HDTV Setup Guide - DVD or Blu-ray Player, Stereo Amplifier & HDTV
If you don't have much left for sound after buying your big TV, there's still a lot to be said for using your trusty old stereo setup instead of your TV's speakers. TV speakers are seldom capable of any dynamic range, bass weight or refinement, especially the tiny speakers hidden in flatscreens. Luckily, every Blu-ray or DVD player can be plugged into your existing amplifier and speakers in exactly the same way as a CD player.
After connecting the Blu-ray or DVD to the TV using an HDMI, HDMI-DVI or Component cable, simply connect the player's stereo analogue Audio Out sockets to the any of the amp's Audio In sockets using RCA cables. You can actually completely replace your CD player, as all DVD and Blu-ray players function brilliantly as CD players. The analogue inputs and outputs are nearly always red and white, and sometimes red and black. Just make sure that red goes to red and black or white goes to black or white.
You can also connect the HDTV itself to the amplifier using the same setup for a more powerful sound from television broadcasts. If your amplifier is all out of spare input sockets, there are loads of external switches available to connect multiple sources to one socket. It's not an elegant solution, but it works. If your TV decodes digital audio, you can also use the audio from the HDMI plug of the Blu-ray or DVD player, and run stereo RCA cables from the TV back to the amplifier, which makes switching between television broadcasts and video playback as simple as changing channels on your TV.
With DVI, you'll need to use an stereo RCA connection between the player and TV,
Likewise with Component Video connectors, run a stereo RCA cable between the player and TV, and run another stereo cable between the TV and amplifier.
WARNING: Do not connect televisions, Blu-ray or CD players to a stereo amplifier's "Phono" imputs. Phono inputs are designed for low-level signals from record players, and the powerful signals from modern devices will damage the amplifier and speakers.
If you arrived at this page but have different equipment, go the the main page of the HDTV Setup Guide to find the setup that suits you.
Which Cables?
Confused about the names of cables? Here's a quick visual guide to help you figure out which connectors we're talking about. If you're not familiar with the technical terms, either click the words the difficult words for a definition or visit our HDTV Glossary.