*** THE OFFICIAL HOME THEATER & AUDIO THREAD**

[crazychinee]

Getting a 5.1 setup w/receiver(onkyo HTS3300) in 2 weeks , want to verify the setup:

TV-> receiver via Optical
Xbox360 to receiver via hdmi
PS3 to receiver via hdmi
hdmi-> TV?

Would I therefore get 5.1 through my speakers on normal cable when it's available?
I know the HDMI from the 360 sends audio to my tv directly, but would it send the 5.1 to the receiver without an optical input?
Ditto for the ps3.

The receiver is 1.4 hdmi.



Want to confirm so i'll know how much cables to pickup.

[HCCA]

all modern receivers AFAIK have HDMI inputs and they output the audio to the speaker outputs.
HDMI passthrough is a bit of a "feature" on some models, even though it seems to be a standard feature on them now.

HDMI 1.4 offers "audio return", which will allow for your receiver to get audio from your TV via the HDMI cable as well as send audio to the TV via HDMI. HDMI 1.3 didnt have audio return and so it couldnt get audio from your TV.
Though the proper way to connect is to use your TV and a monitor and use no audio from it, however some newer TV's have features such as Google TV, youtube and Netflix built into the TV and so you would want to get 5.1 audio from that - this is where the audio return channel comes in handy.

@ crazychinee: that receiver should allow the 360 to output sound from the HDMI cable through the built in amp, according to the explanation above nah.

[crazychinee]

all modern receivers AFAIK have HDMI inputs and they output the audio to the speaker outputs.
HDMI passthrough is a bit of a "feature" on some models, even though it seems to be a standard feature on them now.

HDMI 1.4 offers "audio return", which will allow for your receiver to get audio from your TV via the HDMI cable as well as send audio to the TV via HDMI. HDMI 1.3 didnt have audio return and so it couldnt get audio from your TV.
Though the proper way to connect is to use your TV and a monitor and use no audio from it, however some newer TV's have features such as Google TV, youtube and Netflix built into the TV and so you would want to get 5.1 audio from that - this is where the audio return channel comes in handy.

@ crazychinee: that receiver should allow the 360 to output sound from the HDMI cable through the built in amp, according to the explanation above nah.

Thought so.
Just didn't want to end up setting up my stuff, and realizing I need to go buy more cables.

[ruffneck_12]

It have any programs to simulate a crossover and other audio processors on a computer?

So you cud control the settings for each jack separately. Any thing like that exists?

[Anton]

How crucial is built in up-converting when selecting a new receiver? Is it significantly better than the built in up-conversion on HD television sets? Should i fork out the extra cash?

[crazychinee]

How crucial is built in up-converting when selecting a new receiver? Is it significantly better than the built in up-conversion on HD television sets? Should i fork out the extra cash?

HD-TV's upconvert?
Mine doesn't.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ not all HDTV's do upconverting and the upconversion in a TV is often not so hot compared to upconverting receivers and players with AnchorBay and Faroujda processors built in

How crucial is built in up-converting when selecting a new receiver? Is it significantly better than the built in up-conversion on HD television sets? Should i fork out the extra cash?

considerably important - buy the best upconverting processor in a receiver that you can afford - it will be worth it.

my Samsung 58" plasma can upconvert but the Anchor Bay processor in the Pioneer receiver does a better job of upconverting cable TV or the PS3 does a better job of upconverting standard DVDs from 480i to 1080p

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Getting a 5.1 setup w/receiver(onkyo HTS3300) in 2 weeks , want to verify the setup:

TV-> receiver via Optical
Xbox360 to receiver via hdmi
PS3 to receiver via hdmi
hdmi-> TV?

Would I therefore get 5.1 through my speakers on normal cable when it's available?
I know the HDMI from the 360 sends audio to my tv directly, but would it send the 5.1 to the receiver without an optical input?
Ditto for the ps3.

The receiver is 1.4 hdmi.



Want to confirm so i'll know how much cables to pickup.

NO NO NO that's wrong

you have to connect the TV to the receiver via HDMI OUT
Connect the PS3 to the receiver via HDMI IN
Connect the Xbox to the receiver via HDMI IN
Connect the FLOW cable to the receiver via composite IN (unless you have a FLOW HD box in which case you connect via HDMI IN on the receiver)

THE RECEIVER IS THE CENTER of your HT set up, not a side piece!

