need help with home audio setup please...

[gunslash]

I'm a audio neewbie and I need some help with setting up my equipment folks.
Over this holiday season, I acquired the following hardware : Sharp Aquos 32' 1080p LCD, Toshiba A35 HDDVD Player, Onkyo HT-SR600 home theater system (5.1 no HDMi in/out) and I am confused on how to set it up most optimally. The receiver is onkyo RT-R340. Also the XBOX 360 (elite -hdmi) is thrown in the mix and I'd like to hook it up too.

I set up the speakers tonight, but I forgot to get the RCA cables, there were none included in the box. There's about a billion connections in the back, and what goes where?

The XBOX 360 is hooked up to the TV via HDMI, how would I hook it up to the receiver to get surround sound without losing 1080p image? I can't have both the hdmi and regular a/v cable hooked up at the same time as they don't fit next to each other.

I assume once I pick up the cables manana, that the DVD setup is gona be fairly straightforward? Just hook up the 5 surround sound cables and that's it? That won't affect the 1080p video output I hope? And WTF is an optical cable hookup, would that work better/same/different/cheaper to go that route?

And once I get my computer hooked up to the LCD, can I have it set up to run sound through the receiver&speakers?
I know the manual will answer some of these questions, but I have like 4 of them to read and the information they give is somewhat different...please help if you can!

Thanks!
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[TastesLikeChicken]

The 360 has an optical out (TOS) so you should use that connected to one of the optical inputs on your receiver (there are 2 optical inputs on your receiver). For the DVD you may want to use either optical or the digital coax connection rather than using the analogue outputs/inputs. Save the analogue inputs for your PC, unless it has optical or digital coax.

Also, for connecting your PC, does your Aquos have 2 or 3 HDMI inputs? I'm asking because I just set up an Aquos for my parents today and it only had 2 HDMI inputs. If you have your 360 and the A35 connected via HDMI, you'll need another HDMI input for your PC unless your video card has component output support.

 

[gunslash]

the aquos has 2 HDMi ports. great quality TV otherwise huh?

if I connect the xbox with the regular cable (the optic connection is ON that cable for some reason) I won't be able to use the HDMI connection then...how much will image quality suffer (the TV can take 1080p).

thank you

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I don't think the quality will suffer too much, if at all, since the 360 can do 1080p over component. The only drawback is that it wouldn't upscale standard DVDs (they'd be 480p), but that's not really an issue for you since your A35 would be used for that purpose anyway.