Need Help Setting up A/V system

[Agman]

Hey all. I'm confused right now. I just think I need someone to explain to me what exactly my options are and how exactly everything is getting passed through and decoded.

My issue is with audio. I have an Onkyo SR800 HTIB, a Toshiba Hd-A3 hd-dvd player and a Philips 47PFL7422D LCD. The Onkyo receiver as probably all of you know has HDMI inputs which pass-through the audio to the TV. Now the Philips LCD has a digital-coax ouput and the Toshiba HD-A3 has an HDMI output.

Ok so here we go. The way I have it plugged in is HDMI out from Toshiba player to Onkyo receiver via HDMI in. Now I know the recevier doesn't decode audio through the HDMI it just passes it through. So i have the HDMI out from the receiver plugged into the LCD. The LCD in turn has a digital-coax output which i rerouted back to the Onkyo receiver via one of the digital coax inputs. Now I also have the hd-dvd player hooked up to the receiver via optical toslink as well to the Onkyo receiver.

So now that I have explained how i have it set up (hddvd -> hdmi -> receiver -> TV -> coax -> reciever OR hddvd -> optical toslink -> reciever) I want to know what exacly is the best way to have it. Looking at the HD-DVD player options. The HDMI audio output can be set either in auto, pcm or pcm-downmix. I currently have it set at pcm. The spdif output can be set at PCM or bitstream i currently have that one on bitstream. Are these settings correct and what exactly is the difference betwen them?

On the receiver whenever i chose to listen through the spdif the listening mode i chose is dolby digital or direct. Dolby Digital sounds more full though direct (just straight play no processing) should be better but I don't know both of them output 7.1 sound. If I set the HD-DVD player to output PCM via spdif it only does 2 channels. Now if i choose to listen via the coax which comes from the HDMI pass-through ordeal I can can choose direct or neural audio both of which output 7.1 sound

Ok, whew. After this extremely long post. These are the questions I have. Whats the best choice in regards to connection and whats the difference betwen the various modes in the HD-DVD player. I really don't have a clue whats being outputed by the HD-DVD player.

thanks in advanced for y'alls help. I really appreciate it! 🙂

 

[Shawn]

hddvd -> optical toslink -> reciever

 

[Agman]

Wouldn't I be limited to DD 640Kbps that way. I don't know if I'm thinking of this the proper way. But if I go the HDDVD -> hdmi out -> receiver -> hdmi -> tv -> digital coax -> receiver. Since the HD-DVD player only outputs the high quality stuff over HDMI wouldn't I be able to this way "reroute" the high quality audio track back to the receiver via digital coax?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Agman
Wouldn't I be limited to DD 640Kbps that way. I don't know if I'm thinking of this the proper way. But if I go the HDDVD -> hdmi out -> receiver -> hdmi -> tv -> digital coax -> receiver. Since the HD-DVD player only outputs the high quality stuff over HDMI wouldn't I be able to this way "reroute" the high quality audio track back to the receiver via digital coax?

Even if you can get the HD-DVD player to output the higher quality formats, by the time it comes back to the receiver via a digital coaxial or digital optical connection, your receiver isn't going to be able to take in the higher quality formats from that connection type. Whether it happens from the player or possibly somewhere else along the line, your receiver is only going to be able to play back DD / DTS / 2-channel PCM from the digital audio inputs.

If your receiver doesn't have audio over HDMI, the only way you'd get HD audio formats is from a multichannel analog connection from an HD player that has multichannel analog output.

 

[krotchy]

Ok I have a 47PFL7422 as well (Lovely TV), but I opted for an Onkyo TX-SR705 receiver to do Audio over HDMI, so I havent had quite the same issue as you, but I think I remember something about it in an avsforum thread...

If I remember correctly the TV will only in fact handle a 2.0 audio stream internally, since it is effectively a stereo audio sink. However when watching QAM/ATSC HDTV it can output 5.1 over SPDIF since it doesnt have to decode anything and can just pass the 5.1 stream from the ATSC broadcast right into the Coax output. Because of this incoming HDMI to outputted Coax = 2.0, but incoming RF broadcasts to outputted coax = whatever its broad casted as (including 5.1+)

So basically, I say stick with HDMI + Toslink from the A3 to the Receiver.


Who knows though, Philips might fix this in a future firmware. You cant be sure, but at least its great knowing that you can flash the firmware on this TV in 5 minutes with just a USB key, so theres hope.

 

[Agman]

Ah gotcha now. I was thinking it was probably going to end up being that way.

The weird thing is though, that when I do the connection through the TV the receiver sees it as a PCM signal and I can hear sound from all the channels. Voice comes from center only, etc.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Agman
Ah gotcha now. I was thinking it was probably going to end up being that way.

The weird thing is though, that when I do the connection through the TV the receiver sees it as a PCM signal and I can hear sound from all the channels. Voice comes from center only, etc.

So it's detecting multichannel PCM and you're not applying any surround processing effects like Dolby Prologic II etc?

I wouldn't think that would work, but I could certainly be wrong.

I didn't think your receiver would be able to take multichannel analog from a digital input unless it was bitstream DD or DTS.

 

[Agman]

Yeah. I have it set to "direct" which according to the Onkyo manual means output the signal as is w/o any processing in it. and when it do that the PCM text lights up on the receiver screen.