How can I hook up my basic cable to my surround sound?

How do I hook up PS3 HDMI, cable box HDMI, and surround sound?

• I have a plasma HDTV that only has one HDMI input on it. I need to be able to hook up my PS3 that is run off an HDMI cable and my cable box that is also run off an HDMI cable. (BUT I only have 1 HDMI outlet on the TV) ALSO, I got a new surround sound system that I have not hooked up yet that will need to be hooked up as well and it says it has 2 HDMI inputs on it. So, could I use those somehow? How would I go about doing this? I hope someone can help and that I didn't make this too confusing!

• Answer:

  Typically you would purchase a Home Theater Receiver. This is a device which accepts multiple audio and video inputs from all your devices (cable box, game console, etc.) and then outputs the selected video to your TV and the corresponding audio to your speakers. A surround sound system or 'Home Theater in a Box' (which is what you appear to have) also acts like a receiver (so you don't need to purchase one!). However, unlike standalone receivers, surround sound systems are often very limited in terms of the number of HDMI/video inputs (and sometimes don't even have any video inputs!). In this case it's okay since you say you only have two devices to connect and your sound system has two video inputs, so you're fine. Basically you just connect the HDMI outputs from the cable-box and PS3 to the surround sound system, and then connect the surround sound system HDMI out to the TV. The result is that sound input from your PS3/Cable-box will be sent directly to the surround sound speaker system while the video will be passed on to the TV from the surround sound system. You then select which device you want active (PS3 or cable-box) by selecting the corresponding input through the surround sound system. The alternative way to set everything up (if you had multiple HDMI inputs on the TV) is to connect each device to your TV's HDMI inputs and the connect the TV's audio output to the surround sound system audio input. In this case you select the active device by changing the video input on your TV.