Upgrading my previous Yamaha RX-V3300 Receiver and had an easy question for the masters. I use it strictly as a preamp. Have ATI's top of line 7 channel amp and looking for a preamp or receiver that allows for preouts with HDMI sound being passed to it. It looks like the RX-V3900 does this but I am not sure. A lot of preamps (sunfire, B&K, and etc) do not allow sound over HDMI to be decoded and pushed out the balanced or rca preouts to the amp. Wanted to see if anyone knew of a preamp that allows for this feature or even better confirm the preouts on the RX-V3900 allow Dolby TrueHD and etc to be decoded and sent out its preouts to my amp. Searched far and wide to find this answer and read all the manuals of the usual suspects we no success. Would hate to buy the RX-V3900 and then not hear TrueHD through the HMDI connection and my amp. Confirmed it works on the internal app of teh Yamaha. The new RX-V3900 has most of the features I want and the previous model did a great job. My budget is up to ~3K but would prefer to spend less if the Yamaha does not do it and any suggestions would be awesome. Any help would be greatly appreciated to sum it up.
Hi, and Welcome to Audioholics.
Your 3300 is a dynamite receiver, right on.

You only need a Blu-ray player, like the Panny DMP-BD55 or DMP-BD80, and you can still benefit from the newest high resolution audio codecs from Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, using the Multichannel analog inputs from your Yamaha RX-V3300. The Blu-Ray player does the internal decoding, and send the audio signal along and uncompressed through multichannel Linear PCM; so you don't loose one tiny bit of the high res audio.
* And you don't have to worry about using your ATI multichannel power amplifier with it either.
---> See, you don't even need HDMI connectors in your receiver.
*** But if you really insist to upgrade to HDMI, why then just get the very best pre/pro for the money right now, the Onkyo Pro PR-SC-886P?
It's only $999.99, and it HAS WAY MORE EVERYTHING than you ever imagined.
@
http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKPRSC886/Onkyo/PR-SC886-THX-Ultra2-Plus-7.1-channel-3-Zone-Preamplifier/Processor-/1.html
** You'll save a bunch, and you have one of the most up to date pre/pro in the market, and also one of the vey best, period.
Bob