Guys: Dumb question, please excuse me....I'm an RCA inputs kind of guy.... So I just bought a new Samsung QLED TV. I will be connecting 4 components to it via HDMI cable. Question: The TV has Digital Optical out. If I connect the TV Digital Optical Out to my Receivers Digital Optical In, will the audio from each component , as I'm using it, pass to the Receiver? I know...this is a dumb question. But I honestly dont know. Thanks for any help.
It should, and the TV or Receiver should have the ability to adjust the audio delay if it is out of sync with the video.
Thank you Gary. I have an optical cable on the way, I will test it all out Wed. If this works it would be great, as I could remove like 8 RCA cables from the back of the Cabinet.
Does your reviewer have HDMI switching? Does muting your tv mute the optical out? Ideally, you would go 4 hdmi to the receiver and one hdmi to the tv.
Capt, no HDMI ports in the Reciever. Its an older Denon, but I love the sound I get out of it. Very analog.
You will be limited by the audio quality that can be passed over the optical link -- so no HD audio, for example!
Thanks. I'm not sure this is a big deal, as this system isnt for my music listening. This is strictly TV/DVD/ LD/VHS.
Optical won't pass the HD audio from your DVD/Blu-ray player to your Denon. It will limit your audio quality. It wouldn't pass Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio. At least that's the way I understand it.
And I have a related question. My SACD player has HDMI output and RCA outputs for SACD playback. 1) Will HDMI output provide full HDMI quality? 2) Which will sound better, most likely?
I don't think OP has a BluRay player, his sources appear to be DVD/LD/VHS, in which case optical is fine, it can pass DD, DTS and PCM.
In my question's case, it is a different issue, just remotely related to the subject of this this thread.
Your HDMI out will provide full the full HDMI signal. There is no way to say which would sound better. With your RCA outs, your SACD player's DAC will have already converted your digital signal to analog for direct analog playback. With your HDMI output, your signal is still digital and how it sounds will depend entirely on the DAC and the preamp in what ever device your HDMI cable is connected to. It is simply a question of which is better. Usually, if you have a quality SACD player, it will have a high quality DAC and preamplifier inside, so the analog signal that you are getting from your RCA out's should be high quality. Most amps and AV receivers that have HDMI inputs are using them mainly for Blu-ray playback. Most of these kind of amps/receiver's won't really have the high audio quality of a dedicated SACD player. However, just because a player has SACD playback capabilities, does not necessarily mean the the DAC and associated analog electronics is the best available. An example of this are the Oppo players. Basically they come in two flavors, 93/95, 103/105/,203/205, for each series. In each case, the video sections are the same in each model pair. The difference is in the analog sections. The "3's" have a less expensive DAC and analog preamp section. The "5's" have a top of the line ESS Saber DAC and a superior analog preamp. Both can play SACD's. Either will transmit the same signal to the HDMI out. But, the audio quality of the "5", through the RCA out's is going to be superior to the audio quality on the analog output of the "3". If you look at each of these units, the case on the "3" is 3" in height and the "5" is 5" in height. THis would indicate that there is a lot more going on with the audio portion of the electronic's on the inside. The "3" is about $600 to $650 and the "5" is about twice as much in the $1,200 - $1,300 range.
I have my oppo connected to my Bryston DAC via hdmi. It sounds significantly better than the oppo’s analig outs on all formats I’ve tried (stereo Blu-ray, SACD, cd, dvd). Not a lot of DACs have a hdmi option.
Actually, I do, my OPPO BDP-83. I dont use the 5.1, so I'll be happy if it just passes the audio via HDMI to the TV, which then passes it to the Denon receiver via optical out.
5.1 can be passed thru RCA analog cables and hdmi, this i do know. I just dont know if the full benefits of SACD, are passed thru the HDMI.
HDMI can completely pass the 2-ch or M-ch DSD signal from SACD. How good the external decoding of that DSD signal to analog will be depends on the capabilities of the HDMI-equipped DAC. To my knowledge, there is nothing better than captwillard's Bryston at this time. HDMI-equipped DACs are rare. HDMI-equipped receivers are plentiful.
UPDATE: My new Samsung QLED TV arrived!! and guess what? its BROKEN. All kinds of lines and large blobs of stuff on the display. Crap. Luckily, I bought it from Crutchfield, who are just great in situations like this. Thats what you pay for when you buy from them. They are going to add extra padding and stuff and send me out a replacement in the next couple of days. I was able to tell tho, that the picture quality of this TV is FANTASTIC. If my replacement model works, I'll be a happy Space Cadet. I was watching an episode of "Password" from the 1970s and even THAT looked great.
UPDATE: Crutchfield came thru and sent a replacement TV double boxed this time. The QLED picture is truly stunning. I cant believe how great non Hi Def source material looks. Also, the built in tuner is incredible...its pulling in hundreds of OTA channels I didnt know existed.