Is component video and HD audio over HDMI possible?

[jbachman2]

@NAvlia
How does the sound card enable you to avoid investing money in a slightly improved receiver?  I am curious about your wiring of your setup.

I will keep the HD Fury in mind though because even if I upgrade the TV my current TV is gonna end up …somewhere.

Receiver should be here tomorrow!

[Naylia]

In my setup – for almost all my sources – audio goes to the AVR, video goes to the TV. All connections to the tv are HDMI or component depending on the source. All audio connections are analog or SPDIF.

Running video direct to the tv means you can’t rely on the AVR to perform input switching by itself, but it also means that when anything changes with regards to my ability to output a video signal I only have to worry about the tv.

Now with the AVR – there are a couple reasons to upgrade:
– More power
– New features

IMO, you are much better off increasing power by adding external amplification. Upgrading from a 90W AVR to a 100W AVR is not going to buy you the headroom of dedicated amplification. Nicely, my older Denon has 7.1 PreOuts. This have since been removed from any Denon model less than $1200 (wouldn’t want anyone buying the $379 Denon and adding their own amplification 🙂 ).

New features falls into two categories for me – Surround format support and other. In Sound formats we have DTS-HD and Dolby True-HD. In the Other category there are things like Audessy EQ.

With a full HTPC running Blu-ray playback I have decoding support for DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD in my PC and can send this to my AVR using Analog out. The same would be possible if you have an old AVR with just HDMI 1.0 or some such. Decode in the computer and output LPCM. None of my other sources take advantage these formats. So no worries there.

These leaves me with Auddessy EQ as a reason to upgrade. It’s tempting, but tough to justify considering that that would be the only thing I would get from a new AVR. Theoretically I have Room Correction in Windows 7 – I’m just a little scared of it, and I think one issue is that to use it I have to revert to the Win7 default audio driver. Maybe I’ll try that one day and see how it sounds.

As long as I can continue to support new surround formats on the HTPC, there is little value to upgrading my AVR.

[autoboy]

He’s talking about getting an HDMI equipped sound card.  THAT would be obsolete.  A good analog soundcard is not obsolete as long as you have a need for analog output.  If he wants to go the analog route, then a good ANALOG soundcard would be a good choice, but I would surely skip the extra expense in getting an HDMI soundcard.

The only reason I upgraded my receiver is because I ran out of inputs.  I have a lot of equipment because I like to play with new gear and my old receiver could only support 3 spdif inputs and 1 analog input.  That’s not enough surround inputs for me.  The addition of HD audio was also a small factor, but I’ve since realized I can’t hear a difference on actual source material.  That’s why I’m the resident troll when it comes to HD audio upgrades.  I’m so bad that I convert all my HD audio to lossy Dolby Digital at 640K so I can play it on any TV in my house.  I can tell no difference in quality of the audio.

[Naylia]

Yes – he owns an X-Meridian

[jbachman2]

The Onyko TX-SR608 DOESN’T have the inputs for analog HD audio, it doesn’t have on screen setup over component connections (HDMI only).  So I basically spend $400+ a receiver that doesn’t do anything that my Harman Kardon didn’t already do.  Hell, at least the Harman Kardon did have the analog speaker connectors so I could have had uncompressed audio that way.  Sorry for the rant, I was just really disappointed with the new receiver setup.

[autoboy]

That sucks.  Sorry man.

The new receivers are really designed for all HDMI systems.

Did you ever consider something like a DVDO edge?  I think the edge specializes in HDMI as well, but there may be other systems designed for component.

[jbachman2]

I’ll be ordering a HD Fury 2 this week and a ATI card shortly there after.  Was just mad that it wasn’t what I thought I was getting.

[Naylia]

Sorry to hear that….

Yup, they’ve ripped out all the analog circuitry on a lot of AVRs to reduce cost. It’s no fun.

[autoboy]

It’s a ton of fun for those of us who are HDMI only.  For just $300 you can get a receiver with 4 HDMI ports and HD audio decoding.  If they kept the analog circuits, it would raise the price.

For the component crowd who may find this post, it may be better to search in the used AVR market where you can get great receivers that will feature component connections and analog inputs for HD audio.  Remember, there is only one current source for HD audio.  Blu-ray.  So, you only need a single connection able to handle it making those analog ports perfect for the new format, while still allowing your AVR to handle the old lossy DD and DTS codecs for everything else you attach.

[Naylia]

Used is a great way to go on a receiver. Looking at some of the brands, if you can find a model from about 2 years back, you can still have your cake and eat it too. HDMI 1.3a with HD audio format support was around, and still bundled with analog in and out, along with Audessey EQ for much less money that on a new AVR today.

[autoboy]

I think you can go even further back than 2 years.  HDMI 1.1 equipped receivers will still support HD audio over HDMI, and if you buy a high end used unit, you could get a very nice amp section in it.  It’s going to be a better amp than a what you find in today’s $400 receivers.

[htpc_user]

I look forward to replacing my Yamaha receiver one day.  It has a 5.1 input and digital inputs, no HDMI.  I use the analog inputs for watching bluray from the PC and the spdif when watching anything else.  I just hate the difference in the volume levels between the 2.  I have to turn the volume up more to get to the same level as spdif.  The bass is much louder with spdif than analog.  As I’ve been told here before, that’s because spdif has a spec for a bass boost.

[Matt]

[quote=”Naylia”]
Used is a great way to go on a receiver. Looking at some of the brands, if you can find a model from about 2 years back, you can still have your cake and eat it too. HDMI 1.3a with HD audio format support was around, and still bundled with analog in and out, along with Audessey EQ for much less money that on a new AVR today.
[/quote]

Don’t even have to go that far back. My Denon 590 from last summer has component video inputs (that it will cross convert to HDMI, but doesn’t upscale, which is nice, since upscaling is where AVRs usually mess up the quality), and of course is HDMI 1.3 and does the HD audio formats. It has the full Audessey MultiEQ suite with Dynamic Volume, etc. It’s just missing the multi-channel analog input, which the set-up the 790 has.

I was seeing the 590/790 still around at Fry’s and Best Buy earlier in the summer.

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