Adding High-Def system to existing HTIB? (1 Viewer)

Last year we purchased a 56" Samsung DLP 1080p television and a Sony DAV-FX500 HTIB.

I was wondering what one would have to do to upgrade the player to either BluRay or HD-DVD. Would the new player replace the existing one as-is? Would I need to plug the player into the existing DVD system? Run the video from the HD player to the TV, but the audio through the existing box?

I THINK, but I'm not sure, that the DAV-FX500 player upconverts at 720p/1080i, but not 1080p, so if I want the "full-on" 1080p signal, I imagine I'd need to direct connect the new player to the TV?

Sorry about the newbie questions, but I want to make sure I understand the magnitude of what I'm getting in to.

Help us out here...that Sony HTiB....is the receiver separate from the DVD player or is it all in one chassis?

Does the Sony receiver have 6 analog audio inputs or just SPDIF coax/Toslink optical digital audio input?

The HTIB has a 5-disk DVD changer with all audio functions integrated. The componentry is basically the five speaker channels and the subwoofer, the DVD/receiver integrated unit, and that was it. One HDMI cable later, and I was watching 480p upconverted movies.

As for the main DVD/receiver, I don't know (from work here) what INPUTS it has; were I Sony, I probably would mostly have outputs from that unit, as if you're going to do a lot of in/out complexities, their Marketing/Sales guys would want to "force" me to a more versatile unit.

I'll do a bit o' googling to see if i can find a spec sheet online.

list of inputs and outputs here

Wow, thanks, and cool.

Looks like I can run the digital video output from the high def player, and run the audio through my existing receiver.

Guess I just have to pick the player.

Douglas,

Welcome to the forum.

Trusting Travis's images ( ), I would say you're ready to go.

Yes, I don't think it would be any good to feed the video through the HTiB. It would be rather easy to add a HD player to your system, indeed one HDMI cable needed to send video to your TV and you'll have HD (1080p or -i, the best) while you can start using the digital audio bitstream over either an optical or a coaxial digital connection.

Later you will want to add better audio decoding . The new audio codecs are decoded in players like the Toshiba A2 or A3 series (except DTS HD-MA, but to be honest, decoders for that are not present in any player, afaik). The current problem for you is: how to get the result out.
But just solve that later, now you will certainly get proper audio out already through the digital connections!

You could even add both, an HD DVD player and a Blu-ray player, one using the toshlink, the other the coaxial (also assuming your TV has at least two HDMI inputs).
Or you could buy an inexpensive HD DVD player now and add a combo player later, in January (?) or at the end of Q1 2008, whenever they arrive on the market.

It's rather smart to wait a bit longer to upgrade your receiver anyway, because new receivers are appearing slowly on the market, and most of us are waiting to see what functionality they will offer.

Your setup would allow you to fully enjoy Hi Def resolution, as well as beautifully upgraded SD DVDs, so your current library would be protected as well. No need to re-buy each and every DVD, unless you *want* to, of course.


Cees

That's pretty much it. I've got a substantial but not amazing collection of SD-DVDs. I have a nice TV, and a player that upconverts, but not to 1080p. So I'm looking for a format neutral way of getting the best picture to my screen, but not invalidating any of my existing equipment (other than the SD-DVD player) would make the sales pitch easier.