what is the benefit of hdmi input on a htib?

[Semidevil]

I'm reading some reviews on some potential htib, and the ones I like have a 'con' of no htib input.

exactly what is the benefit of htib input and what do people do with it?

 

[s44]

HDMI audio is the only way a receiver can get the new, superior surround sound stuff digitally fed to it. (Either directly via "bitstreaming", if the receiver can decode the new codecs itself, or pre-decoded from the source as 5.1/7.1 PCM.)

However:
(1) These are only on Blu-Ray. Broadcast/streaming/DVD/whatever doesn't have nearly enough bandwidth.
(2) You can still have these tracks fed in through analog surround inputs, if the receiver has those. I doubt too many HTIB setups do, however.

 

[PurdueRy]

It's worth depends on if the receiver can handle HDMI audio.