To HDMI or not?

[cwgesch]

New guy... allready learned a lot through you guys... thanks!

Question: I do not have an HDMI input on my receiver, but I do have HDMI out on my cable box and in on my TV. So, Should I use the HDMI between the cable box and tv AND add a digital audio cable between the cable box and the receiver? Or should I skip the HDMI all together and go with Component + Digital audio? Maybe I should use HDMI to TV... then digital audio out to the receiver from the TV? HELP!

Also, I've got a 5.1 setup with a 7.1 receiver... which speaker outputs do I nix?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Chris

 

[hifiman]

I don't know. I have an HDMI out on my satellite reciever and tried connecting it to my TV. I didn't notice any difference, but reconnected the component connections just to be sure. Still didn't see a difference so I never bothered to change back to the HDMI. Besides, from what I gather, HDMI is not quite ready for primetime, but others may disagree.

 

[mtrycrafts]

New guy... allready learned a lot through you guys... thanks!

Question: I do not have an HDMI input on my receiver, but I do have HDMI out on my cable box and in on my TV. So, Should I use the HDMI between the cable box and tv AND add a digital audio cable between the cable box and the receiver? Or should I skip the HDMI all together and go with Component + Digital audio? Maybe I should use HDMI to TV... then digital audio out to the receiver from the TV? HELP!

Also, I've got a 5.1 setup with a 7.1 receiver... which speaker outputs do I nix?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Chris

What kind of TV do you have? CRT type, or the new pixel types. That latter would accept the digital video from that HDMI better with less processing of the signal in the analog domain.
If so, yes, use a digital audio to the receiver for 5.1.

 

[AudioSeer]

You are going to want to experiment between using HDMI and component on your TV. Surpisingly enough, component looks better than HDMI on many current HDTV's.

 

[cwgesch]

Thanks guys... I'll try a couple of different things I guess. Just tracked my receiver via UPS... wont get here till 9 Jan!! bummer.

The TV is a HD Hitachi LCD.