Help connect HTPC to Receiver/TV

[_cashel]

I've got the actual htpc built, but I'm at a loss on how to go about connecting it to the entertainment system so that I have video/audio output and also video/audio input for PVR functions.

Right now the enetertainment system is setup with a 36" Proscan Standard Def. TV, an Onkyo TX-DS676 Receiver, Generic progressive scan Panasonic DVD player, proscan VCR, and an older DirecTV sattelite box with a serial port on the back.

The audio on sat. box is connected via analog to video 1 on the receiver, with an s-video going to the TV. The DVD is the same only for video 4/DVD. The VCR is also the same (but for Video 2) only instead of S-Video, it's a component video cable. This leaves me with Video 3 which only has input connections.

I don't care about removing the VCR out of the picture since it's never used anyway. However, I don't have any S-video ports left on the back of the TV. The receiver has an S-Video port for each channel, but no channel has a video cable plugged in, it all goes directly to the TV.

The HTPC setup has a Geforce FX5200 card with S-Video output, and a Hauppage PVR150 for recording. I was planning on using the onboard sound on my Asus A7N8X Dlx. Rev. 2 for everything, using a digital coax audio cable for the output.

I really don't deal too much with entertainment systems, I'm more computer oriented, so I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed. I have no idea how to plug in the HTPC to get the best Input/Output on it, while still being able to watch DirecTV through it. Any tips on if/how I should rewire everything so it all works flawlessly together?

 

[IDversusEGO]

why aren't you running the svideo through the receiver? If it has svideo inputs, you should be able to run the video sources through the receiver and just take one video output from the receiver to the TV. Your HTPC can go that way too. Take a look at these diagrams. They are for a 696, but the layout is probably the same...

http://www.us.onkyo.com/hookup.cfm?new=y&m=TX-DS696

 

[_cashel]

why aren't you running the svideo through the receiver? If it has svideo inputs, you should be able to run the video sources through the receiver and just take one video output from the receiver to the TV. Your HTPC can go that way too. Take a look at these diagrams. They are for a 696, but the layout is probably the same...

http://www.us.onkyo.com/hookup.cfm?new=y&m=TX-DS696

to be honest, I don't know why the s-video isn't being run through it, I didn't set up the system
. I had actually thought about running everything through like that, but I wasn't too sure. The only thing I'm a bit confused on is if I'm going to connect it to the receiver like that, am I going to have to run s-video/audio from the HTPC into the recevier, and then also s-video/audio from the reciever to the HTPC for recording?

 

[IDversusEGO]

You are going to have to go right from the Sat/cable box to the HTPC for recording. Most Sat boxes have multiple outputs so you could run one direct to the HTPC for recording and another to the receiver if you aren't going to have the HTPC be your full time TV viewer. See, most people just use the HTPC to view TV fulltime, recording or not, and ditch the sat box connection to the TV. With a properly configured HTPC, there is no need for the sat. box to be routed to anything but the HTPC.