Kilted Fool

Last night we lost our temper and went for a KISS principle connection setup. Pulled the VCR out of the system entirely, will be moving it upstairs and pairing it with a different TV in the office/computer room/ guest room. Then pulled all connections off the back of the receiver except the optical from DVD and the subwoofer cable. Digital cable came into the cable box and out to the coax on the tv, and we ran red and white RCA connectors into the receiver so we can get digital surround from cable movies. Ran a single RCA connector from the DVD video out to the tv, and I think that was the lot of it. Worked like a charm, seems to be fine now. I hadn't realized that the optical apparently carries the full audio signal as well, but to my half deaf ear, we had true 5.1 surround (with some juicy Replacement Killers gunfights). So the optical carries video and audio to the receiver, where audio is used and video dead ends. Video is supplied direct to TV through Video jack, which required us deleting all channels from the TV's memory except 4 (for cable box) and the Input 1/Input 2 that you use for playstation and the like. Could I put the VCR back into the loop so long as it was wall-cable box-VCR-TV on coaxial and DVD-TV(video) and DVD-Receiver(audio) on RCA connectors and optical cable respectively? And if I had a TV with S-Video or optical input capability (down the road maybe) would it make sense to run through the receiver or stick to the direct approach? I didn't really understand the on-screen display option discussed above. Now you mention it, I recall that sort of picture happening years ago when I tried to use two VCRs to dub a copy of Tombstone. Appreciate the help. It's ironic that I can build my own computer, but I get lost when I talk home or car audio. Now to cross program all the remotes and get down from 6 remotes to 1-3. Crazy. KF

Ok folks, this isn't specifically Klipsch related, but I've found this forum to be very helpful when I was putting together my audio for my computer, Klipsch is the monster there, so here I am again. The wife and I went a little nuts and purchased a new DVD player, amplifier, and surround system this past weekend. We've been fiddling with the connections for a few days now, and have gotten everything to work for the most part, though we haven't managed to consolidate remotes just yet. My wife did most of the connections because she's a- the patient one and b- small enough to get in behind the entertainment center The biggest problem we're having is that DVD playback quality is terrible. We bought a few DVDs so we could enjoy having this stuff once it was all put together, and right now my VCR outputs a better picture. The picture when playing DVDs tends to "cycle" through a very bright, then a very dark picture, with occasional flickers of blue screen. Very annoying and not at all what we were expecting. (Researches model numbers in another window) Our system: 27" Sharp TV 3 yrs old (No S-Video connects, just coax and front and rear red white yellow RCAs) Sony VCR (pretty standard item, 1 1/2 yr old, think it has S-Video and others) Motorola Digital Cable Box (we have comcast, this version of the box they supplied has no S-Video or SPDIF connections, just coax or RCA) Sony 5 Disc DVD player, model DVP-NC600B (Got this for $250 on sale from $300) Yamaha receiver, model HTR-xxxx (was $400, supposedly down from $800, supposedly leftover overstock from Christmas, supposedly top of HTR line which Tweeter doesn't normally stock, they handle the higher line) Mirage AVS 200 satellites and AVS 100 center channel I believe (they had Klipsch in stock, couldn't afford them, first upgrade planned)since the pics on their site look similar. Boston Acoustics PV400 subwoofer (They didn't have the matched sub for the Mirage speakers, so they discounted this one and matched it in) Bought a Monster Cable optical for the DVD to receiver connect and a Monster Subwoofer cable. What am I doing wrong? Cable comes in to the cable box, then through the VCR, then I believe to the receiver. Just about everything is connected to the receiver, since it has something like 60 jacks on the back of it. Also, on another note, did I get boned on pricing? Receiver $400 (claimed $800 normally) DVD $250 (claimed $300 normally) Spkrs+sub $600 (claimed $500+$300 normally) cables+wire$150 Thanks much KF

Recently spoke with a Klipsch customer service person about the 4.1s and if there were any updates on ETA or pricing, since I had spoken to her on the day they changed the website to no longer accept orders for the V.2-400. The specific rep I spoke to said that the change in price was because the new system was just adding the CP-1 module to the existing V.2-400 system, so the price reflected the cost of both. I'm curious if that is true, I seem to recall in recent time lurking here (though I could just be senile) that there were some minor internal changes to be made to the system that was to be labelled 4.1 other than just adding the CP-1 module. My reasoning on this is, if what the lady told me is true, there's not much reason to wait for the 4.1s, as I can get a CP-1 from Klipsch and a set of the V.2-400s from one of several places (outpost.com among them). If what she advised me is not true, I can still wait (or balance how much gain I will get out of the new model by waiting), but it might be good to make sure the reps have been given good information. Of course, it might be moot, since I'm fairly tone deaf and any gains might be more or less lost on me. Oh, and to throw another question or two into this ramble: I noticed the jacks on the X-Gamer didn't seem to be consistent in terms of their labelling, color coding, and how they were pictured in the manual. An example is that my microphone jack has a green stripe, which means it should go in the green port, but the port that has the mike next to it is not the green one (Can't remember perfectly, I'm at work right now). Anyone else run into this? And just to give the background system: Athlon 800 on Epox EP-7KXA 256 MB PC133 (about to go 384) Hercules Guillemot GeForce DDR Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 (recently installed, love the bundle) Boka sat and sub set (cheap cheesy speakers, tend to fuzz on Diablo2 and Deus Ex) Kilted Fool