HD200/HD300 Audio Questions..

[jbuszkie]

I have an HD200 in my LR. It was hooked up via HDMI to my tv and a optical cable to an old audio receiver. All worked ok and most of the time the receiver was off and I listened through the TV speakers. The Amp was used for movies and such. Now this old amp was limited. It couldn't handle DTS and AC3 5.1 only worked at a 448k rate. If I used the standard 600k the audio studdered.

So it was time for an upgrade. I just got a new receiver capable of handling anything supposedly... My question is.. how do I hook it up?

1. Will I be able to get the DTS-HD out of my HD200 playing an mkv file. (I think the answer is no)

2. Will it come out of the optical port? (I think the answer is no? only via HDMI)

3. Will I need an HD300 for this? (My guess is the answer is yes)

4. If I get an HD300, Will I be forced to have my amp on any time I want to watch TV if I route the HDMI through the amp so I can decode DTS-HD?

I'd really hate to have to have the AMP on all the time when just watching regular TV.

Do I have any other options?

Thanks,

Jim

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

I have an HD200 in my LR. It was hooked up via HDMI to my tv and a optical cable to an old audio receiver. All worked ok and most of the time the receiver was off and I listened through the TV speakers. The Amp was used for movies and such. Now this old amp was limited. It couldn't handle DTS and AC3 5.1 only worked at a 448k rate. If I used the standard 600k the audio studdered.

So it was time for an upgrade. I just got a new receiver capable of handling anything supposedly... My question is.. how do I hook it up?

1. Will I be able to get the DTS-HD out of my HD200 playing an mkv file. (I think the answer is no)

No, you need the HD300 (HDMI 1.3) for that.

2. Will it come out of the optical port? (I think the answer is no? only via HDMI)

DTS-HD/TrueHD: no
core stream from the above: yes*

*but MKV doesn't support a TrueHD core so you're SOL there.

3. Will I need an HD300 for this? (My guess is the answer is yes)

The HD300 adds TrueHD/DTS-HD (MA) bitstreaming and DTS downmixing. So if you want those, then yes, you'll need an HD300.

4. If I get an HD300, Will I be forced to have my amp on any time I want to watch TV if I route the HDMI through the amp so I can decode DTS-HD?

I'm not really sure how that works. It will probably depend on how you have everything hooked up. But if you've got it configured for HBR bitstreaming, then that won't work without the AVR on. I'm not sure what happens with TV (which is never HBR).

I'd really hate to have to have the AMP on all the time when just watching regular TV.

Why? I'd want the not crappy sound all the time.

[jbuszkie]

Thanks for the answers.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Why? I'd want the not crappy sound all the time.

Because I'd hate to burn the extra power if I didn't need to. the TV speakers sound just fine for the kid's shows! (Does Dora really need to be 5.1 )

I may just have to suck it up unless someone else can recommend a solution. I was thinking I might need an HDMI splitter.. with one end to the TV for non amp sound and the other to the amp and then to the tv for amp sound.

Jim

[stanger89]

HDMI gets rather finniky though, that's the problem. Lots of handshaking goes on to determine the capabilities on both ends of the chain. That's why I'm not sure what happens if you try and hook up a TV (which can't deal with HBR) and an AVR that does.

For example one would "hope" that if you went HD300->AVR->TV, that if the AVR is on the AVR/HD300 would handshake that HBR audio is supported and it would work, and that if the AVR is off, it would passthrough and the HD300/TV would handshake that it's not possible and work that way.

I'm personally not optimistic it would work that nice though.

I can't see the power being that much of an issue though really, that would seem like the lowest priority on the list of reasons to overcomplicate things.

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by stanger89

For example one would "hope" that if you went HD300->AVR->TV, that if the AVR is on the AVR/HD300 would handshake that HBR audio is supported and it would work, and that if the AVR is off, it would passthrough and the HD300/TV would handshake that it's not possible and work that way.

I'm worried that it really wouldn't happen that way.. I don't know what the TV does for it's unselected hdmi inputs.

Originally Posted by stanger89

I can't see the power being that much of an issue though really, that would seem like the lowest priority on the list of reasons to overcomplicate things.

1. I'm just trying to be as green as possible... (not really a tree hugger but I try to do what I can)
2. Minimize the complexity for the wife and kids.
3. prevent the kids from overdriving my speakers (AVR > speakers)

Probably #2 being the biggest factor. Sage is always on.. All they have to do is turn the TV on. Now I do have a harmony that mostly automates the process but if they don't aim the remote at all the components all the time then they might miss the power on of the AVR or the selections to the AVR or the TV...

Does the HD200/300 output component and HDMI simultaneously? My guess is no.

Jim