New Surround Sound Setup?

[LilSnoop40]

hi, i just purchased this for my basement this xmas. i am trying to setup a surround for my movies and xbox 360 gaming. along with new Onkyo HT-SR800 i have a Pioneer PDP-5071HD Plasma and the Toshiba HD-A30 High-Definition DVD Player. i went out today an purchased me some Monster Cable XP brand from best buy. 16 gauge i believe, i was told 14 gauge wasn't all that important since those speaker for the surround sound won't have much bass coming through them. i am wondering if this speaker wire is ok to use for this system. i won't be running any piece's bigger then 30ft. the two rear will be 30ft while the fronts may be 15ft at the longest. i bought a some Monster Cable - Quick Lock Gold Flex Pin Connector (2-Pair Pack) to put on the speaker wire to plug into the speakers and i bought Monster Cable QL GMT-H QuickLock Gold Banana Connectors (2 Pair) to connect from the other end of the speaker wire to the Onkyo receiver.lastly i bought that Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote to run everything from my hd dvd player to my dtv to my xbox and what no. is this all ok and will it work together fine or is there somethings i could do with out? thanks for the help. i will greatly apprciate it.


Lastly is there any suggested height to mount the rear and front speakers, i was going to keep them all at 6ft?

thanks

[Chris D]

Thank you for mentioning M* in your post. Please send your $5.00 royalty check to:

Noel Lee
500 Prick Lane
New York, NY 91523

[LilSnoop40]

i have everything installed and up and running. i don't understand though when i have a movie in on my HD-30 whether its a hd movie or a regular movie its only showing up as pcm audio? what is wrong. i have a hdmi from my tv to my receiver hdmi out. i have a hdmi from my dvd player to the input 1 or 2 on the receiver. and a optical from my dvd player to the receiver. also i can NOT get any audio from my xbox 360 not sure what i need to do or what the best way to hook this up is. not sure if i need another wire or what. i have been reading many forums and no luck. i have a Pioneer PDP-5071HD Plasma and the Toshiba HD-A30 High-Definition DVD Player and the Directv H20 receiver. what's the best way to run this all to get the best sound.

thanks

[LilSnoop40]

ok, so now i have have changed a setting. i put the hdmi from my directv to my tv's input 5 and a Optical Digital Audio Cable to my Onkyo Receiver. now i have audio with a red symbol looking like "DD". and for my Toshiba HD-30 i did the same thing i ran a hdmi from my Toshiba HD-30 to my tv's input 6 and a Optical Digital Audio Cable to my Onkyo Receiver. everything is up and running now. not really sure if this was the best way to do this.. opinions please?

now the only thing left for me to hook up is my xbox 360. not really sure what the best way to do this is. all my hdmi spots are taking on my tv. so what are the suggestions please.

thanks

[Chris D]

Snoop- I think you've got the right setting for the DirecTV. Is your Onkyo receiver one of the new ones that is HDMI 1.3 compatible, with HDMI audio decoding? And how many HDMI inputs does the Onkyo have? You probably have three, and can do the video switching at the receiver instead of running a line from each to the TV.