Upgrading TV in 40AD

LK23 · 04-05-2008, 12:38 PM

As a follow-up to a previous post, I find I have other questions.

I plan to upgrade my TV to an LCD once I find a unit that will fit. My other concerns are:

1. I want to also upgrade the existing Sony VCR/DVD to a BluRay DVD player. It appears that some of the surround sound unit is currently contained in the Sony VCR/DVD. How do I change out this unit and still have my surround sound.

2. What should I be concerned with to accommodate HD TV in the future? I realize it will take a different satellite dish on the roof. Do I also need to be concerned about changing existing wiring when I install the LCD TV or the Blu-Ray DVD player?

LK23 · 04-05-2008, 12:38 PM

As a follow-up to a previous post, I find I have other questions.

I plan to upgrade my TV to an LCD once I find a unit that will fit. My other concerns are:

1. I want to also upgrade the existing Sony VCR/DVD to a BluRay DVD player. It appears that some of the surround sound unit is currently contained in the Sony VCR/DVD. How do I change out this unit and still have my surround sound.

2. What should I be concerned with to accommodate HD TV in the future? I realize it will take a different satellite dish on the roof. Do I also need to be concerned about changing existing wiring when I install the LCD TV or the Blu-Ray DVD player?

John_Canfield · 04-06-2008, 04:18 AM

Rex - we don't really have 5.1 surround sound in our Horizons - we have 'QSurround' (or something like that) which simply takes left and right audio (from the TV I think) and does some tricks with it and outputs to all of the little speakers (and the bass speaker.)

The QSurround amplifier is in the basement compartment right under the driver.

My brother-in-law (2007 Dutch Star) recently had his King Dome replaced with a Motosat Executive stationary dish that will receive all five DirecTV satellites. Click here for more details. I was surprised that he traded out in-motion for stationary, but apparently doing five satellites for HD is a little clunky with an in-motion dome.

Not sure about the dish wiring - maybe after you read over the information on the Motosat site, you will have a better idea of what's involved.

What will be a challenge is wiring for real 5.1 surround sound - now all of the speaker wires terminate in a connector by the QSurround. You will need to feed the individual speakers from the 5.1 amplifier output. This isn't going to be easy since our electronics are on the slide

LK23 · 04-06-2008, 07:52 AM

John,

Thanks for the info. I obviously overstated when I called it surround sound. I plan on leaving the QSurround system alone if possible. I have a high frequency hearing loss from my helicopter flying days and I have found that my money is wasted on high dollar sound systems.

I cannot figure out why coax cable is running through the Sony VCR/DVD. A previous post mentioned that was part of the QSurround. Can I simply install a Blu-Ray DVD player or will something go awry due to the missing coax connection?

Thanks for the link to Motosat. I took a brief look at the various HD models. As you know, the big question is whether dual coax is required, a problem for our units if another coax cable is needed.

My next satellite dish will probably be stationary. Our current dish is in-motion and we have never used that feature.

As always, this is one of those projects that will require considerable thought. In the meantime I can look for the appropriate LCD to fit in our cabinet.

CaptBill · 04-06-2008, 08:52 AM

John, is the coax on the back of the vcr/dvd that you are speaking of, connected to jacks marked 'RF', 'ANT', etc. with connectors of the same type as your outside cable tv connection? Or, are they marked as 'Video', 'Left', 'Right', etc?

Trying to determine if they are audio/video in/out, or RF in/out.

Try turning on both your front TV, and bedroom TV. With picture & sound on both, disconnect one of those cables on the back of the DVD player. Has anything changed?

How about playing a DVD on both TV's, and then disconnecting a cable. What happens? Your DVD may be feeding RF to one of the TV's. As John said, Q-Surround is not part of the DVD/VCR player.

John_Canfield · 04-06-2008, 12:14 PM

The only use that I'm aware of for the coax attached to the VCR is for switching via the Winegard distribution box. It is probably only carrying the TV channel 3/4 signal since that's what the Winegard box will switch.

LK23 · 04-06-2008, 12:58 PM

I just pulled my Sony VCR/DVD and looked at the back. The coax cables are marked In (From Ant) and Out (To TV). The other cables are red, white and yellow audio/video lines out that I am fairly certain go directly to the TV.

John, you may be correct that the coax goes to the Winegard distribution box. I assume this is to feed the bedroom TV.

If I replace the Sony VCR/DVD with a Blu-Ray. It seems to me that it will work without the coax connection. This means I will only be able to use the Blu-Ray to feed the front TV and not the bedroom. That is OK since we seldom use the bedroom TV. Any problems with this logic?

hondo12 · 04-06-2008, 06:32 PM

LK23, These systems can get very complicated but I have found that connecting the tv to your blue ray dvd player (I use a sony playstation 3) you will deffenitaly want to use a HDMI cable between the two to get the most from your blue ray player, than I switch my surrond sound to AV and then turn off the TV speakers.Hope this helps, make sure if you are buying new components the have the Hdmi input and output's
these cables take care of the video and audio makes hook ups simple... Craig

FrankO · 04-06-2008, 07:31 PM

I am in the midst of pulling my Sony 24" TV and replacing with a Sony Bravia 32" LCD TV. I have mounted a 3/4" piece of plywood attached with brackets to the existing metal framework. I also cutout a portion of the front of the metal framework to make enough room for the LCD to fit. If all my planning is correct and the dimensions I took are OK I will not have to modify the TV trim work. What is nice about this LCD set is that there is only about an inch of trim on the sides of the TV with the speakers on the bottom (I think). I have ordered a wall mount for the tv from ebay and is set to arrive in a day or 2. I will then finish the mounting and let you all know if the plan works.
The wiring is straight forward, coax is from the distribution box (Sat/Cable/Roof Ant), red/white/yellow in from the QSound box and red/white for sound out from the TV to the QSound box. I plan on running a red/blue/green from Sat box directly to the TV and use the TV source to select it when I want good quality picture from the Sat. Probably have sound also directly from the Sat to the TV if the speakers are decent.
I will take some pictures of the finished job when complete.
Frank O.

John_Canfield · 04-07-2008, 04:22 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by LK23:
I just pulled my Sony VCR/DVD and looked at the back. The coax cables are marked In (From Ant) and Out (To TV). The other cables are red, white and yellow audio/video lines out that I am fairly certain go directly to the TV.

John, you may be correct that the coax goes to the Winegard distribution box. I assume this is to feed the bedroom TV.

If I replace the Sony VCR/DVD with a Blu-Ray. It seems to me that it will work without the coax connection. This means I will only be able to use the Blu-Ray to feed the front TV and not the bedroom. That is OK since we seldom use the bedroom TV. Any problems with this logic? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Yup - I think you got the picture Rex! We never watch the VCR in the bedroom and rarely use the switchbox for anything. We have a satellite receiver for the bedroom and a DVR for the living room and we mostly watch those.

farrider · 04-07-2008, 08:27 AM

I am thinking of replacing my 40AD television. How do you remove the TV itself from the cabinet?