How ancient are my pioneer elite? (1 Viewer)

[firebrick]

I have a pioneer elite dvd player and receiver, vsx56txi and dv59-avi. I paid a mint for these several years back. How functional are these components now that HD is king? Can my receiver connect to any blue ray dvd players with optical cable for sound or am I going to not get good sound until I upgrade to HDMI compatable devices?

 

[Ed Moxley]

Sure, you can connect a blu ray player with optical cable. But, you won't get the HD audio formats over optical. Just not possible. If your receiver has 5.1/7.1 analog multi-channel inputs, you can get a blu ray player with 5.1/7.1 analog outputs, and get some HD audio that way.

 

[firebrick]

So tired of upgrading! Is HD sound really a huge upgrade? I may upgrade this one more time to be hd compatible but Im done after that.

 

[gene c]

I've heard that one before!

 

[Ed Moxley]

Ok, something I've wondered about.
What other possible reason is there for having the analog outputs then, since none of the BDs play dvd-a or sacd (until Oppo's BD player comes out)? They have the optical or digital coax, for the surround, if you don't have HDMI. It's a huge waste of money to have them, if they don't do that. I've read somewhere that the Sony BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 are basically the same machine, except the 550 has the analog outputs, and you see the price difference in those two.

 

[firebrick]

I love my vsx56 and my dv59 too. Hate to see them come to no use. So would a PS3 work as a bluray player for this setup?

 

[gene c]

I think you would only get DD and DTS, not DolbyTrueHD or DTS-MA. I don't think the PS3 has 5.1 anaalog outs anyway, only 2.0 (?). And even if it did, it doesn't decode the hi-res formats for output via analog connection. To use a PS3 for TrueHD and DTS-MA you need hdmi.

EDIT: I'm not confident in the accuracy of this reply. I really don't know that much about the PS3 (and finding info from Sony's website is like pulling teeth!) so maybe I should have left this one for someone else to answer. Hopefully someone will correct anything that's not correct.

 

[gene c]

But the 550 will send DolbyTruHD and DTS-MA out those m/c analogs so they can useful. But it'll cost you $120 more for a BR player if your receiver doesn't have hdmi. But that's still cheaper than buying a new avr just to get the new formats.