Hello to everyone,

I have been on this site lurking now for at least a year. I finally took the plunge and ordered the 990/7700 combo. I have just began to set up mew system and just wanted some opinions on how to cable.

Here is what I have:
Toshiba 50HM66 DLP TV. 2 HDMI inputs. Toslink and component out as well as S-video etc.
Outlaw Audio 7700 Amp
Outlaw Audio 990 Pre/Pro
Denon DVD2800. Component and toslink out.
Sony XA20ES CD. Optical out.
Direct TV HD reciever HR20. HDMI, component, toslink out.
Playstation 3. HDMI out.
Nintnedo Wii. Composite out.
Marantz DLP projector. Component in.

I realize there are a # of ways, just wondering which one would be the best for me. Right now I ran the satelite and PS3 with HDMI directly into the TV. I was going to run CD, DVD and nintendo into the 990, then tie the tv into the 990 using component and toslink. I also have a marantz DLP projector, not sure on that one.

This is a truely great site and has provided a huge amount of info to me for some time. Thanks in advance to everyone.

My biggest problem is my TV has no digital audio inputs except for HDMI. It only has one digital output. No way to bring the sound from the 990 into the TV via digital. Thanks.

Or...Does it not matter unless I use the sound from the TV speakers???

My goal is to use the 990 as my main controler and have eveyting pass thru it. Would also like to be able to turn on Direct TV and watch without turning on the 990, same for the PS3 if that is possible.

That's a sweet assortment of new toys, vp8000 - PS3, Wii, 990, and 7700!

I generally recommend against folks trying to use TV speakers in surround systems specifically because the wiring and use gets so complex so quickly that it ends up being simpler to rely on the surround system for audio all the time. Plus it sounds better. After all, if you are trying to get audio from the 990 to the TV, you've already got the 990 turned on. Is there a reason I'm missing to want to get audio of any sort into the TV? If so, is there a reason that it has to be in the digital domain?

The satellite and PS3 video going straight to the TV should work fine. You could run both through the 990's DVI switching, which could reduce the amount of switching between TV inputs you had to do - but you'd still need to switch from one HDMI input on the TV (for the satellite and PS3) and one component input on the TV (for the Denon 2800 and Wii).

You'll want to have an optical cable handy to run from the PS3 to the 990, just like you're doing with the satellite receiver and 2800. The Wii, I believe, only has analog audio out, so it'll go right along with the composite video into one of the 990's inputs.

The projector does present a video challenge. I can come up with a few schemes that would get at least some of your sources piped to the projector, but it would come at the expense of having them readily accessible to the Toshiba. Are there any specific sources that you most want available to the projector?

By connecting the satellite and PS3 HDMI outputs directly to the TV, you should be able to get their audio straight to the TV over those HDMI connections and then have optical or coaxial digital audio cables run to the 990 so it can get audio from them as well. You would need to remember to disable the TV's speakers when using the 990 (either by turning the volume down on the TV, muting the TV, or even disabling the speakers entirely).

That is correct, if I understand your question correctly. Your HDMI connection on your TV is also your digital audio connection, so you are covered as far as TV sound using your current method.

Looks like you only have two devices with HDMI outputs and 2 HDMI inputs in your TV. I would leave those connected directly to the TV, that way you have the option of using your HD receiver and your PS3 without needing to turn on the 990, amplifiers, subwoofer, etc.

I would connect all digital audio outputs from everything to the 990 (toslink or coax) including those already connected to the TV via HDMI.

I would also connect all component output to the 990, then run the component out to your projector or to your tv (or to the projector thru your tv).

Then, for good measure, connect at least one analog video from each source to the 990 (s-video, composite) and run that to the tv via s-video.

Those are just some quick suggestions, and may not even be the best depending on how you plan on using the system.
Have fun.

I run all my video directly into the TV mainly because I am a big fan of having the TV on but listening to some type of music source. I have a DVI input on my TV but as of yet no video source with a DVI or HDMI output.

If I ran video sources through the 990 I think I would be limited to the audio on the video source.

Thanks so much guys, huge, huge help. I am only using the projector for DVD watching. I have a 40 foot monster component video cable that I will run directly to the component out off the 990, does sound correct???

Actually, if the audio source you want to listen to is really just an audio source (CD, Aux, Tape, or the tuner), you can switch from a video source to that audio source and the 990 will continue to pass the video from the previously-used video source. I do it all the time with the cable TV and a CD or my Roku SoundBridge. Drives the wife nuts because the picture and sound don't match up. I've also used it with CD's played from a DVD player by switching to the DVD input then to the CD input so I can get the player's on-screen display while using the CD input's stereo settings...
If you are only using the projector with the Denon DVD player, that leaves the two HDMI sources and the one composite source (Wii) to contend with. Do you want to watch DVD's on the Toshiba using the Denon? If not, you can run the video straight from the Denon to the projector.