lastcoyote:
the_lhc:Presumably he has blu-ray? In which case just use HDMI, digital optical can't carry the new HD audio formats, so you won't get the full benefit if you use the optical (or co-ax) connection.
oh right...that's something i wasn't aware of as i'm still waiting to get my yamaha dsp-ax863se that i ordered in december.
so to be able to hear the new HD audio formats from my blu-ray player i'm going to have to use the hdmi to the amp for both picture AND sound. no optical cable needed?
is that correct?
Yes, having actually checked the amp in question this time
it can handle all the HD-audio formats via HDMI. So, no, you don't need an optical cable.
i kind of thought that a seperate digital optical cable would give better sound than using the hdmi cable.
Nope, optical and coaxial digital cables don't have the necessary bandwidth required to carry the uncompressed audio formats that feature on Blu-Ray, HDMI 1.3a compliant cables do, so they're the best and indeed, only option if you want to get DD TrueHD or any of the DTS HD audio soundtracks.