HDMI CABLES/SETUP

Ryan New member Username: Bpryan422 Post Number: 9 Registered: Jun-08	Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 11:52 GMT Ok so i am trying to figure out how to hook my TV up to my receiver. I have a 5.1 speaker set up with Atlantic Technology speakers with an Onkyo 505 receiver. Right now thats all i have hooked up is the 5 speakers and 1 sub. I want to buy HDMI cables to hook my TV to my receiver. What actually is HDMI, i have read and read and it doesnt make sense to me. My receiver has 2 inputs and 1 output. My TV is an Oliva flat screen with an HDMI port right in the back of the TV. I am using direct TV but the box doesnt have an HDMI port. I do not want to upgrade to a HD cable box. Will this HDMI cable do anything for me regarding the sound? Will this work so i am able to watch TV through my cable box playing the sound through my receiver to my 5.1 set up? Please let me know if anyone knows the answer to these questions, it would bea huge help.
Frank Abela Gold Member Username: Frank_abela Berkshire UK Post Number: 3015 Registered: Sep-04	Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 12:29 GMT HDMI stands for the High-Definition Multimedia Interface. It's a full audio and video port allowing the encrypted transfer of high resolution multichannel audio and high quality video up to 1080p through. It's a point to point transfer mechanism controlled by the HDMI Consortium (or Committee - can't remember). For more info look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI Different equipment supports HDMI at different levels and this has caused untold confusion in the industry. One reason why I suggested the 606 to you instead of the 505 is that the 606 supports pretty much every single possible variant audio and video through its HDMI interfaces. It is also the lowest priced model in the world so far to support all these options, including Blu-ray's high resolution multichannel audio. The HDMI port on your TV is most likely an input port not an output port - i.e. the TV expects to receive a signal on that port, not to send one out. The idea is that you plug your HDMI sources such as DVD or Blu-ray player and/or your cable box into the receiver and then output the picture to the TV while decoding the audio in the 505. If your cable box doesn't have an HDMI port, you can use your usual connections to the 505 and this can forward the video (and audio if you desire) to the TV. Some models of receiver can reroute the signal from the cable box for you and send it down the HDMI link to the TV, and in some cases they can upscale the picture before sending it to the TV. This means the receiver acts as your hub and you only need one wire going to the TV. I'm not sure if the 505 can do this - read your manual. I hope this helps. Regards, Frank.
Ryan Bronze Member Username: Bpryan422 Post Number: 11 Registered: Jun-08	Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 13:16 GMT Frank, Thankyou for all your help so far i still have a couple more questions. So what your saying is i can plug my cable box into my receiver then have an HDMI cable going from my receiver to my TV. This may make my picture better but will definetly make my sound better? I did not have the money to get the 606. I'm not sure if you know this answer but.....Is there anyway using my ONKYO 505 i can use an HDMI cable to play my TV through my receiver?
Frank Abela Gold Member Username: Frank_abela Berkshire UK Post Number: 3017 Registered: Sep-04	Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 14:28 GMT Ryan, As I said earlier, it's unlikely your TV has an HDMI output. The socket you have on your TV is most probably an input only (I don't know of a TV that has HDMI outputs). So in order to get audio from the TV to the receiver, you will have to connect one of the TV's audio outputs to the AV receiver. What you connect depends on the TV and its outputs. Some TVs have just stereo analogue outputs (left and right channel) and you can plug those into the receiver which can then use Prologic or preferably DTS Neo6 (you set the receiver once and it'll choose that setting from then on) to construct surround soud. If the TV has a digital output it can be plugged into the receiver with that. However, I imagine you never actually watch TV through the TV's own tuner. I imagine you just watch everything off the cable box. If so, all you need do is connect the cable box to the AV-receiver. Once again, what you connect depends on what's available on the cable box. If you have HDMI, you can connect that to the receiver and HDMI to the TV. If it just has component, you can connect component output to the receiver or directly to the TV. You CANNOT take the component signal and get the 505 to put it out via HDMI (see page 27 of your manual). I think you're getting confused because of the HDMI capabilities of the 505. Let me try to be a bit clearer... The 505 can take HDMI signals, decode certain audio formats (the usual DVD ones) and send on the signal to your TV via its HDMI output. It doesn't improve the picture (and hopefully doesn't make it worse). In fact it seems to do nothing with the video part of the signal. If your cable box has an HDMI socket, you CAN use an HDMI cable and connect cable box to receiver, then another HDMI cable to connect receiver to TV. If you have an HDMI-equipped DVD player you can use an HDMI cable to connect to the receiver there too. Using the HDMI connections should give you the best results, both for audio and video. If your cable box does not have HDMI, you need to connect the audio and video signals separately: For audio, if the cable