2. home-theater
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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
4 responses Add your response
lightbulb OP
5 posts
 
Thank you guys for your help. I realized after more thought about the obvious lack of processing for the True HD and lossless formats, but it was all recently made irrelevant when a power surge fried the whole thing, even though it was plugged into a fairly expensive surge protecter. It's still under warranty and the 30 money-back guarantee, but I'm no less PO'd that it was fried and that I was foolish enough to buy the system in the first place.

Needless to say, I'm going to spend a little extra cash and get a receiver that's really worth it. Thanks again for your input.
rakuennow
81 posts
 
Why even worry about TrueHD when an HTIB may not even resolve the extra quality? Anyway, to answer your question, there is no multichannel analog output cable for the PS3.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,680 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
bar81
791 posts
 
You're limited in your options. The passthrough is what you've found out, the receiver doesn't process the signal from HDMI at all so no audio out of your receiver. The optical cable is really your only other option for multi-channel sound as the PS3 does not support more than 2-channel analogue out. As you've correctly surmised, you're limited to DD or DTS over optical. If the PS3 gives you the option pick DTS as it supports up to 1.5mbs which should give you the best quality (equivalent to DD+) but obviously less than the lossless codecs or LPCM. However, through the system you're talking about that won't make a difference as it's not resolving enough to show any benefit over DTS.
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