HDMI to non HDMI Receiver

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newtoHD

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ok, I am new to this...

I have a samsung series 4 plasma (HD ready) with two hdmi ports
a hd pvr (with another decoder for dual view)
blu ray player
Yamaha amp ( without hdmi)

How do I set this up? I know that I will lose sound quality by not having HDMI receiver....

Do I connect blu ray and pvr into tv via hdmi, then audio out (looks like 3.5mm jack) to rca into amp

or

blu ray and pvr into plasma via hdmi, and optical from blu ray into amp, and rca from pvr into amp?
 
Does your TV have audio out RCA's? I think you could also use the TV's headphone port to RCA, although RCA is only designed for line-level signals so you'd have to keep the volume minimal... two possible workarounds i guess
 
Lack of HDMI is no problem (I'm in same situation). Plug both HDMI sources into TV. Run digital audio (optical or coaxial) from HD PVR and BR Player to amp. The coax outputs and inputs are always orange and it's a single output. Use a normal RCA cable (either white or red), don't bother buying an expensive "digital cable". You'll have to manually switch inputs on the amp when you change the source.

You will not lose SQ as the difference between DTS Master and the 1.5 Mb DTS Core track on BluRays is beyond anyone's hearing. The important thing is to keep it all digital, otherwise you'll lose the 5.1 surround.
 
Last edited:
Andysor said:
Lack of HDMI is no problem (I'm in same situation). Plug both HDMI sources into TV. Run digital audio (optical or coaxial) from HD PVR and BR Player to amp. The coax outputs and inputs are always orange and it's a single output. Use a normal RCA cable (either white or red), don't bother buying an expensive "digital cable". You'll have to manually switch inputs on the amp when you change the source.

You will not lose SQ as the difference between DTS Master and the 1.5 Mb DTS Core track on BluRays is beyond anyone's hearing. The important thing is to keep it all digital, otherwise you'll lose the 5.1 surround.
Click to expand...

Exactly as I have mine but I also have an HDMI splitter as I have 2 HDMI on my telly and 3 HDMI devices. The co-axial is black on some HD PVR's and is located right next the HDMI port.
 
@Andysor: Thanks for this.

My amp has one coaxial and two digital. Does it make a difference which I use for HD pvr or Blu Ray? Were you saying one can use RCA if you dont have a coax cable?
I do have a coaxial cable. Do these cables completely replace the RCA's?
 
Just do HDMI to TV. Then Optical out from tv to Optical in on AMP. (TV should have optical out) Otherwise, use both optical in on AMP straight from Blu ray player and HD PVR(not sure if it has optical out)
 
@ Wasp - so do you reckon it is better to run optical from tv into amp. Would I be able to play cd (from dvd) without having tv on?
 
newtoHD said:
@ Wasp - so do you reckon it is better to run optical from tv into amp. Would I be able to play cd (from dvd) without having tv on?
Click to expand...

No, run optical/co-ax from both components to amp and hdmi from both to TV. ... for exactly this ^^^^ reason. ... when you switch sources, you'll have to do so on the amp and TV, though.

... but since your amp has 3 inputs for digital, you may as well run a third cable from the TV to the amp. The nice thing that will give you is that you may leave your amp on that source (TV) and then just switch sources on the TV.
 
TYR said:
... but since your amp has 3 inputs for digital, you may as well run a third cable from the TV to the amp. The nice thing that will give you is that you may leave your amp on that source (TV) and then just switch sources on the TV.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, but could also use third cable from a second dvd player to plasma? my old dvd player (not blu ray) has kareoke function...

PS Thanks everyone for you contribution. I am starting to get the hang of it. Definitely saved me a couple of bucks in having an "expert" come set up for me
 
Be aware that some devices have optical and coaxial for the same source so you could in effect only have 2 digital inputs instead of 3.

Just a thought
 
Surely you can link digital inputs to a source?

I know my amps have just numbered digital 1-4 ... and you map a source the input of your choice?
 
I said what I wanted to say incorrectly.

The input of the amp quite often has the option of optical or coaxial. Both are for the same input ie DVD and cannot be considered 2 seperate inputs

Does that explain it better?

My sony has 3 optical and 1 co-axial which is attached to an input that already has optical so in essence I have 3 digital inputs usable not 4.
 
Juggy said:
I said what I wanted to say incorrectly.

The input of the amp quite often has the option of optical or coaxial. Both are for the same input ie DVD and cannot be considered 2 seperate inputs

Does that explain it better?

My sony has 3 optical and 1 co-axial which is attached to an input that already has optical so in essence I have 3 digital inputs usable not 4.
Click to expand...

Yup - understood the first time :)
 
Will test mine out tonite, but I know that my the coax says "DVD" and one of the opticals say DTV/CBL and the other DVD
 
Audio straight to amp. I just remembered that audio from the TV out, is only in stereo. The amp then has to encode for 5.1, etc. This does lead to SQ drop. Better to have audio to AMP. Even if there is 2 sources on the same input, the input that is active will transmit, or am i missing something?
 
Juggy said:
Hmmm.

So you reckon attach 2 devices to the same input then?
Click to expand...

No, I meant that the amps I've had have digital inputs labelled 1 - 4 ... not assigned to anything out the box

I would then say 'use 1 for DVD .. use 2 for CD ... use 3 for Video 1 ... use 4 for Video 2'

When I select 'CD', it use digital port 2 etc
 
Wasp_21 said:
Audio straight to amp. I just remembered that audio from the TV out, is only in stereo. The amp then has to encode for 5.1, etc. This does lead to SQ drop. Better to have audio to AMP. Even if there is 2 sources on the same input, the input that is active will transmit, or am i missing something?
Click to expand...

Nope the optical out from my TV gives out a 5.1 feed if that is what it received via HDMI.
 
Dolby said:
No, I meant that the amps I've had have digital inputs labelled 1 - 4 ... not assigned to anything out the box

I would then say 'use 1 for DVD .. use 2 for CD ... use 3 for Video 1 ... use 4 for Video 2'

When I select 'CD', it use digital port 2 etc
Click to expand...

Aha, I can understand now.

Dankie meneer.
 
TYR said:
Nope the optical out from my TV gives out a 5.1 feed if that is what it received via HDMI.
Click to expand...

TV does not allow 5.1 passthrough from optical to optical. It's output is only stereo. The amp decodes/encodes it to 5.1. That's why it's better to optical to amp.
 
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