Still confused about HDMI

[atgcpaul]

My tech knowledge is slipping. I need your help figuring this out.

My TV has HDMI and I just bought a Roku XR player. Right now I'm just
connecting it to the TV with the included RCA cables. I will get an HDMI
cable soon. My stereo receiver does not have HDMI but it is connected to
my TV with an optical cable so I can watch OTA shows in surround. If I
connect the Roku to my TV with HDMI, will the TV output a digital signal to my receiver for sound?

[Cubsfan]

Most likely not.

What I'm thinking you'll probably want to do is:

- Use HDMI to connect to the TV, and also use the optical to connect to your receiver (this has the added annoyance of having to change the input on both your TV and Stereo. Also, this depends on if it will output sound with both outputs, it may not.

- Use components + optical.

HDMI's main purpose is protection of the content (having one cable for audio and video is a nice feature, but not the main purpose). Therefore, most A/V equipment I've worked with won't forward any part of the signal past itself.

[parnelli]

My tech knowledge is slipping. I need your help figuring this out.

My TV has HDMI and I just bought a Roku XR player. Right now I'm just
connecting it to the TV with the included RCA cables. I will get an HDMI
cable soon. My stereo receiver does not have HDMI but it is connected to
my TV with an optical cable so I can watch OTA shows in surround. If I
connect the Roku to my TV with HDMI, will the TV output a digital signal to my receiver for sound?

I don't have a Roku, but I've got a very similar setup and yes it does. It'll be one of those things you'll just have to try and see what happens.

ps- don't spend a fortune on an HDMI cable. They're waaaaaay overpriced. You can pick one up from monoprice or the like for significantly less money

[LinuxRandal]

Depends is the correct answer. HDMI (the spec) can have sound over it, but not all of it does. Then you have the HDxx (HDMC? HDCP?) other four letter spec, that in part, allows, or disallows things ("media copy protection").


And you thought it was bad in the old days with all those cables hanging out the back.

[sscherin]

It all depends on your TV..

On mine for instance it will only pass audio from it's internal off air tuner through it's optical out..

HDMI connected directly to the TV will play audio through the TV speakers but it will not pass back through the TV optical cable to the A/V receiver. It will pass through the RCA out but you loose your digital 5.1 (or 7.1) surround signal that way.

For now I've run optical cables from the DVD and DVR to the receiver.

In the future I'll get a HDMI switching stereo A/V receiver.

As for cables I bought some Amazon Basics cables from Amazon..
6' HDMI $9 and 6' toslink (optical) for $7 free shipping over $25
The cables are perfectly fine.. no issues with them at all..

http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-H...f=pd_rhf_p_t_4
http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-T...d_bxgy_e_img_b


Don't buy into the THX certified,quad shielded, oxygen free armored $80 mega cable hype..

HDMI and tosslink are digital signals.. There is no sound loss or background noises created by a lower quality cable.. It's on or off.. If it works it'll sound as good as the best cable out there.

I thought I'd die laughing the first time I saw Monster cable Cat 5 network cable.

[Chris_B]

HDMI and tosslink are digital signals.. There is no sound loss or background noises created by a lower quality cable.. It's on or off.. If it works it'll sound as good as the best cable out there.

I completely agree with your main point, but in the case of very long runs (>12m) thicker 24AWG wire can help preserve signal fidelity and avoid needing a repeater. However, under no circumstances does anyone need "oxygen-free" copper cabling.

Also, +1 on Monoprice. They have an excellent in-wall alternative to long HDMI cable runs using a pair of standard Cat 5 (or Cat 6) cables - for only $20. It works great! Overall, I've been very impressed with Monoprice's quality, prices and fast shipping.

[LCHIEN]

HDMI was not designed to make life simple for you.
HDI was designed to please the powerful Media companies and allow the hardware companies to sell electronics without being sued by the media companies.

it has one benefit of making everything into one cable. On the downside, it prevents me from using my equipment to the fullest extent of its capabilities; disabling many possible equipment configurations and obsoleting older equipment.

[sscherin]

Just wait for the first time your TV fails it's HDMI handshake.
I had that happen after a power outage.. none of the HDMI inputs worked..

I had to unplug all the equipment.. remove the hdmi cables.
turn the TV on.. put the cable back and then turn the equipment on one by one.

I never thought I'd have to reboot my TV.

I think I just became a new fan of Monoprice.com

[atgcpaul]

It works. Roku connected with HDMI to my Panasonic TV. Panasonic TV
connected to Sony receiver with Toslink cable. Sony output the audio
passed by Roku through TV.

[SHADOWFOX]

I think I just became a new fan of Monoprice.com

Same here! I had to buy 6 HDMI cables and 2 mini-HDMI and loved the 3-4ft cables at monoprice.com. For the price I paid for all of the cables I got from them, I would have gotten just 1 cable at bestbuy.

[sparkeyjames]

HDMI was and is for COPY PROTECTION. It is the content (RIAA, MPAA) industries method of trying to screw the consumer. HDMI has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with industry control over their content.
If you can use any other method of transferring your content to your display device use it instead.

[LCHIEN]

HDMI was and is for COPY PROTECTION. It is the content (RIAA, MPAA) industries method of trying to screw the consumer. HDMI has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with industry control over their content.
If you can use any other method of transferring your content to your display device use in instead.

yeah. exactly.
Make something easy into something complicated so it fails to connect regularly and then limit the usefulness of the technology by not allowing you to get around it and then make you pay extra for it for thier benefit.