Some Help/Advice please

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a bit of help and advice regarding my Home Cinema set- up as i'm considering an upgrade.

At current we have a JVC RX7010-R which i've had for about 6 years. Connected to this is the DVD player, Sky+ Box and Nintendo Wii and runs with a Sony Speaker package consisting of 5 speakers.

We're upgrading to Sky HD in the next months and also have a PS3 for Blu-Ray DVD's which seems near on impossible to connect to any amp but that might just be my lack of knowledge.

I had my eye on the Onkyo TXSR506 but after some research i'm not sure if it would be my best bet.

I guess i'm looking for some advice on what receiver with HD would best suit my set-up. I'd be willing to spend upto about £400.

Also can someone explain audio decoding to me in simpletons terms please??

I know a little bit about sound system set-ups but am not familiar with some of the jargon.

Many thanks in advance for the help.

 

[professorhat]

esmed: We're upgrading to Sky HD in the next months and also have a PS3 for Blu-Ray DVD's which seems near on impossible to connect to any amp but that might just be my lack of knowledge.

Basically, the PS3 can output audio either via its HDMI socket or via its optical out if this isn't available. HDMI is the best route as, with an appropriate amplifier, you can get the new HD sound formats working when playing a Blu-Ray which has one on it.

esmed:I had my eye on the Onkyo TXSR506 but after some research i'm not sure if it would be my best bet.I guess i'm looking for some advice on what receiver with HD would best suit my set-up. I'd be willing to spend upto about £400.

Given your PS3, this is indeed not your best bet. The Onkyo 506 is unable to accept audio via its HDMI socket, meaning you couldn't benefit from the HD soundtracks mentioned above. In Onkyo's range, the lowest model which can accept this audio is the Onkyo 576 which, given it's roughly the same price these days, is a better bet. However, given your budget, you would be much better off going for something like the Onkyo TX-SR606, Denon AVR-1909, Sony STR-DA2400ES or, if you can find one, the Yamaha DSP-AX763 (don't worry about the RRPs included in the reviews, all these can be found for under £400 now). The reason this is a better bet is, unlike the 576, these all have the ability to decode the HD audio formats. This isn't important for the PS3 (since this decodes the formats onboard), but it may well be useful in the future for any further devices you buy which require these formats. These are also better amplifiers of course, so the sound quality will be improved. Which one you go for is really down to your needs e.g. number of HDMI inputs required, musicality of the receiver etc. etc.

esmed:Also can someone explain audio decoding to me in simpletons terms please??

Basically, audio encoding is effectively compressing an audio soundtrack so it can fit on a disc and decoding is uncompressing this so the soundtrack can be played. With DVD, Dolby Digital and DTS were the two formats used for this. They used lossy compression (like an MP3) from the original master, meaning some detail was lost, but this was necessary in order to be able to fit both the movie video and the soundtrack, plus extras on the disc. Receivers with the ability to decode Dolby Digital and DTS were basically uncompressing this signal so that the amplifier could understand it and send the soundtrack to the speakers. With the advent of Blu-Ray, much more space was available on the disc (roughly 5 times more). So to take advantage, some new formats were invented like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. The advantage of these formats is, they use lossless compression, meaning when they are decoded by an amplifier or player with that ability, the soundtrack is, in theory, exactly the same as the master version the studio has. This therefore contains much more detail than the old Dolby Digital / DTS formats and thus sounds much better. A basic way to look at it is, a Dolby Digital soundtrack is like playing a 128Kbps music file, whereas the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is like playing an Apple Lossless music file i.e. the quality is much better and it therefore sounds better.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for your help, It has certainly cleared things up for me!!

Its such a shame that the PS3 only has one HDMI socket as it does make it harder to connect to an audio system. Its got the optical output but i'm still surprised it hasn't got an interconnect socket

 

[professorhat]

Well you can use the AV Multi out cable that came with your PS3 to hook to a standard RCA phono connection. Just ignore the yellow compostite connection and hook the relevant red and white cables to the stereo inputs and you're away. You can also still run video through the HDMI while sound goes out the AV Multi out.

 

[Anonymous]

I didn't even realise it came with one of those!! Its the OH's PS3, i bought it him for Xmas two years ago so didn't unpack it.

Can't believe it has one of those, its been bugging me that i haven't been able to hook it up. Just checked the box and its not in there so will ask the OH where it is later!!

 

[professorhat]

Doh! Oh well, if he's lost it, you can pick another one up cheap at Amazon here.

 

[Anonymous]

Brill, thank you ever so much for your help!

 

[professorhat]

No worries

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:
esmed: We're upgrading to Sky HD in the next months and also have a PS3 for Blu-Ray DVD's which seems near on impossible to connect to any amp but that might just be my lack of knowledge.

Basically, the PS3 can output audio either via its HDMI socket or via its optical out if this isn't available. HDMI is the best route as, with an appropriate amplifier, you can get the new HD sound formats working when playing a Blu-Ray which has one on it.

esmed:I had my eye on the Onkyo TXSR506 but after some research i'm not sure if it would be my best bet.I guess i'm looking for some advice on what receiver with HD would best suit my set-up. I'd be willing to spend upto about £400.

Given your PS3, this is indeed not your best bet. The Onkyo 506 is unable to accept audio via its HDMI socket, meaning you couldn't benefit from the HD soundtracks mentioned above. In Onkyo's range, the lowest model which can accept this audio is the Onkyo 576 which, given it's roughly the same price these days, is a better bet. However, given your budget, you would be much better off going for something like the Onkyo TX-SR606, Denon AVR-1909, Sony STR-DA2400ES or, if you can find one, the Yamaha DSP-AX763 (don't worry about the RRPs included in the reviews, all these can be found for under £400 now). The reason this is a better bet is, unlike the 576, these all have the ability to decode the HD audio formats. This isn't important for the PS3 (since this decodes the formats onboard), but it may well be useful in the future for any further devices you buy which require these formats. These are also better amplifiers of course, so the sound quality will be improved. Which one you go for is really down to your needs e.g. number of HDMI inputs required, musicality of the receiver etc. etc.

esmed:Also can someone explain audio decoding to me in simpletons terms please??

Basically, audio encoding is effectively compressing an audio soundtrack so it can fit on a disc and decoding is uncompressing this so the soundtrack can be played. With DVD, Dolby Digital and DTS were the two formats used for this. They used lossy compression (like an MP3) from the original master, meaning some detail was lost, but this was necessary in order to be able to fit both the movie video and the soundtrack, plus extras on the disc. Receivers with the ability to decode Dolby Digital and DTS were basically uncompressing this signal so that the amplifier could understand it and send the soundtrack to the speakers. With the advent of Blu-Ray, much more space was available on the disc (roughly 5 times more). So to take advantage, some new formats were invented like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. The advantage of these formats is, they use lossless compression, meaning when they are decoded by an amplifier or player with that ability, the soundtrack is, in theory, exactly the same as the master version the studio has. This therefore contains much more detail than the old Dolby Digital / DTS formats and thus sounds much better. A basic way to look at it is, a Dolby Digital soundtrack is like playing a 128Kbps music file, whereas the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is like playing an Apple Lossless music file i.e. the quality is much better and it therefore sounds better.

Thanks Profhat,

That has cleared a lot up for me too. Very well described mate.Much appreciated.