Blu-ray cabeling for best audio and video (1 Viewer)

[carbuff]

I am upgrading from a standard DVD player to a Blu-ray player.


At present I run a HDMI cable from the player to a Pioneer Receiver and a HDMI cable from the receiver to a Plasma HDTV.


To obtain the best video and sound from the soon to arrive Blu-ray player should I leave this setup as is or should I run a HDMI from the Blu-ray player to the Plasma HDTV and either an optical or coaxial digital cable from the Blu-ray player to the Pioneer receiver?


Or if I have missed something, how should these components be cabled>

 

[Jason Charlton]

Hi Maurice,


The way you currently have your DVD player connected is most likely the best way to hook up the Blu-Ray player.


HDMI (and analog multichannel connections) are the ONLY way to get the lossless audio from Blu-Ray. Digital coaxial and digital optical will not carry the lossless audio formats.


To be certain - do you know if your receiver is HDMI Repeater or HDMI Pass Through? If not, let us know what model receiver you have and maybe someone here can find out for you.

 

[carbuff]

Thank you Jason for your reply. I appreciate it.


My AV receiver is a PIONEER VSX-82TXS.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Maurice,


A quick glance at the specs for that model receiver seem to indicate it is an older HDMI model receiver - version 1.1 to be exact. It does not have built-in decoders for the lossless audio formats of Blu-Ray (Dolby HD and DTS-MA). You will not be able to use HDMI for both audio and video in this case - you will have to use digital coaxial or digital optical for audio in addition to the HDMI for video.


Have you purchased your Blu-Ray player yet? If you haven't, I might suggest you opt for a model that has multichannel analog outputs (this feature is generally NOT found on low-end models - you have to pay a little extra for it).


Provided your receiver has 5.1 or 7.1 analog audio inputs (I can't definitively confirm this, as the Pioneer site seems to be down) this will be the ONLY way you can get the lossless audio from Blu-Ray without having to upgrade your receiver.


If this isn't an option for you or it's too late, don't sweat it too much. The lossy Dolby Digital and DTS tracks included on Blu-Ray are often encoded at a higher bitrate and are every bit as good as their DVD counterparts (or maybe even slightly better). But if you haven't already taken the plunge on a Blu-Ray player it may be something worth thinking about.


Good luck!

 

[carbuff]

You have shown me that I have a lot to learn and digest.


Thank you for your detailed comments.

 

[carbuff]

Jason, it is now about an hour later then when I posted previously.


I have now added a digital Optical cable from my present old Sony Blu-ray player to Optical port 2 on the Pioneer Receiver. I will switch it to the new LG Blu-ray player when it arrives.


Now my cabling is:


STB HDMI to Pioneer Receiver HDMI SAT port

Sony DVD HDMI to Pioneer Receiver HDMI port 2

Sony DVD Optical cable to Pioneer Receiver Optical port 2

Pioneer Receiver HDMI out cable to LG Plasma HDTV HDMI port 1

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton

Maurice,


A quick glance at the specs for that model receiver seem to indicate it is an older HDMI model receiver - version 1.1 to be exact. It does not have built-in decoders for the lossless audio formats of Blu-Ray (Dolby HD and DTS-MA). You will not be able to use HDMI for both audio and video in this case - you will have to use digital coaxial or digital optical for audio in addition to the HDMI for video.


Have you purchased your Blu-Ray player yet? If you haven't, I might suggest you opt for a model that has multichannel analog outputs (this feature is generally NOT found on low-end models - you have to pay a little extra for it).


Provided your receiver has 5.1 or 7.1 analog audio inputs (I can't definitively confirm this, as the Pioneer site seems to be down) this will be the ONLY way you can get the lossless audio from Blu-Ray without having to upgrade your receiver.


If this isn't an option for you or it's too late, don't sweat it too much. The lossy Dolby Digital and DTS tracks included on Blu-Ray are often encoded at a higher bitrate and are every bit as good as their DVD counterparts (or maybe even slightly better). But if you haven't already taken the plunge on a Blu-Ray player it may be something worth thinking about.


Good luck!

Jason, if Maurice gets a Blu-ray player that can decode lossless (Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA) internally, the HDMI cable (the way its currently wired with his DVD player) will work fine as the player will decode the audio and output the sound as multichannel PCM over HDMI.


Maurice- Welcome to Home Theater Forum. When you are shopping for a Blu-ray player make sure you get one that has internal decoding for BOTH Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA. There are a lot of players on the market that do, but watch out as some only do one or the other. There is no disadvantage to doing the decoding in the player, it actually makes it easier to take advantage of PIP audio. Send me a PM when you get your player with your address, and assuming you are in the US I'll send you a copy of Avatar on Blu-ray (courtesy of Panasonic) to get your collection started.

 

[carbuff]

Thank you Adam. I ordered a LG BD-570 Friday. It will be delivered next Tuesday (two days from now). This is from the LG BD-570 spec sheet: AUDIO CAPABILITIES Digital/Analog Conversion 192KHz/24bit Signal/Noise Ratio 100dB DTS™ • DTS-HD Master Audio ™ • Dolby® Digital • Dolby® Digital Plus • Dolby® TrueHD • 2ch Down Mix • LPCM • I see that both DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD are listed. So now, I will not use the digitial optical cable and use only the HDMI from the Blu-ray player to the Pioneer receiver. Thank you for the AVATAR offer. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. However, you do not have to send one because last week I bought a Blu-ray AVATAR disc to use as a reference disc for my HT system. I will post again once the player arrives and is setup and running. Maurice

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Sounds like you are set. You will need to verify that your audio settings are set correctly in the setup menu when you get it. If its not obvious in the manual we can look at the manual on-line to get it figured out.