Simple question about HTIB & connecting via HDMI

[Schfifty Five]

I'm not very familiar with audio equipment as right now I just have my plasma TV and using the speakers on that.

I'm looking to get a budget/simple HTIB setup to go with the TV and my gaming systems (PS3/360).

I would like some clarification on how all these things will connect if I bought a 5.1 HTIB system. I'm guessing the PS3/360 will connect via HDMI to the HDMI-Input on the HTIB reciever, and then connect the HDMI-Output from the receiver to the plasma.

Is that generally how it will go?

What if I am watching TV via OTA antennae, will I be able to use the HTIB as speakers or will I be stuck with the TV speakers?

If the receiver only has 1 HDMI-Input, that means I will have to buy an HDMI-Selector box to connect my gaming systems to first right?

Thanks for the help!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

A lot of budget receivers and HTIB sets will not do audio over HDMI, so you'd need to connect from the PS3 / 360 / etc. with not only an HDMI cable, but another audio connection as well.

When watching OTA, if your TV has a digital audio output on it, you can connect that to the receiver and get sound that way.

What kind of budget are you thinking?

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
A lot of budget receivers and HTIB sets will not do audio over HDMI, so you'd need to connect from the PS3 / 360 / etc. with not only an HDMI cable, but another audio connection as well.

When watching OTA, if your TV has a digital audio output on it, you can connect that to the receiver and get sound that way.

What kind of budget are you thinking?

Hmm....probably $500 max. I'm not expecting anything super awesome, just something to fill a somewhat small living room apartment with.

So regarding the audio connection for the gaming systems, I guess I would use optical out or something?

Also, I'm guessing most budget HTIB receivers will have only 1 HDMI-Input and 1 Optical connection, I will need some sort of selector switch to connect all my gaming systems to right?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
A lot of budget receivers and HTIB sets will not do audio over HDMI, so you'd need to connect from the PS3 / 360 / etc. with not only an HDMI cable, but another audio connection as well.

When watching OTA, if your TV has a digital audio output on it, you can connect that to the receiver and get sound that way.

What kind of budget are you thinking?

Hmm....probably $500 max. I'm not expecting anything super awesome, just something to fill a somewhat small living room apartment with.

So regarding the audio connection for the gaming systems, I guess I would use optical out or something?

Also, I'm guessing most budget HTIB receivers will have only 1 HDMI-Input and 1 Optical connection, I will need some sort of selector switch to connect all my gaming systems to right?

Most receivers with HDMI have at least 2 inputs and you should have several optical/digital coaxial inputs on the receiver as well.

Onkyo makes pretty good HTIB sets and depending on the combination of optical vs. digital coaxial on the sources and the receiver, you might be able to get it all hooked up without additional switches.

As an alternative to the HTIB sets, there's also some info in the sticky thread about how you might go about piecing a system together.

 

[erwos]

Onkyo makes the HT-SP908 HTIB, which includes a TX-SR605 receiver. Unfortunately, it's a bit out of your price range (more like $800). You'll probably have a fair bit of difficulty locating an HTIB with HDMI audio for that much less, though.

 

[WraithETC]

Samsung AS720 is about $500 and has HDMI audio processing.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Thanks for all the info guys, I will check out Onkyo brands and the stickied thread! =)

 

[kalrith]

To go along with the stickied thread, the Polk R50 is on sale for about $75 shipped each right now. If you do order them, make two separate orders of one speaker each to save about $12 in shipping costs. It might be a better option to spend your budget now on a better receiver and better fronts and possibly a sub and then add to your system in the future.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
A lot of budget receivers and HTIB sets will not do audio over HDMI, so you'd need to connect from the PS3 / 360 / etc. with not only an HDMI cable, but another audio connection as well.

When watching OTA, if your TV has a digital audio output on it, you can connect that to the receiver and get sound that way.

What kind of budget are you thinking?

Hmm....probably $500 max. I'm not expecting anything super awesome, just something to fill a somewhat small living room apartment with.

So regarding the audio connection for the gaming systems, I guess I would use optical out or something?

Also, I'm guessing most budget HTIB receivers will have only 1 HDMI-Input and 1 Optical connection, I will need some sort of selector switch to connect all my gaming systems to right?

