TV cabling question

Okay this is doing my head in.
Here's what I have:

Panasonic Viera PZ850 42" Plasma TV (built-in freeview)
Panasonic Bluray Player (w/ HDMI slot)
Panasonic Home Theatre audio thing (No HDMI slot)
Phillips DVD recorder (No HDMI slot)

What's the best way to connect all these?
I have one HDMI cable, and a bunch of RCA.

Essentially I want to watch TV through the DVD-recorder, so that I can pause and rewind when I'm watching, and then switch to a different AV channel or whatever if I want to watch a bluray movie. But if I do that, am I losing quality somehow? And can I still use the freeview menu? And will there be any difference in quality if I watch a normal DVD using my bluray drive or dvd recorder?

guessing your home theatre is surround ?

In which case you will need an optical out cable coming from your tv or if your DVD recorder is capable, from the TV into the dvd recorder, then optical out from the DVD recorder to the home theatre.

Plug your HDMI cable from the bluray player into your tv, and providing your home theatre has 2 optical in, an optical out from the bluray player to the home theatre.

IF your home theatre amp is smart you should be able to only switch between the DVD recorder and the blu ray player for audio.

But yeah... a lot of if's.

I would need actually see the inputs

At the moment I've got the antenna plugged into dvd-rec, have a yellow-RCA going from dvd-rec --> TV, and the red/white-RCA going from dvd-rec ---> Home Audio... and this works, but now I can't seem to access the Freeview bit that works fine when I just plug the antenna directly into the TV... but if I do that then I can't record/pause etc.

The aerial should always be plugged into the TV, RCA out from your TV to the DVD player.

So do I have antenna plugged into TV, RC out to the DVD-rec, and then have another RCA back into the TV? Otherwise I don't see how I can access the dvd-rec menu etc...

um, it's difficult to give advice without knowing exactly what inputs & outputs are involved.

my advice is, just pretend you're the signal, and walk around your system connecting the cables to that you're able to complete your route to your desired locations.

Ok well.

TV = 3 x HDMI in, and a whole shitload of RCA in/out
DVD = antenna in, satellite in, TV out, RCA in, RCA out x 2
Bluray = HDMI, RCA
Audio = component/RCA out, AUX in (only one red/white pair)

As above, I've got the TV working through the DVD-rec, but the quality is way worse, and I can't get to the freeview from it.. :/

The only way I can really think of accomplishing it is if I can split the aerial from the wall and have one going to the DVD and one to the TV.. can I do that?

yes.

go to Dick Smith & tell them your problems. The will sort it.

better still eastern hifi

sounds like you need some co-ax audio cables

If you want to "watch TV through your DVD recorder" then yes. Which is retarded because you'll lose the HD magicness of it. So don't.

Watching TV - straight on the Digital Channels on the TV
Recording TV - RCA outs to your DVD Recorder, then RCA's back into your TV for viewing.
Watching BluRay - HDMI cable
Audio - ideally the TV has an optical audio out? If so, that out to the Home Theatre, then whatever's on your screen will be on the audio


You mentioned settings on your TV in other thread - try and find a proper TV review of it that shows settings they used . Out of the box is always pretty rubbish. Usually, you want to turn the sharpness down to zero or 1 for example...

Get a DVDR with HDMI

I would never take advice from a Dick Smith employee.

But the problem is a simple one, and they have all the stuff. I wouldn't need to ask though, I'd go in there, find what I need and get it.

Night Rider's suggestion is better.

+1

Mr fiance went to buy me a cable the other day, they asked if she needed help, she said what cable she needed and asked why.

They then proceeded to tell her she didn't need that cable but another one, and that they didn't have the cable she needed anyway.

Returned home with wrong cable, I returned it, walked straight over to where the cable we asked for was sitting and bought it.

Advice from DSE, or even most regular electronic retail stores, is NOT recommended (for the most part).

What you need to do is:

BLURAY
1.HDMI from Bluray to TV (for Picture)
2.Coaxial or Optical from Bluray to Home theatre for sound (if it isn't this, you will not get 5.1).

DVDR
1. Aerial (RF) in from wall
2. Aerial out and into TV (This allows TV signal to both)
3. Component video (Red blue green) to TV (picture)
3.Coaxial or Optical to Home theatre for sound (RCA will do but not best)

You will now be able to record something and watch another or record and watch a recording or Bluray.

Easy!!