The receiver will use PCM, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Master Audio, Dolby PLII or whatever format to give you surround sound from ALL your inputs via your 5.1 speakers.

[SnipeR]

...the Anchor Bay processor in the Pioneer receiver does a better job of upconverting cable TV...

Which receiver do you have? Also, would it make sense to get a unit solely for upscaling to 1080p? Reason I asked is that I built an HTPC which is gonna be used to play all media including blu-ray discs. The direct tv signal, however, is crap. Can you recommend a unit that will do a good job of converting?

[crazychinee]

Duane give off a teacher vibe with that statement oui.

[ru$$ell]

...the Anchor Bay processor in the Pioneer receiver does a better job of upconverting cable TV...

Which receiver do you have? Also, would it make sense to get a unit solely for upscaling to 1080p? Reason I asked is that I built an HTPC which is gonna be used to play all media including blu-ray discs. The direct tv signal, however, is crap. Can you recommend a unit that will do a good job of converting?

think you need a 2 way Analog Coax cable,was discussed earlier in this thread

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ Pioneer Elite VSX-23TXH
it has a built in Anchor Bay video scaler in it and it's pretty good.

depending on the software used in your HTPC, it would use the video processor (GPU) on your video card to do the upscaling

read this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_scaler

Upscaling/upconverting DVD players contain a scaler, which allows the user to convert lower resolution content into a signal that the display device will handle as high definition content. Depending on the quality of the scaling that is done within the upscaling/upconverting DVD player, the resultant output quality of the video displayed may or may not be improved. The idea behind upconverting DVD players is that when a DVD player is connected to an HDTV, especially one of the fixed pixel display type such as LCD, Plasma display, or DLP and LCoS projection TV, scaling happens anyway, either inside the player or inside the TV. By performing the scaling closer to the source inside the DVD player, the video scaler gets to work with the original signal without the concern of transmission error or interference. There exist independent benchmark tests verifying that some upconverting DVD players do produce better video quality. However, under no circumstances will an upscaling/upconverting DVD player provide "high-definition content", since video information can only be retained or lost in each successive conversion step, but not created. Companies such as Denon, Pioneer Electronics, Panasonic and OPPO Digital were among the first to make upconverting DVD players. Now, almost all consumer electronics brands have this product category. Computer software DVD-Video players like PowerDVD and WinDVD tap into a computer's video card in order to upscale a video frame from the DVD content to the user's set output resolution.

the part in bold is important
the PS3's cell processor is good at loading bluray movies fast and its also good at upscaling standard DVDs to 1080p TVs
Since your FLOW or DirecTV box has no upscaler, the better option would be to use the receiver since that is before the TV (the TV being the last device on the chain).

I am only just researching an HTPC setup and have not checked to see what capabilities an HTPC would offer over say an Anchor Bay or HQV processor, I guess it would depend on the video card. I am also not sure if an HTPC can be setup to handle processing of PCM, bitstream, Dolby True HD, DTS Master Audio, Dolby PLII (IIx and IIz) etc etc etc and also setup with multiple HDMI in and out with switching - if it could do all of this then there is may be less need for a receiver!

Even though a receiver still offers other features such as an amplifier, radio tuner and auto calibration.

Can someone with HTPC experience say how do you get audio and video out from one HDMI port from the HTPC since the video card and sound card are discrete and separate devices???

[crazychinee]

^ Pioneer Elite VSX-23TXH
it has a built in Anchor Bay video scaler in it and it's pretty good.

