Advantage of HDMI connections through older Sony Amp

[admin_exported]

Hey Guys/Gals

I've just borrowed a mates' Sony STR K880 amp which I am using with some small sony speakers and subwoofer, a Samsung UE55C6005 and Sony BDP S370. At the moment I have got my Blu Ray and Sky connected to the amp via HDMI and then HDMI from amp to TV. Firstly I didn't have any sound, then read that the HDMI on this amp only carries sound to the tv speakers and will not output to the speakers connected to the amp. So I then conected the amp to Blu Ray and Sky via optical cables and now it works fine. My question is, should I connect the Blu Ray and Sky to the amp via HDMI or should I connect them directly to the TV via HDMI? I think that the pq has worsened slightly since connecting both to the amp but that might just be in my head. Although I've definitely seen some lip sync issues which I'd never seen before. What is the advantage of connecting them to the amp if there is no sound?

Thanks as always for any advice.

 

[professorhat]

The main advantage will be the amp acts as a video "hub" i.e. you can connect everything to it and just have one HDMI cable going from the amp to the TV - depending on your setup this may result in less wires being trawled across the room. It also means that, if assigned correctly, when you change the input on the amp, you get the correct audio from the speakers and the correct video on the TV without having to change the TV's input so simplifies things on that front too. There should be some audio synchronisation tools within the amp as well to ensure the picture and sound do not go out of sync.

There shouldn't be any picture degradation from plugging into the amp, as the amp should compensate the signal to allow for the extra distances involved. Having said that, if the picture looks worse to you and you don't really need the above benefits, there's no reason not to connect directly to the TV.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, thanks for that. I'm going to have a day of watching films today to see if there really is a difference in picture quality and I'll have a play around on the amp settings and blu ray settings to see if I can sort out the audio sync. Changing the source on the amp does indeed sort out picture and audio on the TV without changing any of the input on the TV. So it is indeed easier. It is only a stop gap until I get an Onkyo 608 amp. Presumably I will be able to have audio via HDMI on the Onkyo so that I don't have to use optical cables?

 

[professorhat]

Yup, the Onkyo 608 can handle all the HD audio formats via HDMI so you should be getting not only sound, but much better sound from your Blu-Rays.