HDMI input receiver question

[lwoods98]

Just purchased Yamaha rx-v663. Cable box and DVD player run through receiver via HDMI cables.

Picture is significantly sharper (especially blacks) when DVD player and cable box connected directly to TV. Is receiver degrading the picture?

Tried running sources directly to TV via HDMI and audio out to receiver via optical. Sound wasn't good.

Is there a better way (or a different receiver in the $500 range) or do I have to choose between good video vs good sound?

 

[Adam]

Question for you - did you run the optical audio outputs from the cable box and DVD player straight to the receiver, or did you only run the optical audio output from the TV to the receiver?

I ask because some TVs will downmix any HDMI audio input to two-channel for outputting through the optical audio output. If you were to run the digital audio straight from the cable box and DVD player to the receiver, it should sound great.

 

[newb]

Same receiver

I haven't run everything through the receiver as you have (probably will soon though just to make my remote have less steps), but I have optical audio going to the receiver and the video going to the set.
My PQ improved with HDMI from the cable and my sound is just fine.

You may need to sound meter your speakers, make sure all your input sources are set up right (you can find plenty of articles here), and provided you are not having the receiver (or the other components for that matter) up sample your video, it shouldn't affect the quality.

The receiver is more a pass through for video (unless you are asking it to upsample) and can affect sound but you need to set everything up the way you want it to handle the sound.

 

[lwoods98]

figured it out

Thanks for the responses- I finally figured out the problem. Turned out that one of the HDMI inputs in the TV was bad. I was using a different HDMI input on my TV when testing the signal from the DVD direct to the TV, which was why it looked better than when I went through the receiver into the bad HDMI input on TV.

We're enjoying the rx-v663 again now that we know it's passing video through without degrading signal.