Advantage to Using HDMI to A/V for PS3 and XBOX 360

[Chitown2477]

Hello all,

I have the following equipment: Yamaha RX-V1600, Sony Bravia LCD 50”, PS3, Xbox 360, DirecTv and a Receiver. The PS3 and Xbox 360 both go to the TV via HDMI and to receiver via optical. The DTV is going to the TV via component and to the receiver via optical. I have the Klipsch RF-62 home theater 5.x speaker set with a DefTech subwoofer.

The receiver has two HDMI’s going in and one going out. It will only pass thru 1080i, not 1080p (which really ticked me off because I thought it passed through 1080p). I tried to connect the PS3 and Xbox 360 to the receiver via HDMI to but the PS3 would not pass through sound or video even with me changing the HDMI settings, switching inputs, and trying a number of other things. I also got intermittent HCDP error messages but think this only happened because the order in which I turned on the devices (kind of quirky but I tested it and was able to repeat the error). I eventually gave up after not being able to contact Sony to determine why the PS3 would not pass through sound or video.

Before I start this process to connect and troubleshoot all over again I am trying to determine if there is any real advantage to running the PS3 and Xbox 360 both are going to the receiver via HDMI. For example will the sound quality improve dramatically? I really like the 1080p that I get directly through the TV via HDMI. However, I wwant teh best out of my speakers also. The system use is about 50% movies, 30% games, and 20% music.

Your comments are appreciated!

[Polygon]

If you're running tosslink to the amp from the 360 and PS3 then you will not hear any difference. There would be no advantage to running to the amp. If you watch Blu-Ray or HD-DVD then you'd being doing yourself a disservice since it will not output at 1080p.

[GlocksRock]

I used to have that same receiver and had the 360 and PS3 running HDMI to the receiver. I did have some audio issues with the RX-V1600 with the 360 when using HDMI, so I used component and optical. However, the PS3 was perfect, no issues there. The 1600 can accept audio from both, and if it doesn't you need to change your receivers settings to not pass audio through to the hdmi output. The only advantage to having the PS3 connected to the receiver with HDMI is for the audio. If you watch Blu ray movies, your PS3 can decode TrueHD to PCM, and your receiver will output it as 5.1, and you can overlay the PLIIx decoder to get 7.1, as well as 5.1 PCM audio for games. The 1600 won't accept a 7.1 or 6.1 PCM over HDMI, but it will do 7.1 with analog inputs. I recently upgraded to the RX-V1800 to get 7.1 PCM over HDMI and 1080p, since the 1600 only does 720p/1080i. So you have to determine what is more important to you, the 360 won't be an issue so much, I would keep it connected to the tv's HDMI so you can get 1080p, but for the PS3 you have to decide what is more important to you, 1080p video, or the better audio quality you can get with PCM/TrueHD.

[treejohnny]

I hope it is ok to sidetrack a little. I have the Yam 2600 and it has first version of hdmi, what version of hdmi does the 1800 and the 1600 have ? I was told that the oppo would send audio thu the hdmi to my particular receiver.

[j_garcia]

Your receiver needs to have at least HDMI 1.1 to work, and 1.2 for multichannel hires audio I believe.

[obscbyclouds]

Your receiver needs to have at least HDMI 1.1 to work, and 1.2 for multichannel hires audio I believe.

Only 1.2 for sending DSD (SACD) over HDMI. If you set the oppo to output PCM, only HDMI 1.1 is required.

[D.R. Payne]

It's also way easier to plug in 1 cable than 3...