Help on purchasing a Home Theater System...

Hi everyone,
I just bought a new HDTV and I am now looking into getting a good Home Theater System, since as I'm sure you all know, the speakers on my TV are pretty pathetic.
But in all honestly, I really don't know much at all about speakers and home theater systems, so that's why I'm here.
I hear that most home theater systems come with DVD and Bluray players, but I don't need either of those, since my ps3 and 360 give me 2 DVD players and a Bluray player already.
I am really looking to spend less than 400 bucks, or around that area if possible.
I also have one question: My HDTV only has 2 HDMI ports and one Component port and since I am using both of those (HDMI is being used for the cable and ps3 and component is used for my 360) I am wondering if there is some other way of connecting the Home Theater System?
Thanks in advance for all your help.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

paulmohr wrote:
Ok after looking at the manual for that reciever this is what I come up with.
One HDMI cable running from your PS3 to the reciever (BD in would be my choice)
One HDMI cable running from your Cable box to the receiver (dvd in would by my choice)
Now for you Xbox 360 you said you have the component cables for it, from what I can tell you can also get an HDMI connector as well. What you choose is up to you but this is how it would work.
Xbox with component cables:
Since the receiver doesn't have component swtiching you would have to hook the xbox up to your tv with the component cables ( the way it is now).
Then run an optical audio cable from the xbox to the receiver SAT optical in.
If you get the HDMI cable most likely you would just run the HDMI cable from the Xbox to the receiver like the other components. If you went this route I would hook the xbox to the dvd hdmi in and the cable box to the SAT hdmi in though. Honestly it doesn't matter but it just might be less confusing that way.
Then you would need on optical cable running from the TV out to the TV in on the reciever. If you never watch regular tv you don't need this since the sound will come from your cable box anyway. But if you also have the tv hooked up to an antenna or something this will send the sound to the receiver.
And one HDMI cable running from the Receiver out to on the HDMI inputs on the tv. This is what will carry all of the signals going into your receiver to your tv.
And then the speakers connections which should be described in the instructions for the receiver. Just make sure the polarity is right when you connect them.
This configuration will let you control most or all of the components through the receiver since it switches most of them. Just choose the correct input and the tv will display it.
Okay, so according to that, I would need 4 HDMI cables to my HDTV, which would be impossible.... Unfortunately, my new HDTV only has 2 HDMI porsts, so is there a way to get around that issue? If I use HDMI for the ps3 and HD cable box, then is there a way to hook everything else up (including the reciever) without HDMI?
Thanks in advance.

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bhsmariana wrote:
So I recently purchased
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The guy at the store said I could get surround sound when I'm watching cable if I got a Rocketfish Digital Optical Audio Cable and plugged it in to my uverse box,
but now I'm confused because I tried plugging it in from the uverse box to the TV and that didn't work, then i tried connecting it from the uverse box to the theatre system and that didn't work,
but the loop hole we found is that if we unplug the HDMI cable that is connecting the theatre system to the TV (only unplugged from the TV), we can hear the cable on surround sound, but if it's plugged in we can't hear it, so now we have to unplug and plug in to watch movies or cable, but that's way too frustrating to deal with, does anyone know how to fix this so my surround sound works with everything w/o having to unplug?
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