box to your receiver. While we're at it, we'll toss in a couple different schemes for putting an old VCR in the mix.

I'm lumping the cable and satellite receivers together into a single case. The video offers similar options as the DVD player did a couple of wiring diagrams back, and we'll want to pick the single best connection for your application. Connection (1) is a DVI or HDMI cable for HD video – it's probably a good choice if your HDTV offers a DVI or HDMI input. If your receiver lacks switching for DVI or HDMI and you have another DVI/HDMI source (upscaling DVD player or HD disc player), you may want to use connection (2) and run a set of component video cables to the receiver. This will still allow you to deliver 720p and 1080i HD video to your display, and it's also the connection of choice for TV's that lack a DVI or HDMI input. If you don't have an HDTV, you may still have a cable or satellite receiver in the system. In that case, you'll most likely want to use connection (3) and run an s-video cable to your surround receiver. If your TV lacks s-video as well, go with connection (4) and provide a composite video connection to the surround receiver. You also need to get audio out of the cable or satellite receiver. If your unit supports it, connection (5) – a coaxial or optical digital audio cable – is the best bet. Some cable boxes will lack this output and some others will not convert analog stations' audio to the digital output, so you may need to use connection (6) and run stereo analog audio cables to the surround receiver.

There are a few other components in the mix with this wiring diagram. One is a VCR, shown using connection (7) (a composite video cable) and connection (8) (a stereo analog audio cable) to connect to the receiver. Since many users will not have used the composite and stereo analog outputs of the cable or satellite receiver, they may want to use connection (9) to feed composite video and stereo analog audio to the VCR for recording TV programs. This same approach can be used for standalone digital video recorders and DVD recorders, although in those cases I'd use s-video for the video connection to the recorder and the best possible outputs from the recorder (either s-video or component video along with digital audio if possible) for connections to the surround receiver.

CD players today typically will offer a digital audio output, allowing you to use connection (10) to provide a coaxial or optical digital audio connection to the receiver. Game consoles offer a wide array of connection options, but in general it's going to be best to treat them as DVD players or HD disc players and connect them accordingly – the Playstation2, Xbox, and Xbox360 all offer component video and optical digital audio outputs, the GameCube offers s-video and stereo analog audio, and the Playstation3 will offer HDMI video and optical digital audio when it arrives in November 2006.

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