box has a digital connection, you can use a digital interconnect (either coax or optical, coax is usually better, but optical is good). This will give you 5.1 discrete surround sound, and a level of sound equivalent to what you'd get via HDMI. If the cable box does not have a digital connection, then you're probably restricted to just a stereo input. You can use an ordinary 2-channel interconnect to plug into the receiver. In this case you will have to setup the receiver for dolby prologic or (better) DTS Neo6 for that input. For video, you'd have to plug in the best your cable box can offer. If the best is component then use that. If composite is the best (Oh please Lord No), then ... use that, but it's awful so please don't if you can. Now you can choose to plug these into the receiver or you can go direct to the TV. If you have many component sources (e.g. a DVD player as well as the cable box), then you may want to go via the receiver so it switches between them for you. If you don't mind switching the TV over manually then that's probably going to give you the better result provided you have enough inputs. Note that the receiver has many more sockets on the back for sorces than it has buttons for sources at the front. The idea is that you 'map' which socket at the back you wish to use to the buttons on the front. By default, the HDMI sockets are not set to an input. You need to tell the receiver what to use. The receiver has a whole menu system you can use to set it up. It has an automatic mode for setting up the speaker levels with the microphone which is great, but the real power is in the menu system. the thing is, the dot matrix display on the unit is fairly restricted. It's much easier to plug in the receiver to the TV and use the menus. Do this and it'll make life a LOT easier. I hope this helps. Regards, Frank.
Ryan Bronze Member Username: Bpryan422 Post Number: 13 Registered: Jun-08	Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 18:45 GMT If you have the onkyo 505 with 2 inputs and 1 output and an LCD TV with an HDMI port right on the back of the TV. If i just have standard cable with NO cable box. Can i just use ONE HDMI cable from my receiver to my TV and have what ever the HDMI is suppose to give me?
JOHN S Gold Member Username: John_s Columbus, Ohio US Post Number: 2289 Registered: Feb-04	Posted on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 13:15 GMT Excuse me Frank, I hope you don't mind me chiming in here. Ryan, it's important for you to understand that your 505 is an HDMI pass through receiver. This means that the two HDMI inputs are there for convenience switching only. It simply takes in the HDMI signal from two outside sources and sends one or the other out through its HDMI output. It does not process the signal in any way. The receiver will neither extract any audio nor process any video on any HDMI signal coming into it. This means that hooking up an HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV is of absolutely no use if there's no HDMI signal going into the receiver in the first place. You will see nothing on the TV's HDMI input, and you will hear nothing on the sound system. Nothing. That said, let me review a couple of your previous questions: "I am using direct TV but the box doesnt have an HDMI port. I do not want to upgrade to a HD cable box. Will this HDMI cable do anything for me regarding the sound? Will this work so i am able to watch TV through my cable box playing the sound through my receiver to my 5.1 set up?" In view of what I just said above, the answer to both questions is no. There's no possibility since there's no HDMI signal coming into the receiver. Again, since the 505 is an HDMI pass through receiver, the only thing the Onkyo would do is send the signal on to the TV and you would hear no sound on the 5.1 system. As long as you keep your DirecTV box, you need to hook up audio to the Onkyo by the best means (digital, hopefully) and send the video directly to the Olevia by the best means (S-video, most likely). If i just have standard cable with NO cable box. Can i just use ONE HDMI cable from my receiver to my TV and have what ever the HDMI is suppose to give me?" Again, no. The TV would scan through the unencrypted channels and you would see those fine. Your only choice regarding sound would be to run analog audio cables out from the TV into the receiver. You would then be limited to matrixed surround such as Dolby Digital Pro Logic II or Neo:6.
Frank Abela Gold Member Username: Frank_abela Berkshire UK Post Number: 3036 Registered: Sep-04	Posted on Monday, June 16, 2008 - 17:20 GMT Well spotted John. I didn't realise that the HDMI inputs were passthrough only. Thanks for chiming in! Regards, Frank.
Sherman Price Bronze Member Username: Lokeyq3 New York Post Number: 22 Registered: Jun-08	Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 03:15 GMT Ok. I guess I had some of the same questions as Ryan. I am was considering returning my Yahmaha RX-V663 receiver for either the V863 or V1800. Both offer two additional HDMI inputs. The V663 has two. Unless I learn that the components inputs can be utilized just as effeciently I probably will exchange it. I have satelite dish, a DLP 46" Television and plan on upgrading from a Sony DVD/VCR unit to a blue-ray player. So, from what I have read from this forum I should be just fine with the two HDMI's, correct? Other than the two additional HDMI inputs the other two Yahmaha amps. offer a little more watts per channel which is not a big deal to me. I'm running my B&W 863's through a Bryston amp.

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