AV Receivers With HDMI

[deltafowler]

I'm looking to upgrade my receiver.
Nothing terribly powerful or overly pricey. Just a nice receiver in the $300-$500 range.
Looking at many models, they list HDMI capability, but when you read the fine print a lot of them only pass video through the HDMI. You still need a separate cable for audio.

Is it that difficult to have the HDMI ports handle audio and video?

Any model recommendations on some that do?

[Cholly]

Check the Circuit City web site for Onkyo, Sony and Denon receivers that might fit your needs.

[dave29]

the new onkyo 606, it has 4 hdmi inouts and retails for $499

[spartanstew]

I'm looking to upgrade my receiver.
Nothing terribly powerful or overly pricey. Just a nice receiver in the $300-$500 range.
Looking at many models, they list HDMI capability, but when you read the fine print a lot of them only pass video through the HDMI. You still need a separate cable for audio.

Is it that difficult to have the HDMI ports handle audio and video?

Any model recommendations on some that do?

I think you're misreading something.

Any HDMI receiver (which is basically all of them nowadays) will handle the video and audio via the HDMI.

[Cholly]

I think you're misreading something.

Any HDMI receiver (which is basically all of them nowadays) will handle the video and audio via the HDMI.

Interesting point. Any of the receivers which offer HDMI switching should indeed pass the audio as well as the video signal. I have nheard of any that would strip the audio and not pass it. But then, I'd expect that anyone using a receiver that has HDMI switching would be using the receiver for audio anyway.

[deltafowler]

I think you're misreading something.

Any HDMI receiver (which is basically all of them nowadays) will handle the video and audio via the HDMI.


I've looked at a number of models that say that the video is pass-through and that a separate audio cable is needed.

Look at the description here (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665360001).

"HDMI™ Pass-through

Powerful HDMI™ connectivity allows for uncompressed 1080p video to pass through directly to your HDMI™ capable television2. [A separate cable would be needed for audio]."

[Sharkie_Fan]

I think you're misreading something.

Any HDMI receiver (which is basically all of them nowadays) will handle the video and audio via the HDMI.

Not neessarily true.

Some less expensive receivers or home theater "packages" only have HDMI passthrough. The HDMI doesnt' send audio signal to the receiver, so if you want to use surround with your HDMI device, you have to run a seperate audio cable. Most receivers didn't point this out and you didn't find out until you got the thing and then did a google search to find out why your HDMI wasn't playing through your speakers!

Onkyo is one of the few that point out the passthrough in their receivers. For instance the HT-SR800 (http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=Systems&m=HT-SR800&p=i).
A few of their other home theater packages also point out the HDMI passthrough, while all their standalones seem to be true "single cable" solutions.

I don't know how common this is - I haven't kept up on the newest receivers since I'm not quite ready to buy a new one (maybe it'll be our Christmas present this year)...but I've sen threads in various forums with people complaining about the HDMI passthrough of their receiver requiring a seperate audio feed.

[deltafowler]

Follow-up question:
My current setup is 5.1.
Will a 7.1 receiver still work in 5.1 mode, or will I need to get more speakers too?

[Steve Mehs]

Last year I bought Sony's higher end DG1000 for $700 at Best Buy, it does HDMI video switching (both audio and video), not pass through and supports 1080P, lota good that does when my Sony HDTV is 720P. The one modle below that, the DG800, did pass through. It's a great receiver but only has two HDMI inputs, I use one for my DVD player and one for my cable box, I should have waited two months for the DG1100 which I believe has three HDMI inputs but more importantly for me has both an intergrated XM and Sirius tuner.

[spartanstew]

I've looked at a number of models that say that the video is pass-through and that a separate audio cable is needed.

Look at the description here (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665360001).

"HDMI™ Pass-through

Powerful HDMI™ connectivity allows for uncompressed 1080p video to pass through directly to your HDMI™ capable television2. [A separate cable would be needed for audio]."

OK, I slightly mis-understood your point. With the exception of HTIB's, most will still send both, but there are a few that don't (like the one you linked to).

However, if you're using the receiver, there's no need to send audio to your display. You'll be using your receiver for audio, not your TV, so that issue doesn't really even come into play.

If for some reason, you need to send audio to your TV as well and don't want to run a separate cable, I would listen to dave in post #3 and get the Onkyo 606. Currently the best bang for the buck receiver you'll find.

[TheRatPatrol]

I'd like to know why A/V receivers still have composite and S video inputs on them? I'd like to see more HDMI inputs instead. :)

[funhouse69]

I would also vote for Sony... I have been a Yamaha Fan for many years and had had several of their receivers over the years including some of their top of the line models.

A friend of mine finally convinced me to give Sony a try so I bought the STR-TG1100 which I guess they finally retired. I have to say I love it and I originally used it in a 5.1 set up but have since upgraded to a 7.1 set up. I was impressed with it from day one and would highly recommend anyone try one out.

I bought mine through J&R when they had it on sale and had it the next day.

Some of you lucky ones might have a Sony Outlet Store near you as well. I have one in my sate but not so close. While they tend not to have them in stock very long they do get some of the higher end models in on a pretty regular basis and might be worth checking in to.

[deltafowler]

I'd like to know why A/V receivers still have composite and S video inputs on them? I'd like to see more HDMI inputs instead. :)

I agree and I wonder how much all of those connections add to the unit cost.
I understand that some backward compatibility must be in the market, but not on every model.

