[yawny]

Not sure if this is in the right place, but here i go.
 
I recently purchased a Blu-Ray player to use with my 6 month old Sony LCD TV and my 3-4 year old sony home theater system.
 
After waiting to recieve some cables, i'm confused as to how to get sound via HDMI from the player into the home theater system, while also getting picture.
 
The Blu-Ray player, a Sony BDP-S570 i believe, has one HDMI out, which i would assume is to be plugged into the numerous tv HDMI input ports. However, my Home theater receiver only has one HDMI port that was previously hooked into the tv. I thought that i would be able to plug both into hdmi in ports on the tv and thus route the sound through the tv, out to the home theater, but i guess it doesn't work that way, as i get no sound. My question is, how do I get the Blu-Ray player to both output HDMI video to the tv and high definition sound to the home theater system? I'm probably missing something very simple, but I'd really like to know, and quickly, because currently both are pulled out wit wires dangling, unfunctional.
 
Please respond and thank you in advance,
Yawny

 

[Somnambulist]

AFAIK you should be able to connect via optical/coaxial, or analog. The former won't give you 'HD Sound' though since they have limited bandwidth, but then again you might not have the gear to hear the difference anyway. You can usually set how you want the audio to be output on the player via the menu.
 

 

[yawny]

I've got a spare optical cable lying around, would that work as well? The home teater is a DAV-FX80, if that helps. I'm guessing that i would have to get a real receiver to run the HDMI through like i was planning?
 
EDIT: didn't see the slash with optical, sorry. Don't really know if i'll hear a quality difference.

 

[Somnambulist]

Did a bit more reading as I'm not super clued up. With HDMI, receivers with HDMI inputs are split into two kinds, only one of which will work with a chain of
 
Blu Ray player > Receiver > TV 
 
to get audio coming out the speakers:
 
 
Quote:

 

In AV amps that use HDMI "Switches" (not "Repeaters"), the HDMI input is not connected to anything other than the HDMI output . This means the digital audio can only pass straight out the AV amp and into the display device (passthrough). The sound can NOT be heard via the speakers connected to the AV amp. The sound is still digital when it reaches the display device and as display devices generally only deal with analogue audio (2 channel stereo, not multichannel digital), they can not perform digital to analogue conversion on the digital audio and extract the full multichannel digital sound track that may be in the audio stream. You must connect the player to the AV amp with an additional digital audio cable, such as an optical (TOSLINK) cable (Not suitable for streaming HD audio), use multichannel analog input / output jacks (suitable for streaming HD audio, but not always a viable option), or utilise an AV amps that utilises an HDMI "Repeater".

In AV amps that use HDMI "Repeaters" (not "Switches"), the HDMI Repeater is connected to the internal electronics of the AV amp. This 
means the AV amp can perform the necessary DAC and decoding to the digital signal so that it can be amplified and output to the speakers connected to the AV amp. This means no further connections are necessary from your HDMI source device to the HDMI AV amp as all data can be sent and handled by the HDMI repeater. 
 
 

S/PDIF transmission aren't compatable with HD audio streaming. Due to bandwidth limitations, neither coaxial nor optical digital connections support multichannel HD audio streams. If you connect your Blu-Ray player to an AV receiver with optical or coax, the audio will "fall back" to Dolby Digital, DTS or two-channel PCM (lossless, but only two channels).

 

[yawny]

Read through that... what a lot to absorb. I'm not sure if i completely understand it, though i believe my receiver uses "Switches" as there is no way to input HD sound from the Blu-Ray player, if i'm reading this correctly. It doesn't even have an HDMI in, so i don't believe that there's any way to get "true" HD sound from the receiver without somehow putting the Blu-Ray player inside of it. I was able to get optical sound, but it's very muddy in the rear channels and lacks any real definition. i suppose this means that there really is no way for me to get HD sound.

 

[Somnambulist]

The other thing, is that VERY few Blu Ray players have dual HDMI outs, only 1-2 at this point, and they're the 3D enabled players. Interesting, even I'm learning something here.

 

[Somnambulist]

Quote:

Read through that... what a lot to absorb. I'm not sure if i completely understand it, though i believe my receiver uses "Switches" as there is no way to input HD sound from the Blu-Ray player, if i'm reading this correctly. It doesn't even have an HDMI in, so i don't believe that there's any way to get "true" HD sound from the receiver without somehow putting the Blu-Ray player inside of it. I was able to get optical sound, but it's very muddy in the rear channels and lacks any real definition. i suppose this means that there really is no way for me to get HD sound.

Judging from that pic I posted of the back of your player, nope. This thread has made me want to upgrade my S760, if it's any consolation! Make sure if you're using the optical to set the player's audio settings to the right set up though, it might just be it doesn't auto-detect your setup and change it accordingly to 5.1 surround.

 

[yawny]

That's strange that players wouldn't come standard with that feature. I really don't completely understand why a single HDMI could not go to a receiver which then sends audio to speakers and routes video to the TV. The fact that i'm missing out on true 5.1 audio is really bothering me.
 
EDIT: I drool at the thought of an S760 or higher model and HD Receiver with true HD sound output.

 

[yawny]

Also, i haven't the slightest clue on how to configure the audio from the menu, as i'm still quite foreign to audio formats and encoding. I'm assuming that i want DTS from the optical, and nothing downmixed? there are just so many options that confuse me. I need to catch up on my equipment and terminology.

 

[Somnambulist]

You can get the S760 really cheap now, it's 'old' tech! I got it for what I thought was a crazy bargain myself, but it's even more affordable now.
 
Anyway, done more reading. Basically if you want HD sound... from what I can gather...
If you have a switch HDMI receiver - seems to be 'HDMI 1.3' (i.e. what you have now) then you need a BDP with dual HDMI outputs (like say, the new Panasonic T300), with one HDMI going to the TV for video and the other going to the receiver for audio
 
If you have a newer player and receiver w/the 'repeater' HDMI you can just use one cable and it'll pass through the video from BDP to receiver to TV and also do the audio. This seems to be what this HDMI 1.4 stuff is all about.
 
All seems a bit complicated! I'd go on AVForums myself for all that kind of advice (already have an account, same username).

 

[yawny]

I suppose I'll look into it. Not going to upgrade (got the 570 for $75) because it isn't in the budget. But eventually I may update my receiver and audio, probably when I get around to buying a new 3D tv, which is some indefinite date in the future. Haha. Thanks for all your help Somnambulist, if only you could work some kind of HD wizardry to make my audio better. Haha.