# Jumping into HD- what do I need to make these units play nice?



## EMara123 (May 25, 2010)

Hello all,

I have been doing a lot of digging online and cannot really find the info I need, so am taking the next step by registering here. This might be common knowledge to most of you, but certainly new to me.

I finally dove in and bought an HDTV over the weekend. I've wanted one for years, but am on a very limited budget, so I've waited and waited and finally had enough. The TV is a Sony Bravia KDL-32EX500. I got a Sony Blu-Ray player with it- model BDP-N460. The remaining piece of my setup is my HTIB system I've had for a few years, a Panasonic system- SA-PT670. Only other device is the Comcast HD cable box.

As for connections, I'm running everything into the TV via HDMI, and I HAD been running from the TV's optical out to the Panasonic unit's single optical in. However, when I tried watching a Blu-Ray disc this way, I noticed the audio was not being decoded correctly. I assumed the correct audio would be passed to the TV via HDMI, passed back out via optical, and the Panasonic would handle it fine. Apparently this is not the case. The BD in question is currently the only one I own- Casino Royale, Collector's Edition, which I've read is a reference quality disc.

So I switched things around and ran the optical cable directly out of the BDplayer into the Panasonic- and this seemed to work fine. It now understood it was receiving a Dolby Digital track. So I figured, at this point, I had to buy an optical switcher and use that, as the Panasonic only has one optical input.

But what gives me pause is the next Blu-Ray I was thinking of purchasing- Wall-e. I understand it has solely 7.1 DTS for audio- and some people say that this cannot be transmitted via optical. The manual for the Panasonic unit says "only Dolby Digital and PCM can be played via this connection"- now does this mean I am left with no audio for Wall-e but the TV speakers?

Now, given what I've listed, where should I go from here? Do I need to buy a receiver and speakers? Is there any chance I can use my existing speakers with a receiver? I imagine this would create problems in relation to wattage, if by some miracle I could find a receiver that used the same type of connection, but I've really exhausted my budget getting the TV itself.

If I do need to get a receiver, can a VERY affordable one be recommended? I don't need it to be 7.1 or even 6.1- this is overkill for my needs. I also would be thrilled with a modest HTIB setup- I don't need or want another DVD or BD player, however.

So to sum up:

1) Is my assumption correct that my current setup is insufficient, and I will need additional equipment to hear surround audio from many BDs?

2) What is the absolute cheapest way out of my problem?

I apologize for the length of the post, but I'm at wits end here and wanted to be clear about my situation. If more info is needed I will gladly provide it. Thank you for reading, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.


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## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

EMara123 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I have been doing a lot of digging online and cannot really find the info I need, so am taking the next step by registering here. This might be common knowledge to most of you, but certainly new to me.
> 
> ...


First off, welcome to the shack! 

You will need to send the PCM signal from the Blu-Ray player via HDMI to a receiver. So you will need a receiver that supports PCM over HDMI. Going optical is not going to give you true uncompressed sound. 

What are you currently using for speakers? 

Matt


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## EMara123 (May 25, 2010)

Well, currently I am just using the speakers that came with my Panasonic HTIB setup.

I've had recommended to me the Onkyo HT-S3300 system. This seems like the kind of option I'm looking for, albeit still requiring a new purchase- but best I could get from my current unit is having the Blu-ray downmix DTS as PCM and send it via the Optical- that is the only input option on my Panasonic. If I understand correctly, this will only result in 2 channel audio. So I will need something new to get DTS surround. I've also seen a Sony system, HT-SS360, which seems very similar, but goes for less. But I suspect the Onkyo is the safer, wiser purchase. I do wonder if it's possible to upgrade the speakers on the Onkyo setup down the road, though.

I'm bummed I'll need to shell out another 300 bucks, but I'm hoping to sell my Panasonic system, which still is great for DVD, to make up some of that. Luckily most of my friends have yet to get into HDTV at all, let alone Blu-ray, so hopefully one of them will take me up on it.

If I'm missing anything, let me know; thanks for the response!


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## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

You're not limited to stereo PCM over optical. The lossless audio encodings, whether 7.1 or 5.1, can be sent as the corresponding lossy encodings over the traditional optical and coax digital connections. Blu-ray lossy encodings have a higher bitrate than the corresponding audio on DVDs, so they're still very high quality.

Most Blu-ray players have internal settings which allow you to specify that they should downmix 7.1 lossless audio (either DTS-HD or DD TrueHD) either to PCM stereo or to the corresponding DD or DTS 5.1 lossy digital audio for transmission over S/PDIF (coax or optical). 

FWIW, there are only a handful of 7.1 titles available. Most movies are still only 5.1.

With an HDMI connection, you have more options. Most BD players can transmit either bitstreamed lossless DD or DTS audio from the disc over HDMI or decompress it to multichannel LPCM over HDMI.


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## EMara123 (May 25, 2010)

Hm. Good to know; in my case, however, I think I AM limited- my combination DVD player receiver only accepts Dolby surround via the optical connection, or PCM, according to the manual it accepts nothing else via optical. I don't know why, but I've seen people mention this limitation in other Panasonic units as well.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Passing everything via HDMI is the best way to go but the limitation is that the audio outputs of all displays are limited to Dolby digital 2.1 so you will not get full 5.1 or even 7.1 audio going that route. The only way around this is to send the audio from the bluray player over HDMI or optical to the receiver first and then sending a dulpicate audio out to the display as well if you dont always want to have the receiver on at the same time. I know that most HTIB systems dont have enough inputs or outputs so this becomes very dificult and in mosty casses is why i never recomend using them.


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