HDMI-CEC: some questions

[VJ]

Hello,

My parents are in the market for a new TV and they are considering a Samsung. Purchase is still a few months away, but as I will only have a short time to install it (during a visit to Belgium), I want to be prepared.

Currently, they use a programmable remote to control all devices (an old Marantz branded pronto remote), but when they get a new TV, it would support HDMI-CEC, just like their set top box (needed for TV) and their receiver. While they have a 5.1 system, most of the time they do not use it as it is "too complicated to switch on". I would hope that with the new TV and HDMI-CEC, everything could be more intuitive. But how to connect things?

The devices are:
- TV
- STB (provider supplied; supports HDMI-CEC)
- Home cinema receiver
- DVD player (older model, does not support HDMI-CEC

Main functionality
- watch TV (using STB, preferably using home cinema receiver for audio)
- listen to internet radio (TV off)
- watch DVD
- play CD (TV off)


How would I connect things? I found this website:

http://www.connectivityguide.philips.com/

Which results in (adjusted for my situation):
STB -hdmi-> TV -hdmi-arc-> receiver
dvd player -hdmi+digital coax-> receiver (I would do it this way: dvd player does not support hdmi-cec, and is used for cd playback)

I would have thought the receiver goes between TV and STB:
STB -hdmi-> receiver -hdmi-> TV
(but that is maybe more old-school :-))

From what I read in manuals, the option does seem to make sense, as the TV can list all the controllable devices.... Any suggestions on how to get the best performance of the combination?

Thanks!


Jörg

[VJ]

Ok, my parents decided on a top model Samsung.
From what I read, it should be very good at recognizing other devices and even automatically (?) allowing the remote to be used for other devices.

I will have to see how it goes with HDMI-CEC, but from the limited pdf manual, it looks like I need to connect everything directly to the TV and then let is scan for devices.

One surprise to me: the TV has 0 analog connectors. It only has hdmi, usb and ethernet. Not even a headphone out! Not such a big deal, as my parents home cinema receiver can be used to connect analog devices, but still quite a surprise to me.