Q. I know this may sound dumb, but I recently moved things around my house and I need to reconnect my TV to my basic equipment — satellite DVR and Blu-ray player — and I don’t have a clue how to do it. I always get confused over what cable goes where and so forth. Help me, Mr. Answer Man. — Michelle, Waco, Texas.
Michelle, it’s not a dumb question at all. A lot of people get a little intimidated when connecting set-top boxes to the TV. In fact, I’ve seen auto mechanics — people who could strip a car and put it back together in no time — cower when asked to hook up their TVs.
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So let’s make it simple here.
First, you get two HDMI cables. (If you’re not sure what’s an HDMI cable, click here.) Insert the first HDMI cable into the satellite box’s HDMI 1 OUT port and then take the other end and insert it into your TV’s HDMI 1 IN port.
Now, take the second HDMI cable and insert it into the Blu-ray Player’s HDMI 2 OUT port and then take the other end of the cable and put it into your TV’s HDMI 2 IN port.
Then, plug in the TV, the satellite receiver and the Blu-ray player. That’s basically it. When you want to watch satellite TV, you will hit the Input or Video button on your remote and click on HDMI 1. When you watch to watch the Blu-ray player, you will click on HDMI 2.
If your TV has more than two HDMI inputs — and most new models do — you can connect another set-top such as a Roku player or video game console to HDMI 3 and so on.
Happy Viewing!
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One other thing that would be helpful would be to label the HDMI inputs, for example: BluRay, Netflix, etc. Many TVs have this capability.