toshiba a-3 and onkyo 605(true hd?)

[selkec]

OK, i have read tons of posts and none of them have clarified something Im trying to figure out.
If connecting the a-3 to the onkyo via HDMI then I wont get true HD? The manual for the a3 says it only puts out bitstream on the spdif output. Not HDMI..
The onkyo 605 manual requires bitstream to output true hd....I think. Right now my friend has this setup and with HDMI it will not play true hd, it says something like neo6. He has tried every setting available with no luck. So my question is, does it need the optical hooked up to get the true hd since the a-2, or the a3 does not bitstream thru HDMI?
I hope this is not a stupid question, all this terminology can get confusing

 

[gus6464]

OK, i have read tons of posts and none of them have clarified something Im trying to figure out.
If connecting the a-3 to the onkyo via HDMI then I wont get true HD? The manual for the a3 says it only puts out bitstream on the spdif output. Not HDMI..
The onkyo 605 manual requires bitstream to output true hd....I think. Right now my friend has this setup and with HDMI it will not play true hd, it says something like neo6. He has tried every setting available with no luck. So my question is, does it need the optical hooked up to get the true hd since the a-2, or the a3 does not bitstream thru HDMI?
I hope this is not a stupid question, all this terminology can get confusing

You cannot get TrueHD through the optical output on the A3. You have to have the player decode it. All the high def sound formats (TrueHD, DD+, DTS-HD/MA) require that you go through the HDMI port. The problem is that no HD-DVD players right now output bitstream through the HDMI which is pretty crappy so having a 1.3 receiver like the 605 is pointless with HD-DVD. One of the main reasons HD-DVD is inferior to Blu-ray. All you can and will ever get out of your A3 is TrueHD and DD+ through the player itself.

 

[allargon]

You cannot get TrueHD through the optical output on the A3. You have to have the player decode it. All the high def sound formats (TrueHD, DD+, DTS-HD/MA) require that you go through the HDMI port. The problem is that no HD-DVD players right now output bitstream through the HDMI which is pretty crappy so having a 1.3 receiver like the 605 is pointless with HD-DVD. One of the main reasons HD-DVD is inferior to Blu-ray. All you can and will ever get out of your A3 is TrueHD and DD+ through the player itself.

Nope. The A35 allows bitstream. The same will be true for the XA2 after a firmware update. The announced (but not released) Onkyo player should also allow bitstream audio.

BTW, the A3 can decode 5.1 TrueHD and pass the PCM through the HDMI which your Onkyo 605 can accept, amplify and pass to your speakers. No harm, no foul!

 

[Romulus]

If you think you're going to miss out by not having gear that supports the latest sound formats.. you'd be wrong.

I didn't realize I couldn't listen to the hd audio formats via my A3 and rx-v2700 until after I bought it. Do you think the movie experience is lacking?

 

[selkec]

So if I pass 5.1 true HD pcm thru the HDMI. Even though it does not read true hd, it really is? And will is sound the same as if I had the a35 and it read true Hd on the receiverThanks for all your help everyone.