2. home-theater
  3. 1215708898

True HD without HDMI?

I recently acquired an Onkyo HTIB in the hopes of having a cheap 7.1 system to use with Blu-ray in Hi-Def. So you can imagine how disgruntled I became when I was connecting my PS3 to the HDMI ports, only to find that THE #$%@ THING HAS AUDIO PASS THROUGH ONLY!!!

...I'm not going to bother asking why anyone in their right minds would include HDMI in a 7.1 HTIB only to have it be made completely useless by passing it through to the TV speakers.

I will ask if there is an alternative to returning the HTIB, which is now spidered into my room and would be a pain in the butt to remove, and still be able to reap the benefits of Dobly TrueHD and the lossless encoding of the Blu-ray discs. I'm currently running Optical into the receiver, but I have a feeling that this isn't any better than having DVD audio.

Sigh..... Anyway..

My main question is a two parter:

1) Can the Multichannel input I see on most receivers be used to get the uncompressed 7.1 signal into the receiver? and...

2)Does a multichannel output cable even EXIST for a PS3? I'm a college student, so I can't pay an arm and a leg for an exotic cable, but I still want to get the sound I payed for out of a Blu-ray.

Any and all input (or criticism) will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
lightbulb

Showing 1 response by kr4

kr4's avatar
kr4
3,704 posts
 
"...I'm not going to bother asking why anyone in their right minds would include HDMI in a 7.1 HTIB only to have it be made completely useless by passing it through to the TV speakers." As my mother would say, "Cheap is cheap." They keep the price down by excluding features such as this.

"1) Can the Multichannel input I see on most receivers be used to get the uncompressed 7.1 signal into the receiver?" Yes, if the PS3 will decode it and output it as multichannel analog. I do know know much about the PS3 but I suspect not.

"2)Does a multichannel output cable even EXIST for a PS3? I'm a college student, so I can't pay an arm and a leg for an exotic cable, but I still want to get the sound I payed for out of a Blu-ray." Yes, it is called HDMI.

Change the HTIB for a real HDMI-capable receiver or change the PS3 for a BRD player with mch analog outputs.

Kal
More to discover