With our basic guide on Plasma-hdtv.info, hooking up your HDTV is made simple and easy. Depending on your television set, there may be multiple colored ports, s-video ports, speaker outputs, and cable inputs. First, let's get familiar with the ports. Here's what you can find on most HDTVs.
Audio/Video Line-in: These ports are red, white, and yellow. Yellow is the video port, red is for stereo right and white is for stereo left. There is usually more than one set of A/V inputs on modern televisions. This enables you to connect multiple components, such as DVD players, console games, etc. Pressing the "input" button on the remote usually flips through the available inputs.
S-Video Line-in: This is a round port with multiple holes and a slit in it. It's commonly used to connect the DVD player's video since it provides a clearer picture than the analog yellow plug. There may be more than one S-Video port on the back as well.
IEEE 1394: Allows a pure digital feed to your television, as long as you have an A/V receiver that accepts the format.
HDMI: Stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface and is another port that can be used to achieve pure digital picture and sound.
DVI: Stands for Digital Video Interface. Allows pure digital picture but does not supply sound.
Digital Audio/Optical Input/Output: Whether you use the digital coaxial (orange port), or the optical input, it allows for digital sound. The sound is much more crisp and clean than traditional coaxial cables (red and white). Provides true 5.1 audio.
Y, CR, CB Inputs/Outputs: They're usually the green, red, and blue ports. They are video input/outputs that allow for a much better picture than the standard yellow coaxial cable.
Cable/Satellite Input: This is where the cable gets input to the television if you don't have a digital converter box.
Now, let's look at the best ways to hook up your system for the best in sight and sound.
Best Sight/Sound: Hook up the cable to your digital converter box. Use the IEEE 1394, HDMI, or DVI to connect the Digital Cable/Satellite box to your A/V receiver input. Then connect the IEEE 1394, HDMI, or DVI from the A/V receiver to the input connections on the back of the television. Remember that the DVI connection provides only video. You will need to connect the digital/optical audio from the Cable box to the A/V receiver to the television for audio when using the DVI connection.
Better Sight/Sound: Connect the Y, CR, CB outputs on the Digital Cable/Satellite box to the Y, CR, CB inputs on the A/V receiver. Then connect the Y, CR, CB outputs on the receiver to the Y, CR, CB inputs on the television. The digital/optical audio connection is the best bet here.
Good Sight/Sound: Connect the Cable box to the receiver with the S-Video cable. Then connect the receiver to the television with another S-Video cable. For audio, connect the red and white coaxial cables from the Cable box to the receiver and from the receiver to the television.
Important Tip: When connecting audio and video, make sure you connect the right ports; for example, when hooking up a DVD player, don't hookup the audio to audio input 2 and the video to video input 3. Keep everything in the same input area.