depending on the software used in your HTPC, it would use the video processor (GPU) on your video card to do the upscaling

read this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_scaler

Upscaling/upconverting DVD players contain a scaler, which allows the user to convert lower resolution content into a signal that the display device will handle as high definition content. Depending on the quality of the scaling that is done within the upscaling/upconverting DVD player, the resultant output quality of the video displayed may or may not be improved. The idea behind upconverting DVD players is that when a DVD player is connected to an HDTV, especially one of the fixed pixel display type such as LCD, Plasma display, or DLP and LCoS projection TV, scaling happens anyway, either inside the player or inside the TV. By performing the scaling closer to the source inside the DVD player, the video scaler gets to work with the original signal without the concern of transmission error or interference. There exist independent benchmark tests verifying that some upconverting DVD players do produce better video quality. However, under no circumstances will an upscaling/upconverting DVD player provide "high-definition content", since video information can only be retained or lost in each successive conversion step, but not created. Companies such as Denon, Pioneer Electronics, Panasonic and OPPO Digital were among the first to make upconverting DVD players. Now, almost all consumer electronics brands have this product category. Computer software DVD-Video players like PowerDVD and WinDVD tap into a computer's video card in order to upscale a video frame from the DVD content to the user's set output resolution.

the part in bold is important
the PS3's cell processor is good at loading bluray movies fast and its also good at upscaling standard DVDs to 1080p TVs
Since your FLOW or DirecTV box has no upscaler, the better option would be to use the receiver since that is before the TV (the TV being the last device on the chain).

I am only just researching an HTPC setup and have not checked to see what capabilities an HTPC would offer over say an Anchor Bay or HQV processor, I guess it would depend on the video card. I am also not sure if an HTPC can be setup to handle processing of PCM, bitstream, Dolby True HD, DTS Master Audio, Dolby PLII (IIx and IIz) etc etc etc and also setup with multiple HDMI in and out with switching - if it could do all of this then there is may be less need for a receiver!

Even though a receiver still offers other features such as an amplifier, radio tuner and auto calibration.

Can someone with HTPC experience say how do you get audio and video out from one HDMI port from the HTPC since the video card and sound card are discrete and separate devices???

I used to use DVI-> HDMI , and my video card upscales.
You can't use the optical OUT from the htpc?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ optical cannot support the bandwidth needed for HD audio, only HDMI can.

[crazychinee]

^ optical cannot support the bandwidth needed for HD audio, only HDMI can.

:O

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ yes optical fail

all those bluray HD audio formats such as DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD cannot be put through via optical audio

don't think it's that important?
you wont watch half of a screen to watch a movie, why listen to only half of the sound?

[crazychinee]

Getting a 5.1 setup w/receiver(onkyo HTS3300) in 2 weeks , want to verify the setup:

TV-> receiver via Optical
Xbox360 to receiver via hdmi
PS3 to receiver via hdmi
hdmi-> TV?

Would I therefore get 5.1 through my speakers on normal cable when it's available?
I know the HDMI from the 360 sends audio to my tv directly, but would it send the 5.1 to the receiver without an optical input?
Ditto for the ps3.

The receiver is 1.4 hdmi.



Want to confirm so i'll know how much cables to pickup.

NO NO NO that's wrong

you have to connect the TV to the receiver via HDMI OUT
Connect the PS3 to the receiver via HDMI IN
Connect the Xbox to the receiver via HDMI IN
Connect the FLOW cable to the receiver via composite IN (unless you have a FLOW HD box in which case you connect via HDMI IN on the receiver)

THE RECEIVER IS THE CENTER of your HT set up, not a side piece!

The receiver will use PCM, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Master Audio, Dolby PLII or whatever format to give you surround sound from ALL your inputs via your 5.1 speakers.

HDMI 1.3 vs 1.4 cables?

I doubt my TV supports 1.4, it's over a year old. My receiver does however.
Would I get the 5.1 through my setup watching cable(when it's available), if i use 1.3 cables all around, even though 1.3 doesn't support audio return.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ 5.1 was available on HDMI 1.0

why do you need audio return?

[RapToR]

crazychinee

ya know the HT-S3300 sells for $5000.00 and 3mts warranty at rs


ah feel i gonna raise the price to $3500.00 on the next set of orders for it

[crazychinee]

crazychinee

ya know the HT-S3300 sells for $5000.00 and 3mts warranty at rs


ah feel i gonna raise the price to $3500.00 on the next set of orders for it

Eh doh raise my price eh.....i have your number plate write down.
Just saying...

[ru$$ell]

Can someone with HTPC experience say how do you get audio and video out from one HDMI port from the HTPC since the video card and sound card are discrete and separate devices???

easy, ATI 4xxx-5xxx series.