It's the equivalent of floppy disk drives.
At some point, you just gotta let it go.

[funhouse69]

I agree with this as well but just as it seemed to take forever to get more than one HDMI Port added to these Receivers it will take sometime to get rid of the legacy stuff.

This is why I went with my Sony Receiver, It has 3 HDMI's which at the time was a ton. Of course I am using every single one of them and wouldn't mind a few more.

Then of course there will be something new that we will be wanting / needing. Isn't it always the way :eek2:

[Greg Alsobrook]

I have the Denon AVR-1508... which also doesn't support audio over HDMI...

And to answer your follow up question... yes, a 7 channel receiver can still be configured perfectly to work with a 5 speaker setup... That's how I have mine set up... :)

Check out page 11 of this pdf.... http://www.usa.denon.com/AVR-1508-OM-E_100.pdf

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/AVReceivers.asp

[Greg Alsobrook]

Any of the receivers which offer HDMI switching should indeed pass the audio as well as the video signal. I have nheard of any that would strip the audio and not pass it.

Not neessarily true.

Some less expensive receivers or home theater "packages" only have HDMI passthrough. The HDMI doesnt' send audio signal to the receiver, so if you want to use surround with your HDMI device, you have to run a seperate audio cable.

There still seems to be a little bit of confusion here... The HDMI does still send an audio signal to the receiver... The problem is, the receiver is not doing anything with the signal coming into it other than passing it right on out another port... Meaning it is not 'grabbing' the audio off of the cable... It is just feeding it on through... which requires for audio to be sent to the receiver in another way...

[smiddy]

I'm looking to upgrade my receiver.
Nothing terribly powerful or overly pricey. Just a nice receiver in the $300-$500 range.
Looking at many models, they list HDMI capability, but when you read the fine print a lot of them only pass video through the HDMI. You still need a separate cable for audio.

Is it that difficult to have the HDMI ports handle audio and video?

Any model recommendations on some that do?

I haven't looked in quite a long time now (three years) but Denon has been pretty nice for my own setup, no issues with HDMI, in fact it corrects some audio issues my Sharp would pick up otherwise.

[HIPAR]

My nephew has a lower end Denon surround sound. He has DirecTV and a DVD connected through it's two HDMI inputs. The surround sound definitely works through the HDMI inputs.

--- CHAS

[sorahl]

I've had mixed, mostly positive, results with the HDMI in my Theater box.
I have the Onkyo 908 HTIB. I'm not using the dvd player that came with it.
Connected to the receiver I have my
HR20-700 directly via HDMI. No issues at all
a Panasonic ( i think) DVD recorder via HDMI . no issues at all
Xbox360 via Component - no issues at all
Wii via Component - no issues
and....
my Media Center PC with a ATI 2400Pro video card Via HDMI
this is where i have my issues. If i connect the HDMI cable direct to my Maxent 50 inch plasma it works perfectly but :) ofcourse the sound is coming out of my TV BLAH!!!
the receiver does NOT accept the audio from the ATI 2400Pro card. I don't know why... so I have a 7.1 USB Audio adapter that works very well via an Optical cable from the device and my receiver.

so with that one little issue it works very well.

John

[rock819]

I would recomend the onkyo tx-sr606 as this is the lowest model number that give you hdmi high def audio and video and it has 4 hdmi inputs this will be a nice addition if you have a blu ray player and i picked mine up on ebay for 328.00 a very nice avr for the money

[BillP2R]

There still seems to be a little bit of confusion here... The HDMI does still send an audio signal to the receiver... The problem is, the receiver is not doing anything with the signal coming into it other than passing it right on out another port... Meaning it is not 'grabbing' the audio off of the cable... It is just feeding it on through... which requires for audio to be sent to the receiver in another way...

This is true for HDMI pass through receivers. To get the audio from the HDMI to the receiver you either have to run separate audio from the device feeding the HDMI or run an audio link back to the receiver from the TV.

If the receiver has HDMI repeater capabilities, it can directly access the audio on the HDMI for direct processing in the receiver while sending the video on to the TV. (The Onkyo 606 which is recommended earlier in this thread does have repeater capabilites.)

----------------- Bill

[TMullenJr]

If anybody is looking for a new amp, you should go check your local Circuit City. All amps are 40% off. I just picked up an Onkyo TX-SR806 for $600. This particular amp has 5 HDMI inputs on the back and is 130 Watts/channel.

[spartanstew]

No offense, but shopping at liquidation sales is for suckers. 40% off of MSRP is rarely a good deal. For example, in your case, you could have purchased that same receiver from Amazon for $617 and you wouldn't have had to pay tax (and I've seen that receiver for as low as $500 over the last couple of months), and it wouldn't have been all sales final.

Unless CC gets to 75% off, I wouldn't step foot in there. By then, everything will be gone, however, because everyone walking in off the street thinks 25% - 50% off is a smoking deal. But it's not.

[TheRatPatrol]

This is true for HDMI pass through receivers. To get the audio from the HDMI to the receiver you either have to run separate audio from the device feeding the HDMI or run an audio link back to the receiver from the TV.

If the receiver has HDMI repeater capabilities, it can directly access the audio on the HDMI for direct processing in the receiver while sending the video on to the TV. (The Onkyo 606 which is recommended earlier in this thread does have repeater capabilites.)

----------------- Bill
So what should a person look for if the want a receiver that can handle both video and audio over HDMI?

Thanks