Connecting SKY HD & PS 3 for Surround Sound

[admin_exported]

I currently have a Toshiba 46XF355D, connected to Sky HD by HDMI, PS3 by HDMI and Wii by Component. I'm looking at getting a Yamaha YSP-40D sound bar (the wif'e objecting to a full surround set up), and am wondering what's the best way to connect them all once the TV is wall mounted.

Does the SKY HD box output surround sound via it's HDMI, or will I also have to run either an optical or coax digital cable as well?

Does the PS3 output surround sound via it's HDMI?

Also, does anyone know of a good installer who can wall mount the TV, and sound bar in the Leeds area

 

[Andrew Everard]

HairyWart:Does the SKY HD box output surround sound via it's HDMI, or will I also have to run either an optical or coax digital cable as well?

No, only stereo. For surround you'll need an optical digital connection too.

HairyWart:Does the PS3 output surround sound via it's HDMI?

Yes.

HairyWart:Also, does anyone know of a good installer who can wall mount the TV, and sound bar in the Leeds area

No, but the retailer where you buy the Yamaha may well have a local preferred installer it can suggest.

 

[bullitt]

Is the quality of 5.1 surround better through an hd lead or optical, also i have a sky brochure for the new deals coming out for existing customers, the sky hd box is advertised as having dolby digital 5.1 surround but doesn't say its through hd lead or optical, i find this very misleading seeing as its an hd box you would assume it has hd sound !

 

[professorhat]

bullitt:Is the quality of 5.1 surround better through an hd lead or optical

This depends on a lot of factors. 5.1 is just the number of channels (i.e. 6 channels), not an indication of quality. So, even though an MP3 encoded at 128 Kbps and a CD are both in stereo (i.e. 2 channels), clearly a CD is going to be a much higher quality than the MP3. In the same way, what matters is the encoding of the 5.1 signal. If it's one of the new "lossless" HD audio codes (e.g. Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio), these can only be transmitted by an HDMI 1.3 spec cable (or "category 2" as they are also known). Optical is not able to sustain the bandwidth required by these signals so can't compete with HDMI when these are involved. However, if it's an older standard "lossy" codec (e.g. Dolby Digital or standard DTS), whether it's transmitted by optical or HDMI shouldn't matter assuming you have a cable of reasonable quality to do this without relying overly on error correction. The key then is, can the device you're using transmit these signals via HDMI? In the case of most DVD and Blu-Ray players, the answer is yes. However, with something like the Sky HD box, this can only manage to output stereo over the HDMI cable, meaning you must use the optical / digital coax cable to get a 5.1 signal. This isn't a limitation of the cable, but the box itself. In this case therefore, you're better off using an optical / digital coax cable.

bullitt:also i have a sky brochure for the new deals coming out for existing customers, the sky hd box is advertised as having dolby digital 5.1 surround but doesn't say its through hd lead or optical, i find this very misleading seeing as its an hd box you would assume it has hd sound !

Potentially you find this misleading, but it's mainly down to marketing. HD sound isn't an official term really, it's just something which is used to describe something which is better than the current standard. In the case of Blu-Ray, HD generally means you'll not only get an HD picture, but also an HD soundtrack (since the space on a Blu-Ray disc allows this). However, it's important to note this isn't guaranteed and many early BD releases still used SD soundtracks encoded with Dolby Digital (Mission Impossible 3, Pan's Labyrinth and The Island being three quite big releases that did this from the top of my head). Sky HD is no different and, due to the bandwidth restrictions in place at the moment, I find it very unlikely we'll see a lossless HD soundtrack being broadcast on UK TV for some time to come.

 

[bullitt]

Thanks for that detailed explanation much appreciated.But you say HD isn't an official term, well why do we have true HD, master audio HD as official formats ?To me SKY HD is almost not fit for purpose, if your paying through the roof for sky hd film package and your not getting hd sound then thats a rip off isn't it or have i missed something?
Its sort of like renting a blu-ray film but with just hd picture and stereo sound !

Anyway ive took the plunge got a HUMAX FOXSAT PVR , just got it set up it took about 5 mins to set up, HD lead to tv and optical to onkyo, the SD picture is far superior to sky,very impressed.
Just one thing though im not getting ITV HD ive scanned all the channels but i only get BBC HD, Any help on this would be great.
(A bit off the subject sorry !)

 

[professorhat]

Well "Dolby TrueHD" and "DTS HD Master Audio" are trademarks come up with by Dolby and DTS respectively that happen to contain the letters HD in them (in this case because they offer superior quality sound compared to their older encoding formats). The same is true of "Sky HD" - it's just a name. In the case of "Sky HD", the HD stands for the fact that some channels are broadcast in 1080i which can easily be justified as HD therefore. There's nothing which says HD must contain a certain level of picture and sound quality (though I suspect any product named HD which was exactly the same as a standard defintion broadcast would find itself in trouble for being misleading).

Oh, and ITV HD is only available on the ITV 1 channel - you then access any programme which is being broadcast in HD (which are few and far between apparently) through the red button - there's no separate channel.

 

[d4v3pum4]

Be thankful you get DD5.1 from Sky HD etc. There isn't enough bandwidth for HD audio, hence why you get DD5.1. To be honest, that's a massive leap from std TV audio.

Also, if you live in C.I., N.I. or Scotland, you won't get ITV HD on Freesat due to these regions not being part of ITV, so you need to enter an English postcode during the initial setup. I currently reside at 10 Downing Street. Well, I couldn't do a worse job.

 

[bullitt]

Thanks pro btw im not disputing what your saying , i bow to your superior knowledge on these matters, its just annoying and confusing, anyway thanks to all for itv hd info, one more prob i can't seem to work out how find a series link type feature on this humax !And HD content on BBC HD id superb even if my first HD program that i watched was IN THE NIGHT GARDEN lol, oh well..

 

[professorhat]

Absolutely, I agree that it would definitely be better if there was some quality control on some of these terms so you would know exactly what you were dealing with on each one and it would stop some marketing types banding around terms like "high definition" when they shouldn't really be used (such as DVD upscaling and the like being described as HD - this just confuses people who don't really understand what Blu-Ray is if DVD can be HD etc. etc.).