A/V Advice needed: Too many components, not enough imputs

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am kinda new at this so please bear with me if I mess up some terminology…

I got a Home Theater DVD system which replaced my trusty VCR/DVD combo unit when I upgraded to a big (for me) HDTV and I love the sound but I miss playing my VHS tapes (I have some rare things and live music that are impossible to replace and I’m not into spending the money and time to convert them all).

As it stands, I have HDMI connecting the DirecTV box to the TV and the Home Theater to the TV with RCA Audio cables connecting the DirecTV box to the Home Theater. So far, so good!

I added a Wii which is hooked up to the Home Theater (using extension cables) for audio and through the one Video imput left on the TV for video. This leaves no more audio imputs for the Home Theater and no more video imputs on the TV.

(I have to keep the Wii audio through the Home Theater because my wife hates me having a VCR and loves the Wii so if I downgrade the audio on her game, she will downgrade my VCR to the garbage. :slight_smile: )

I got the VCR and it works fine (albeit with audio coming through the TV instead of the Home Theater; I can live with this) but only if I remove the Wii from the Video imput because that’s the only one left on the TV and that can never do…

There are several things I can think of (and maybe someone here knows something I haven’t thought of?) - I’d love to know which one is my best option without buying a bunch of cables, some of which might not even work…

  1. Get a RCA Cable Splitter 2 Female / 1 Male like this:
    http://images.marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/hi/61/61482/tothrcaad006_efc_l.jpg

I can hook up the Wii and the VCR audio through the same connection on the TV. I don’t plan on watching the VRC while playing the Wii and the Wii audio goes through the Home Theater so I can switch back and forth, I think.

  1. Use a coaxial cable to connect the VRC to the TV and watch video tapes on channel 3 (or 4) on the TV like in the old days. It’s only VHS so the quality loss can’t be that bad, can it? (Assuming it works?)

  2. Use component video cables to attach the VCR to the TV and RCA Audio cables. (The TV has room for this, but not another Yellow RCA Video cable, oddly enough - when I try and hook up the Yellow Audio cable to the TV here, the video looks like it’s black and white with bad tracking).

Both of these solutions relegate Audio to the TV which is a bummer…

My option for getting Surround Sound audio with the VCR seems to involve three splitters, split the two Audio imputs in the Home Theater and the video on the TV, have the Wii and VCR in both (I might need another extension cable, which is fine) and have both of them run through the same components entirely.

This is ideal if it will actually work!

I realize in all cases above that I cannot play the Wii while using the VCR and that’s fine. As long as I can seamlessly switch between the two without moving the entertainment system and switching cables around, I am happy.

Can anyone offer me their humble opinion which way would be best (and if any won’t work)?

2

I just checked and the VCR doesn’t have component outputs! I should have checked before I posted but that means this potential solution is out…

(The VCR has an S-Video output which would be great but the TV doesn’t have any S-Video imputs at all, unfortunately…)

3

It would help if you listed what inputs the TV and Home Theater have.

Generally speaking a modern receiver should be taking all inputs, video and audio, and handling all the switching itself. Of course this assumes that you have a adequate receiver with enough inputs, but this should be common enough these days. The only thing connecting to the TV should be the HDMI and Optical Audio cables from the receiver. In this situation it should be trivial to connect a Direct TV, Wii and VCR. Many modern receivers do away with composite inputs and coaxial inputs which makes some VCRs antiquated, so you might need to by an adapter of some kind.

Your description listed above doesn’t make any sense. Reread it and check your terminology. What do you mean by RCA cables? RCA is the name of the connector type and is usually misused to mean composite cables, both composite and component cables can use RCA connectors. Do you understand the difference between composite cables and component cables?

Chances are the VCRs antiquated connectors will be your limiting factor. If either the receiver or TV have connectors which work with it, very few have coaxial, composite and S-video these days, then connect to that and connect everything else around it.

VCRs only playback stereo sound, and poorly at that, so I wouldn’t make any effort to connect it through the home theater. It’s likely not worth the energy and would only highlight the shortcomings of VHS sound.

4

The word is “input.” Think about it.

5

There are component switchers out there that might help you:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3697371#

That’s just one. There are several using various connections that might be of use.

I have one that I use for my stuff and it works great. It’s a bit older and more simplistic, but it does the job where there are more components than inputs.

6

Pick the type of connectors you want to use and buy an appropriate switch box.

7

You’re now the second person I’ve encountered who consistently uses the word “imput”. Curious.

8

You should look into getting a betterA/V Receiver. One that has enough inputs for number of devices that you have. Then you just need one HDMI connection to the TV. Alternatively, get a switch like FalconFinder mentioned.

I don’t know if it helps, but you can get a Component cable for the Wii. This might please the spouse. (There are cheaper ones than the one I linked. This one was just first.)

9

From the sound of things, you’re just using red/white RCA stereo for the sound for all devices, right? If that’s the case, does your TV have red/white audio OUT connections? And do you actually have an additional component connection on the TV that’s not being used? Your post is kinda unclear on that point; first you say “This leaves no more audio imputs for the Home Theater and no more video imputs on the TV,”, but later you say, “Use component video cables to attach the VCR to the TV and RCA Audio cables. (The TV has room for this)”. So, if you have an unused component connection on the TV, here’s what I’m thinking:

Get a component cable for the Wii, and hook it up to the unused connection on the TV, both video and audio. Hook the VCR up to the now-free composite yellow/white/red connections on the TV. Then, take the red/white audio cable that’s running from the DirecTV box, and run it from the “Audio Out” jacks on the TV (really, I’ll be stunned if your TV doesn’t have them) to the inputs on your home theater system.

Now, all your audio is running to the TV, and all the audio is running through the single red/white connection from the TV to the home theater. You won’t even have to change inputs on the home theater box to use the different devices.

If you want to get fancier and get better sound from your satellite system, you can run an optical audio cable from the DirecTV box to the home theater box, but that’s not absolutely required.

10

Quite a few modern A/V Receivers upconvert Composite & S-Video to Component (and even HDMI). Does yours?