I have a Denon AVR-985 receiver, and I am hooking up my Pioneer DVD player. The DVD has Component Video Out, S-Video Out, Optical Audio / Coaxial video Outputs, and 5.1 surround audio outputs (coaxial).
My question(s) are: Is the Optical Audio output the best choice for audio? Will this enable a better surround atmosphere? If so, how can I take advantage of this and still use the component video input?
If anyone has knowledge on Denon Receivers and knows the best way to handle this, I'm all ears.
I would suggest the Optical Output from your DVD player to your Denon. You must also get into the DVD players setup and change that to digital output sometimes known as bitstream. That is how I have a DENON AVR-1906 connected to my Samsung DVD player for audio purposes. This connection allows DTS, Dolby etc to be automatically recognized by the Denon. You must also go into the Denon input assignment and select the Optical Input port number for your DVD audio in.
As far as video input/output from the DVD to Denon.... my current 1906 is not in that loop as I have it currently configured. I have my DVD player connected via HDMI directly to the back of my Samsung Monitor HDMI input port 2.