# using HDMI for sound only



## the_rookie (Sep 30, 2008)

I was wondering is there a way for me to have a source such as a; DVD player, Blu-Ray, Xbox 360 play HD sound, but have my onkyo 876 somehow down convert the video through S-video out or something.

Cuz I dont have HD picture yet, but HD sound would be nice in the mean time.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Yes, but it would mean that you would have to use HDMI to the receiver and then an S_video cable from the BluRay directly to the TV for the video meaning that you would have to select different inputs on the receiver and TV. HDMI can not be downconverted by receivers.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

There may be some menu settings to sift through on the Onkyo and/or DVD player, but theoretically, it should work. You’d have to add an S-video cable between the DVD player or X-box and the receiver (assuming you’re already running S-video between the Onkyo and the TV). 

If the DVD player won’t send S-video and HDMI simultaneously, you can always resort to the standard optical or coaxial digital audio connections; it’ll give the same 5.1 “HD sound” as HDMI.

Regards,
Wayne


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## snpanago (Dec 14, 2008)

This setup works excellent for me, especially with the A/V limitations of my system. Unfortunately, an early adopter of HDTV with a set that has no HDMI inputs; best inputs are component. So, using HDMI from Blu Ray to the AVR, I still can enjoy lossless audio such as DD True HD, while hooking up the video directly with component cables.


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## mcallister (Feb 25, 2007)

Before I bought a plasma I used a PS3 for Blu-ray and had HDMI through my yammy 2700 as well as component cables to my old RCA F38310 through the reciever. Worked very well and easy to setup in a PS3. Pretty good upconverting DVD Player as well.


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## keelay (Dec 11, 2008)

A little HDMI background. HDMI is essentially the combination of the DVI digital standard video and S/PDIF coaxial. There isn't anything else to it. A Toslink(Optical) or Digital coaxial connection is capable of the same sound resolution of the HDMI cable's sound only capability. All the Bluray players that I have seen support some sort of Digital Audio output along with HDMI. 

This is the way mine is. The question then is - Does the Bluray player sound out True HD signals on the HDMI AND the Optical or coaxial port. My Receiver unfortunately is not True HD so I couldn't tell you whether my Bluray player (Samsung BD-P1500) sends out the True HD on this port or not but I would bet that it does.

I have the opposite problem. My Receiver (Onkyo TX-SR506) supports only HMDI video switching. It doesn't process or peek at the Audio signal just routes it. My TV is HDMI capable, but I have to connect both the HMDI and the TOSLINK from the Bluray to the Receiver just so I can listen to Dolby EX.

Someday I'll upgrade the Receiver. I'd love to hear True HD sound.


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## keelay (Dec 11, 2008)

...So to sum up both the HDMI port and the TOSLINK port on my Bluray player are on and active at the same time. It may be true that the component outputs are on as well.


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## snpanago (Dec 14, 2008)

This is from an article referenced in Wikipedia:

Connecting a Dolby TrueHD source to a receiver requires a digital link capable of transporting either the encoded bitstream or the unpacked Linear PCM audio data (18 Mbit/s max for a Blu-ray source). HDMI 1.0 (and higher) can transport multichannel PCM-audio, and therefore can transport an unpacked TrueHD audiotrack. An HDMI 1.3 (or higher) link is required to transport Dolby TrueHD in bitstream form.[1]

S/PDIF cannot carry Dolby TrueHD due to bandwidth limitations, as S/PDIF is limited to 5.1 channels of compressed discrete audio. When using S/PDIF, a device such as a Blu-ray Disc player will automatically send the Dolby Digital audio.


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## keelay (Dec 11, 2008)

snpanago said:


> This is from an article referenced in Wikipedia:
> 
> Connecting a Dolby TrueHD source to a receiver requires a digital link capable of transporting either the encoded bitstream or the unpacked Linear PCM audio data (18 Mbit/s max for a Blu-ray source). HDMI 1.0 (and higher) can transport multichannel PCM-audio, and therefore can transport an unpacked TrueHD audiotrack. An HDMI 1.3 (or higher) link is required to transport Dolby TrueHD in bitstream form.[1]
> 
> S/PDIF cannot carry Dolby TrueHD due to bandwidth limitations, as S/PDIF is limited to 5.1 channels of compressed discrete audio. When using S/PDIF, a device such as a Blu-ray Disc player will automatically send the Dolby Digital audio.


Thanks for the extra input. I guess S/PDIF won't work in this application. After doing a little research, it looks like the hardware specification of S/PDIF is the issue for the bandwidth limitation. The cable, digital Coaxial or optical Toslink are capable of much higher bandwidths.

This really makes my want to upgrade my receiver.

Kyle


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