Does HDMI passthrough affe t picture quality?

[David Faulkner]

So I just bought a PlayStation VR and it comes with a breakout box that you connect to your tv. However I have a home theater and the PS4 is my bluray player. I can't say for sure but it seems like there might be a loss of picture quality using the HDMI pass-through. Here is how I have the HDMI cables going along. Playstation 4 - VR breakout box - Yamaha Aventage receiver - Epson projector. Essentially I have it going through 2 HDMI pass-throughs: the breakout box for the VR and the Yamaha receiver. Now I know that HDMI is digital signal so the passthroughs shouldn't affect picture quality right? It could just be in my head. Right now I've been unhooking the VR box every time I'm done using it but I would really like to leave everything connected I guess I'm just looking for peace of mind saying it doesn't affect picture quality.

Thanks so much!

 

[Hi Ho]

HDMI is digital. You either have a perfect picture or no picture at all. Actually, you could get "sparkles" if there is a problem with a poor connection or a really long cable run but that would be really obvious. You can pass HDMI through 100 pass through devices and the picture will be exactly the same as long as there are no poor connections or defective cables.

 

[pewternhrata]

Would each pass through need to be the same hdmi version as the source?

 

[Hi Ho]

HDMI versions are backwards compatible but the "weakest link" in the chain would determine which HDMI features you could use. For example, if you want to use 3D but you have an old HDMI 1.2 device in the chain then it will not work. If you just want to send 1080p video then even an HDMI 1.0 device would work. There is a handy chart a little over halfway down the HDMI Wikipedia page that shows what each version of HDMI is capable of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI