Home theater audio question.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

As most of you know, we have been rebuilding since the lightning strike. Most of the smaller TVs, we replaced with TVs from Goodwill (for those who don't know, Goodwill is a second-hand chain), and we were able to take the leftover money, combined with some saved money we had, and bought a PS3 (80GB) and Samsung LN52A580 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8794049&type=product&id=1205537712281). The only reason we were able to get one that big, was that they were having a deal that if you got it and Geek Squad setup, it was $1450. So, we took it home, I set it up, and Geek Squad came out a week later to say, yes, it was setup correctly.

Anyhow, I am running the PS3 to the TV via HDMI ($12 cable at Big Lots), and my sister's Wii via component. We will be wanting to get a surround sound setup within a month or two, and I am leaning toward this Yamaha (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8743595&type=product&id=1202648988836) setup, since I demo'd it in-store, and it sounds great (also has HDMI in/out, and the sub is powered) to me.

As-is, I have the internal speakers turned off (they kind-of needed it, like most do), and I'm running audio via the TV's analog output to my old RCA rp-9388c bookshelf Prologic surround bookshelf receiver, with the original center channel speaker, and a pair of Sony SS-U420 towers I picked up at Goodwill.

Would it be better to run it PS3 to the receiver (via HDMI) to the TV (HDMI), or PS3 to the TV (HDMI) with an optical line from the TV audio out to the receiver? I think that, since the Wii only does analog audio out, that I'll have to connect it separately, unless the TV can convert it to digital (or just use the TV's analog audio out to the receiver). I know I can play around with it when we do eventually get it, but I'd like some opinions before we get it.

-Adam

[Spectre]

You are going to have to see if your receiver will decode the audio via HDMI while passing the video on to the TV and that it is not just a pass through HDMI connection. This is the case with some HT's in a box and low end receivers.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Hmm. I don't generally put any real faith in user reviews, but it looks like that is the case with this unit. So, if we got it, I'd imagine I'd be running audio from the PS3 to it via optical, and leaving the HDMI going straight to the TV. For TV audio, I guess I'd run the optical line out from the TV to the second optical input on the receiver. Since the Wii is analog anyway, I'd run it as-is via component to the receiver, and use Prologic for surround.

The only real downside I can see is that if I run things like that, it only leaves one digital audio input free (coaxial), but I don't think that'll be a big deal, since I don't see us adding anything else to the setup. Even if we do, I can pickup a digital audio selector, I suppose.

That sound about right? At the local BB, it's $350, and that's about as much as we will be able to afford (minus a service plan). At that price point, I haven't found anything better. We also want to buy at BB, if possible. Their service plan is excellent, they just replace things if/when they go. Even replaced the Wii after the lightning strike (even when told it was a lightning strike), going so far as to replace Mario Kart Wii, since it was stuck in it and they couldn't get it out. The kicker was, they knew we didn't even get the game there, but they still replaced it.

-Adam