Prefered component hook up approach

[PaulD]

I am a novis at home theater set up but I am making a run at it in my new house. I am in the process of accumulating the components and am waiting for big price drops between now and Christmas to get all the final pieces in place. While discussing components with several vendors, it became obvious that different approaches exist in how to tie the TV and A/V receiver together. I already have good quality receiver (Denon 3808CI - still in the box) that I will be using and I would like to here your opinions and how to arrange components to achieve the best results. I originally expected to route all my sources (Cox cable, DVD, Blu-ray, etc) to the receiver and then let the receiver feed the HDTV and 5.1 speakers. However, I have had some shops tell me I should feed the sources direct to the HDTV and let the HDTV (Samsung LN52A650) feed the sound back to the receiver.
Since my A/V receiver has very good video upscale and other features, I would like to use it as my hub for all signal routing. However, it is obvious that everyone does not take that same approach. I have been assuming the the "other" approach is best for less capable receivers while my approach is best for a good receiver.
Opinions welcome.

 

[sic0048]

All sound should definitely go to the receiver. Most TVs won't even output a digital signal except for the OTA NTSC tuner. So even if you send the TV a dolby digital audio signal from a DVD player, it won't send the dolby signal back out the optical output (even if it has one). So all audio should go to the receiver.

Whether or not you send the video signals to the receiver depends on the equipment I guess. There is no right or wrong way. I would guess you won't even be able to see a difference between the two options, but try both and see which you like more (running to TV vs. receiver).

 

[IVB]

Sic0048 is spot on about the receiver, can't believe anyone would tell you otherwise.

For video, use your own eyes as the judge. For me, I couldn't tell the difference between passthrough via receiver with only a single component connection to the HDTV versus lots of direct connections. Given that, I went with the much simpler route of passthrough via receiver as I could then just switch the receiver, and both audio & video would be dealt with. As opposed to how my inlaws have it setup, where I gotta press the "DVD" button their Denon remote, then the "component-2" button on the Panny remote. That sucks.

 

[PaulD]

Thanks...your responses supports my expectation. In fairness to the people giving me advice, they did not know I would be using a higher end receiver that had more processsing power than most components. They probably assumed I would be using a lower end receiver with limited capability or an older receiver without all the bells and whistles. I am seeking the approach that will make normal TV viewing easiest for my wife so she will not need to do the multiple remote game. My initial set up will be with a Harmony One remote since I already have it but I will be taking a hard look at switching to RF via something like a MX900 if I have any problems with IR.