Most receivers with HDMI have at least 2 inputs and you should have several optical/digital coaxial inputs on the receiver as well.

Onkyo makes pretty good HTIB sets and depending on the combination of optical vs. digital coaxial on the sources and the receiver, you might be able to get it all hooked up without additional switches.

As an alternative to the HTIB sets, there's also some info in the sticky thread about how you might go about piecing a system together.

So if I got a HTIB system, should I run HDMI from the gaming system straight to the TV? And then run audio from gaming to the receiver?

Or is it best to run all gaming systems to the receiver, and then receiver to the TV?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
A lot of budget receivers and HTIB sets will not do audio over HDMI, so you'd need to connect from the PS3 / 360 / etc. with not only an HDMI cable, but another audio connection as well.

When watching OTA, if your TV has a digital audio output on it, you can connect that to the receiver and get sound that way.

What kind of budget are you thinking?

Hmm....probably $500 max. I'm not expecting anything super awesome, just something to fill a somewhat small living room apartment with.

So regarding the audio connection for the gaming systems, I guess I would use optical out or something?

Also, I'm guessing most budget HTIB receivers will have only 1 HDMI-Input and 1 Optical connection, I will need some sort of selector switch to connect all my gaming systems to right?

Most receivers with HDMI have at least 2 inputs and you should have several optical/digital coaxial inputs on the receiver as well.

Onkyo makes pretty good HTIB sets and depending on the combination of optical vs. digital coaxial on the sources and the receiver, you might be able to get it all hooked up without additional switches.

As an alternative to the HTIB sets, there's also some info in the sticky thread about how you might go about piecing a system together.

So if I got a HTIB system, should I run HDMI from the gaming system straight to the TV? And then run audio from gaming to the receiver?

Or is it best to run all gaming systems to the receiver, and then receiver to the TV?

It's up to you on how you route things.

I rambled on quite a bit in this thread but it kind of applies to this question.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...t_key=y&keyword1=route
(At least I think it might, I didn't actually re-read what I wrote in that thread )

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
A lot of budget receivers and HTIB sets will not do audio over HDMI, so you'd need to connect from the PS3 / 360 / etc. with not only an HDMI cable, but another audio connection as well.

When watching OTA, if your TV has a digital audio output on it, you can connect that to the receiver and get sound that way.

What kind of budget are you thinking?

Hmm....probably $500 max. I'm not expecting anything super awesome, just something to fill a somewhat small living room apartment with.

So regarding the audio connection for the gaming systems, I guess I would use optical out or something?

Also, I'm guessing most budget HTIB receivers will have only 1 HDMI-Input and 1 Optical connection, I will need some sort of selector switch to connect all my gaming systems to right?

Most receivers with HDMI have at least 2 inputs and you should have several optical/digital coaxial inputs on the receiver as well.

Onkyo makes pretty good HTIB sets and depending on the combination of optical vs. digital coaxial on the sources and the receiver, you might be able to get it all hooked up without additional switches.

As an alternative to the HTIB sets, there's also some info in the sticky thread about how you might go about piecing a system together.

So if I got a HTIB system, should I run HDMI from the gaming system straight to the TV? And then run audio from gaming to the receiver?

Or is it best to run all gaming systems to the receiver, and then receiver to the TV?

It's up to you on how you route things.

I rambled on quite a bit in this thread but it kind of applies to this question.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...t_key=y&keyword1=route
(At least I think it might, I didn't actually re-read what I wrote in that thread )

Cool, thanks for the link.

So as WraithETC mentioned earlier, I started looking at the HT-AS720 HTIB by Samsung.

Text

It's about $500 retail, but I can get it for $370 brand new through my employee discount (I work at Samsung). From the reviews I've read on Bestbuy and Amazon's site, it seems most people like it for a budget system, while others have said there are problems with subwoofer/HDMI. Also this system can accept HDMI audio so I should be able to just run my gaming systems into the receiver and then have one HDMI-out (from rec) go to the TV. (right?)

I want to keep cable clutter to a minimum.

So what do you think about the price/value for HT-AS720?

Thanks.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm not familiar with the Samsung so I don't know about its capabilities.

I would recommend going to AVSforum and looking up threads on it to see what issues people have had with it and opinions of the system compared to other options.