[HCCA]

NVidia cards:
For audio on the HDMI connector, you have to connect an internal cable which is included in the package from 2 pins on the card to the SPDIF out connection on the motherboard. Now connect an HDMI cable/DVI-HDMI adaptor/cable from the graphics card to your LCD or Plasma TV's HDMI input and you will have both graphics and sound from one cable.

For ati cards 4xxx series and up as ru$$el mentioned all you need is an hdmi cable or dvi-HDMI adaptor and you'll get both sound and video output to the tv/receiver.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ the ATi cards sound like the better bet as the nVidia option you mentioned makes use of SPDIF which cannot handle HD audio

I wanna use a chassis like this Thermaltake DH101
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1319&ID=1426


I not into playing games, I just want to be able to transcode and play full 1080p with HD audio on the fly without much buffering

can anyone recommend a mobo, processor and video card? I want HD audio and video out from the HDMI port

I am partial to Asus and Intel but open to suggestion

I plan to use a small SSD and run Ubuntu with XBMC on 2GB ram

also after spending that much on a case I doh wanna buss the bank - I just want a capable mobo, processor and video card

[crazybalhead]

Just bought this:



http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/mo ... delID=3071

From pricesmart, about $900.00. I originally had the heavy duty 1800W triplite voltage regulator, but it was fackin around. When there was a small dip, the output would spike and cause the amp to switch off.

This new thing seems good so far. Don't need the UPS really, but it could come in handy for use with my laptop.

Nice display. No annoying clicking everytime it dips.

[RapToR]

^ the ATi cards sound like the better bet as the nVidia option you mentioned makes use of SPDIF which cannot handle HD audio

I wanna use a chassis like this Thermaltake DH101
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1319&ID=1426


I not into playing games, I just want to be able to transcode and play full 1080p with HD audio on the fly without much buffering

can anyone recommend a mobo, processor and video card? I want HD audio and video out from the HDMI port

I am partial to Asus and Intel but open to suggestion

I plan to use a small SSD and run Ubuntu with XBMC on 2GB ram

also after spending that much on a case I doh wanna buss the bank - I just want a capable mobo, processor and video card

how much is the case costing you ?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ I was looking at that - glad to get a review - let us know how it goes a few months later

[crazybalhead]

Will do. It literally now come out he box.

[rodfarva]

^ the ATi cards sound like the better bet as the nVidia option you mentioned makes use of SPDIF which cannot handle HD audio

I wanna use a chassis like this Thermaltake DH101
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1319&ID=1426


I not into playing games, I just want to be able to transcode and play full 1080p with HD audio on the fly without much buffering

can anyone recommend a mobo, processor and video card? I want HD audio and video out from the HDMI port

I am partial to Asus and Intel but open to suggestion

I plan to use a small SSD and run Ubuntu with XBMC on 2GB ram

also after spending that much on a case I doh wanna buss the bank - I just want a capable mobo, processor and video card

does your tv support D-Sub?

I know HDMI is the talk of the town, but in my experience (radeon 4870 w/hdmi to sony bravia), D-Sub connections on Tv's reproduce text and graphics a lot better than hdmi
I use the D-sub in on the tv and optical or coax to ht receiver
and for some reason, when I use hdmi, I always have to auto configure the picture on the tv so it fits properly on the screen everytime I turn the tv on

D-sub supports 1080p

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ yes my TV and my receiver has d-sub (vga) connectors

I only plug my receiver into the TV
everything else plugs into the receiver

I can't agree that VGA can be better than HDMI in terms of picture quality, and the reason you are having issues with picture size and native resolution may be because your TV is not shaking hands properly with the video card. HDMI auto senses native res and adjusts to suit - which is why you can watch 1080p content on a 720p TV with no problems from a BD player

Your lower quality text and graphics via HDMI seems to be a native res issue that the HDMI is not picking up - could be a fault of your cable, card or TV.

HDMI supports DRM which VGA doesnt - again for HD content
HDMI supports HD audio - optical and analog/RCA/composite do not
HDMI supports the bandwidth necessary for deep colour

[crazybalhead]

We shall see yes. I don't care about the battery backup.