Ordered a Onkyo HTIB. Do I need ARC?

[7earitup]

Long time no see fellas...

So I wanted to upgrade the sound of my living room setup from the TV speakers to a complete 5.1 set. I took the lazy route and got everything in one configuration because I am not that picky about it nor do I have the money to be picky about it.

So my question is this - the Onkyo receiver has 4 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output. My assumption was that the receiver intercepts the audio signals as they are passed through to the source, ie. the TV, and that there is no passing of data from the TV to the receiver. But in the manual (viewing it online, I do not have the unit yet) it refers to having a TV that supports the Audio Return Channel (ARC) standard. I doubt my TV has that capability since it is older.

I am trying to figure out whether it will work out of the box once I get it or if I need to pick-up a toslink cable before I receive it in the mail. I do not want it to arrive, set it all up, just to realize that it will not work without it.

Here is the model I purchased:
http://us.onkyo.com/Products/model.php?m=HT-S3500&class=Systems&source=prodClass

Thanks guys!

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

Your just going from your source to the Onkyo with HDMI, the Onkyo will keep the sound and send the video to the TV via HDMI. You hook the speakers up to the Onkyo and you will have your 5.1 sound. You don't need ARC to get your sound to work. ARC is so if you turn your TV on then the amp will turn on automatically, and so you can adjust your amp volume with the TV remote.

 

[7earitup]

Your just going from your source to the Onkyo with HDMI, the Onkyo will keep the sound and send the video to the TV via HDMI. You hook the speakers up to the Onkyo and you will have your 5.1 sound. You don't need ARC to get your sound to work. ARC is so if you turn your TV on then the amp will turn on automatically, and so you can adjust your amp volume with the TV remote.

So just to clarify, if I hook up my DISH Network Hopper, XBOX 360, Blu-Ray Player, and Media Streamer to the Onkyo receiver, then connect my TV to the HDMI out on the receiver, all of the audio will be decoded by the receiver on the way through as I originally assumed?

 

[tyanni]

Your just going from your source to the Onkyo with HDMI, the Onkyo will keep the sound and send the video to the TV via HDMI. You hook the speakers up to the Onkyo and you will have your 5.1 sound. You don't need ARC to get your sound to work. ARC is so if you turn your TV on then the amp will turn on automatically, and so you can adjust your amp volume with the TV remote.

I think you are confusing ARC with Control for HDMI. ARC allows audio from devices connected directly to the TV to send audio back through the HDMI cable to the receiver. It negates the need for a separate audio out on the TV, i.e. optical. A modern application would be if your TV is a "Smart" TV and has built-in apps such as Netflix - you would want to get the 5.1 audio signal from those apps back to your receiver.

OP - if everything is connected directly to your receiver, you shouldn't need to worry about ARC - the receiver should do all of the work.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

OP - if everything is connected directly to your receiver, you shouldn't need to worry about ARC - the receiver should do all of the work.

I guess I am. Thanks for the correction.

 

[7earitup]

Thanks for the information guys - I really appreciate it!

 

[slackerinabox]

tyanni's correct - arc allows sound to travel back from the tv, i.e. my smartv apps didn't work until I configured arc.

Related questions - is it better to hook up all of my devices to my tv then use the tv for hdmi switching, or should all devices still HDMI up to my receiver? I'm a bit confused because only one HDMI port on my TV is listed as ARC.

 

[vshah]

tyanni's correct - arc allows sound to travel back from the tv, i.e. my smartv apps didn't work until I configured arc.

Related questions - is it better to hook up all of my devices to my tv then use the tv for hdmi switching, or should all devices still HDMI up to my receiver? I'm a bit confused because only one HDMI port on my TV is listed as ARC.

leave everything connected to the receiver. use the ARC-marked hdmi port on your tv to connect the tv to the receiver.

 

[slackerinabox]

leave everything connected to the receiver. use the ARC-marked hdmi port on your tv to connect the tv to the receiver.

Thanks!