I'm getting ready to program my brother's new Harmony One remotely from my house but before I program it he needs to change his system setup. He doesn't know a lot about setting things up and I won't be going to his house anytime soon.

He has an older system a Kenwood A/V VR-505, Panasonic Plasma TH50PX80U, Lite-On DVD LVW-5005 (Optical & Coaxial Digital Outputs), Dish DVR-522 (Optical Output)

Currently he has all audio/video going to the tv and then he's running the TV's optical output to the Kenwood CD/DVD Optical Input which makes no sense since he's not getting 5.1 from any of his devices.

Could someone take a look at his Kenwood A/V manual http://www.kenwoodusa.com/UserFiles/File/UnitedStates/Home/Manuals/vr506.pdf and look at pages 9-13. Pertaining to page 13 I can't figure out if he has 2 or 3 digital inputs DVD, CD/DVD, Video2 Monitor Coaxial.

Does it look like he just has one Coax Digital (DVD) and one Optical Input (CD/DVD)?

If so then he could use the Lite-On's Coaxial digital Output and the Dish's Optical Output to the Kenwood. Then hope he doesn't still need the Plasma's Optical Output in case he's getting OTA channels via outside antenna.

Can you explain which button you use to set his Lite-On Dvd to the Kenwood's Coax Digital Input? His Dish Receiver to the Kenwood's Optical Input?

Our netbook didn't want to download the manual, but google led me to some specs and pictures of the VR-505. The Kenwood has three digital audio inputs: two coaxial (DVD and Video2/Monitor) and one optical (CD/DVD). Unfortunately, his three sources include two with optical only and one with optical and coaxial, so that extra coax input isn't going to do him a whole lot of good. I'd prioritize the DVD and satellite box for digital connections. If he does need optical out from the TV, a converter can be had pretty cheaply - and until he can get one, he can use analog cables as a temporary solution for OTA broadcasts.

Video switching on the receiver is limited to composite, so he'll obviously need to route the video from the DVD player and satellite box straight to the TV.

Thanks Gonk it looked like two coaxial and one optical but I wasn't sure about the label on the video2/Monitor...I'll have to see how he's getting his locals.

I know his Plasma has an Optical Output but I don't know if it has analog audio outputs but I'll check this out.

As far as I can tell there are separate buttons for DVD and CD/DVD so it should be easy to set up on the Harmony.