A/V reciever questions...... (1 Viewer)

[JoshAH]

I'm a noob in the home theater area, so please bare with me. If the informationg I'm looking for can be found somewhere please direct me there, I've looked around some on the forums and am still confused.....with that being said, on to my questions; I recently bought a HDMI rear projection CRT. I'd like everything to be as high quality as possible but within reasonable spending limits. I've been looking at surround sound systems/recievers and have some questions concerning input/output types. How does the whole A/V reciever setup work out? with all the specs on recievers that i've looked at no where does it say HDMI input/output or even DVI input/output...but with my understanding, say I had a DVD player with an HDMI output I'd have that go into my reciever and then from the reciever output that signal to the TV and surround sound but since I don't ever seen any where when i read speaks on recievers about HDMI(which I understand is fairly new and that could be the reason) but like I said early not even DVI, how do recievers still output an equal or near equal signal that the DVD players is outputting? Is the terminology different with recievers meaning that DVI input on a recievers is referred to as something else? I'm just worried that I have this nice HDMI tv that can output digital audio and video but due to the fact that my reciever is the weakest link I'd never get to fully experience the TV (hopefully this isn't the case). I was considering getting the Onkyo HTS770 surround system with A/V reciever but would that do the TV justice? Should I wait for newer technolog? If it would help any I'm getting a Panasonic 53" widescreen rear projection CRT with HDMI, and I'd like to try to keep my surround sound and A/V reciever under 1000 dollars. Any advice/input would be welcomed....thanks in advance. Josh

 

[John S]

DVI/HDMI is nice, and helps future proof your system, but Component Video Analog believe it or not is still just as good by all accounts and A/B comparisons, especially on CRT based displays.

The Onkyo AVR that comes with the 770, I believe will switch this. I have switched HDTV / DVD 1080i through the Onkyo SR501 with complete success for others. I use it for my setup too with a Denon 4802 once again with excellent results.

AVR's are starting to just now include DVI switching.

Now with all this said, most people avoid switching through their AVR and just go directly to the HDTV inputs from their sources and only feed the audio feeds to their AVR.

Most people also have more sources other than DVD and/or HDTV, and have to use in addition svideo. I also switch my svideo through my AVR. But even so, I have to use more than one input on the HDTV, so I have to do some dual switching anyways. (HDTV to correct input and AVR to the correct source)


I hope this helped some.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

I don't necessarily agree wiht john in the first part, as different transmission methods do vary, as well as the quality of the implementation of various outputs, so there is no correct blanket statement that one is necessarily better, but neither is it correct to say that they are the same.

Anyway, that's a nitpick, and the point that you seem to be assuming which is wrong, is that you have to run the video through your receiver. You do not. Using your receiver to route your video can make things easier if you have many sources and not enough inputs, or want easier video switching (you just switch sources on the receiver and it changes both audio and video, rather than having to switch audio on the receiver, then switch video yet again on the TV.) If you're the pickiest, you would *not* run your video through the receiver, and go directly to the set as this eliminates any possible degradation by running it through the receiver.

I would not worry about switching HDMI, DVI etc, and just run directly to the set, as you're not going to find that in receivers in your pricerange.

 

[Ted Lee]

personally, i've had better results using my dvi connection, then component. ymmv.

also, hdmi is the latest generation connection. remember that, unlike dvi, hdmi is *both* audio and video signals in one cable. dvi is strictly video.

as chris said, it's doubtful you'll find too many receivers that utilize hdmi connections ... yet. you're best bet is to run the video directly to the tv and run the audio signals to your receiver.

oh yeah, try using paragraph breaks too.

 

[JoshAH]

I thought I'd already posted a reply so if this is a double post.......sorry. Thanks for all the input, now I have a few more questions. It seems like the overall opinion is to run the HDMI input from a DVD player directly into my TV and the audio into my reciever. So what should I look for in a dvd player on the audio side of things?

 

[John S]

The digital audio thing has become pretty standard on DVD players. For versatility sake thinking how your system may change over time, one that has both Optical and Digital RCA coax may be in order as far as audio output goes anyways.

 

[JoshAH]

Thanks for all the help guys........I'm not back on track with what I wanna do. I think I'm going to go ahead and pick up the Onkyo HTIB since the price doesn't seem too bad, now all I gotta do is find a HDMI dvd player.