Okay I have a question before I start spending a bunch of money on cables. I have a
-Panasonic 1080 HD TV with one HDMI in. One optical audio out.
-A Toshiba DVD Player with, One HDMI out and one Coaxial Out (no optical out)
-Yamaha Reciever with NO HDMI input, with one optical input and one coaxial input.
My question is how do I hook up the audio to my reciever to still get high quality dolby digital 5.1. My to options appear to be to hook up the DVD to the TV via HDMI, and then go out of the TV via optical digital out, into the reciever. I do not know if this will give me the dolby digital output that I want. I could also go out of the DVD player via coaxial digital into the reciever. Which one will work, and if they both do which would be th better option. Right now I do not have the coaxial or the HDMI cable so that is why I have not tried any of this yet. I just do not want to go buy these cables if this set up will not work. Thanks
Thanks John. So that should still give me surround sound? The reason I ask is that I have heard people have problems running a second audio out when they are running an HDMI out of a DVD player. Thanks Again
Philips players are the only ones I've heard of that won't output through the digital output when using HDMI. I don't know if all Philips players are that way or just some or one.
Chris, I have never heard of there being a problem with a DVD player not outputting normal DD and DTS 5.1 through its digital out while the HDMI output is in use.
What most likely will not work is to expect the TV to output DD and DTS intact from the player from its optical out. Most displays are not built to extract the DD and DTS bitsreams coming in via HDMI and loop it out on the TV's optical output. (This is true even though you'll still get sound on the TV's internal speakers.) The purpose of that optical output is to send the digital audio the TV may be receiving on over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna out to an external audio system.
"Okay I have a question before I start spending a bunch of money on cables."
Look at it this way. However you do the hookup, it's going to take the same number of cables. First, either way you'll want to get an HDMI cable to take advantage of the 'upconverted' video the player can generate. Then regarding audio, whether you run optical out from the TV or the player, you'll still have to get an optical (TOSLink) cable.
Okay I have a question before I start spending a bunch of money on cables. I have a
-Panasonic 1080 HD TV with one HDMI in. One optical audio out.
-A Toshiba DVD Player with, One HDMI out and one Coaxial Out (no optical out)
-Yamaha Reciever with NO HDMI input, with one optical input and one coaxial input. ==========================================
Based on the above, this is my 2 cents. I do NOT recommend sending audio-OUT from the TV to your receiver. Only God knows what your TV might do to screw up the signal if it is used as a throughput!! Run your audio directly from the source....to the receiver!! In my recommendation, I'll assume you also have HDTV cable/sat of some sort when I make my recommendations.
I'll start with video: I would leave your receiver out of the video-loop. Connect your HDTV cable/sat video and HD-DVD directly from the source to the TV. Since you only have 1 HDMI, you have a decision to make, and your DVD player upscaling ability will help you make the decision. For example: In my case, my Blu-Ray player does not upscale standard def DVD video if component cables are used.
For that reason, I connected my Blu-Ray directly to the TV via HDMI. That way when I play standard def DVDS...it will upscale them!! My HD-SAT/box is then connected directly to my TV via component cables. Your HDTV picture quality will not be compromised providing you are using quality component cables.
As for audio?? You have 1 optical/1 digcoax on your receiver.
Hopefully, your components will allow you to use each of those when connecting from the source to the receiver with the input ports available.
If either your HD-DVD or HD-Cable sat has optical out, and the other has Dig/coax out....you're good to go.