Sony STR-DH800

[Douglas9]

Have just purchased the above receiver and would welcome advice on the following topics:-

The hand book says that HDMI-3 input has a better sound quality but in their diagram they show the Satellite tuner connected to this input. Is this not a waste of the 'better sound quality' bearing in mind that for SKY HD I need an optical connection anyway? Or do I? Would it not be better to use input 3 as the blue-ray input?

Assuming I do need an optical connection for SKY HD sound could someone remind me how I ensure that this is preferred to the HDMI input sound?

Many thanks.

 

[Liam19]

'HDMI 3 input has a better sound quality'. Weird is that, the manual is worded exactly as you've described but doesn't bother to explain how or why this is a preferred input to the rest.

Either way, you should be free to connect whichever component to whichever HDMI input you wish. If Sony says HDMI3 is 'better', then by all means connect your Blu-ray to it.

And yes, you will need a separate optical connection between Sky+HD and the Sony to be able to get multichannel audio - the box can output only stereo over HDMI. After making this connection, you just need to press 'Services' on your Sky remote, then 'System Setup', 'Sound Settings', and under 'Optical Output' select 'Dolby D'. Then you should be set.

 

[Douglas9]

Many thanks for your help, Liam19. What I'm still not sure of,however, is how to access the Dolby Digital sound coming from SKY HD via optical when I've selected the HDMI link for vision,and presumably just stereo sound, via the amp to TV (single HDMI input) route. Hope this makes sense !!

 

[Anonymous]

Page 85 of the manual. Select your HDMI slot, then click INPUT MODE on the remote (or front of AMP) to cycle through the options, you don't want analog obviously, select OPT (optical) and you should be all set.

 

[Douglas9]

Tnanks, Kage, for your reply. However, at the foot of Page 85 it says in the notes ' When HDMI 1-4 is selected, --------- appears on the display and you cannot select other modes . Select an input mode other than HDMI 1-4 then set the audio input mode.' Options I then get are AUTO or ANALOG, but will selecting AUTO here ie for some other input, have the desired effect on the HDMI-1 input which I have SKY connected to? At the moment when SKY HD are exporting a DD programme and I click on HDMI -1 the display says 'Linear pcm 48 ' which I assumed was not DD, but perhaps I'm wrong there. Your help would again be welcomed!