confused with hdmi

[nfsfan]

hi friends
my never ending quest with htpc never ends :rofl:

A wdtv is so much simple, but i prefer a htpc for blu-ray proofing reasons. An then i read about the problems with blu-ray audio, i.e DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD( These cannot be bitstreamed through hdmi 1.3 in a pc, because of lack of implementation of PAP ). But Cyberlink powerdvd9 has a partially working solution, it converts these truehd and dts ma tracks to 7.1 ch lpcm, which can then be transferred over hdmi.

Now comes the part of hdmi pass-thru. Most receivers, including new 2009 models from onkyo, the hts 3200 and hts 5200( upgraded 3100 and 5100 with hdmi) have hdmi, but as pass-thru.

Home Theater Systems | Product Line | Onkyo USA Home Theater Products

Further their website says that these are pass-thru, and a separate audio connection is required. If this is the case, then what is the use of hdmi in such receivers? New age hdtv's all have 2-4 hdmi connections, and if there's not going to be any sound from the receiver, its better to connect directly to the tv!

If mid end home theaters such as the 5100/5200 can not process audio from hdmi, what is the use of hdmi? or am i, or onkyo missing something?

 

[TechHead]

Used to consolidate multiple HDMI inputs to one output.

 

[paddydevil]

dude when u pass through onkyo receiver,the receiver decodes the audio so that u get 5.1/7.1 from home theatre system and video is sent by onkyo receiver to the tv so that u see hd video.

so that is the point of giving hdmi bypass through onkyo reciever.

however,it can be used only in case of blu/hdmi player.

in case of htpc,(which is my case too) u have to connect tv through hdmi cable,other end of which is connected to graphics card(so u get hd video to tv).

and get a soundcard with optical/spdif out(having dts/dolby/dts-hd pass) and connect using toslink/coaxial cable to u r onkyo receiver and u get dts/dolby,dts-hd,etc output to u r home theatre system in 5.1/7.1.

if u have any other doubts pm me

 

[nfsfan]

i've finelly got it. after reading much, there are two 'varieties' of hdmi as well, hdmi passthrough : where the onkyo wont even touch the source, just pass it along , so no audio through hdmi
& hdmi repeater : in this case the receiver does take the audio out of the hdmi interface.

here it is :
HDMI: pass through, repeater, switcher? - Audioholics Home Theater Forums

@paddydevil : Yes, the current solution is to use spdif for audio. But using receivers like only sr606 which have hdmi repeater facility we can do audio over hdmi. basically the receiver has to have hdmi inputs. this is true for htpc as well. DD, DTS, LPC(2.0 - 7.1) are doable on the htpc over hdmi. spdif has bandwidth limitation of 1.5mbps so neither of the HD audio formats can be streamed over it.