HDMI and Optical outputs confusion

[admin_exported]

My 4 year old system in the lounge is as follows;-

Pioneer AX4 AV amp, Pioneer DVR 930H DVD, Pioneer 436XDE plasma TV, Sky HD box. Infinity Oreus 5.1 speakers

I have connected both the Sky box and DVR to the amp via HDMI cables and have the HDMI output from the amp feeding the TV. But I have the option to use digital optical for sound from the DVR and sky box and TV to feed the amp. Is there any advantage or disadvantage of doing so.

Thanks

 

[nads]

generally an HDMI connection is all that is needed, remembering that it is a one-way signal transfer. BUT in some cases the "box" only sends stereo via the HDMI so an additional connection is needed for a basic 5.1 sound. I understand this is for some SKY "boxes" the DVR will only need HDMI to send image and sound to the TV Via the AMP.

 

[Anonymous]

I believe that Sky outputs stereo via HDMI but outputs 5.1 via optical (or at least that was the case, I don't know if it still is); so there is a benefit there.

With your DVR it would depend if it did the same thing, or it logically outputs 5.1 over HDMI.

 

[Dave_]

All Sky HD boxes only output stereo over HDMI, so you'll also need to run an optical/co-axial cable from the Sky box to get DD 5.1 sound(where available)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the informative replies. I have connected an optical cable to the sky box and the Pioneer amp. Changed the settings on the pioneer to reflect the HDMI input and optical input, but if I pull out the HDMI plug I get no sound which tell me that the optical is not working with HDMI cable connected. If I however go back into settings on the pioneer amp and switch off the HDMI input I get sound via the optical cable, albeit no picture. Does this mean that I should connect the HDMI cable direct from the sky box to the TV?

 

[Anonymous]

It worked. By connecting the HDMI box to TV instead of the amp and then TV, I now have movie surround sound from SKY.

Thnaks for the help

 

[Anonymous]

I had this problem and wasn't happy with the solution, as I need to select a new source on the TV as well in this mode. I discovered (thanks to a Pindi post) that I needed to set input mode on my Denon to digital. On a Denon (and maybe other AVRs) input actually relates only to audio - of course in assign values I set both the HDMI and an optical connection, but in the menu after video options there is an input mode which only relates to audio, although its not clear on-screen or in the manual.

Hope this helps.