HD 300 Audio

[bama]

Hello,

I am about to purchase a HD 300 unit; however, I have one question about my setup and how audio signals will function.

Current Devices:

TV: Philips LCD TV - 47PFL5704D
STB: Charter Scientific Atlanta HD
Receiver: Sony Home Theater - BDV-HZ970W
Additional: PS3

Current Layout:

STB-via HDMI->TV-via Digital Audio Input->Receiver
PS3-via HDMI->Receiver

This allows me to use TV speakers for the majority of our television watching; however, I can utilize my receiver if I am watching a movie, would like to output television audio to my home theater, or would like to play audio independent of my video (generally playing Pandora).

I would like to replace my STB with the HD 300 so I can move it upstairs to record with the SageTV Server. My question is what type of audio quality will I get if I stream a movie under the following circumstances.

Movie with DTS Audio on Server -via Network->HD 300-via HDMI->TV-via Digital Audio Input->Receiver

My receiver has an additional HDMI input so I could conceivably input HD 300 to receiver to TV. However, using the receiver every time I use my television would be less than optimum.

Thank you in advance,

bama

[Taddeusz]

Not sure about your TV but I can tell you about my experience with our TV. We don't have the money to buy a new receiver with HDMI. Currently using the HDTV as an HDMI switch. I have the Xbox 360, STB, and HD200 connected through HDMI to the TV. I then have an optical SPDIF going to the receiver for audio. However, I discovered that the TV will only pass PCM or Dolby Digital through to the receiver. If there is DTS audio it completely ignores it and there ends up being no audio. As a result I ended up having to run a separate optical cable from my HD200 to the receiver. That way it bypasses the TV and goes straight to the receiver.

Depending on how you plan on hooking it up I would check to make sure your TV can pass DTS through to the receiver. Otherwise just run HDMI into your receiver.

I wish we could afford a new receiver. Would make things a little neater and I wouldn't have to depend on the TV for switching.

[autoboy]

If you DO buy a new receiver, there are some brand new ones that support HDMI passthrough when the receiver is turned off so you can choose to use the TV speakers if you want to.

You WILL lose all surround audio from an HDMI source if you run toslink out of the TV. You will only get Dolby out of the TV if you use the internal HDTV tuner. Any BD player, game machine, etc connected with HDMI will only get stereo. You can fake that to surround with Dolby PLII, but you will lose the actual surround information.

Bama, you may want to just invest in a universal remote that turns on your receiver when you turn on the TV. You can pick up a Harmony for $50-100 depending on the model and sales. It's well worth it and has high WAF.

[bama]

Thanks to everyone for the responses and I will probably just go the universal remote route (have been needing an excuse to pick up a Harmony).

I figured I could not get true surround connecting the extender through the TV to the receiver, not a big deal for general TV but no dice for our movies.

I will have to check to see if my receiver supports passive HDMI pass through but I do not believe it does.

bama

[Taddeusz]

My tv has an option to pass the Dolby Digital through unmodified or convert all AC3 to PCM stereo. I believe most tv's should have that feature.

[bama]

@Taddeusz

Yeah, I will probably try to connect to TV first and see how the audio works out. For your HD200, do you output HDMI to TV for video and audio and Optical to your receiver for sound that does not play on your TV? In other words, can you output audio from the HD200 to two separate sources concurrently? If so, do you know if the HD300 can do this as well?

[Taddeusz]

Not sure about audio going to both. I've never tried. But yes, I use only the optical audio out going to my receiver. I'm not sure about the HD300. I only have an HD100 and an HD200.

[ccsmoke]

On the HD200 they are live, HD200 HDMI--->TV HD200 optical--->Receiver. I do believe this is the case with the 300 as well but don't have one to test. Keep in mind hooking it up this way will not give you the HD Audio.

Would test the pass through on receiver 1st though.

[firenice]

I use an HDMI splitter switch to do this. One to the reciever the other to a sound bar. It's automatic switching depending on which is activated.

Edit: like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882339245

Mike

[veger69]

If you plan on streaming DTS-HDMA and Dolby True HD or 96khz/24bit music I would look else where. The HD300 still has quite a few bugs with HD audio content

[bama]

@firenice

Thanks for the suggestion, I had not thought about using a splitter - this is probably the easiest way to achieve my goal if my receiver does not passively send on signals..

@veger69

What do you have suggest to stream HD Audio better?