connections

[strangephoenix]

Hopefully I'm posting in the right place...

First off, I have a 32" Samsung LCD (2 HDMI); Yamaha RX-V659 (no HDMI); Panasonic upconverting DVD (1 HDMI); PS3.

My TV is connected to the receiver via its optical out. The DVD player is passing video thru an HDMI port and audio thru coax out to the receiver. The PS3 is connected to the TV via HDMI. I am not using a separate connection for audio, since the receiver doesn't have HDMI.

I guess my question is there a better way to make these connections? Am I losing much in terms of sound quality? When I'm playing a DVD on the PS3, for example, my receiver doesn't indiciate that a Dolby Digital or DTS signal is being received. Should I get a receiver with HDMI, or just connect everything differently?

Thanks ahead of time to anybody who replies.

 

[Adam]

Hey, strangephoenix, welcome to the forum!

Does the PS3 have a way to connect the audio directly to the receiver (like you have done with your DVD player)?

 

[strangephoenix]

Hey Adam

Yeah, the PS3 has an optical out. Using that is a noticable improvement over how it sounds thru the HDMI directly to the TV. But the optical connection can't handle certain audio formats from what I understand. So I'm wondering if there's enough of a difference to warrant purchasing a receiver with HDMI.

 

[Adam]

Ahhh, now I understand. You're looking at the new lossless formats. I can't say if those sound better because I've never heard them. Other people here can answer that, so hopefully they'll chime in.

I'm wondering...were you saying that your receiver doesn't show DD or DTS when you have the PS3 hooked up with an optical cable? If that's the case, I'd suggest checking the audio output options on the PS3 and make sure that it's set up to output the "bitstream" for those formats. I don't own a PS3, but that's a common issue on a lot of DVD players.