How to connect vizio to HD dvd to onkyo HT?

[dblb48]

Hello all,
I am getting a vizio vx32l TV for part of my Christmas
present, and then I’m buying a Toshiba A3 HD DVD as soon as Amazon puts
on another good sale. After that I plan to buy an Onkyo HT-SR700 5.1
surround sound. My question is how do I hook all this up to get the
best PQ and SQ? If you don’t know the TV, and the DVD player both have
HDMI ports, but the Receiver for the Onkyo doesn’t. How do I do this?
OR would I be better off saving my money and getting the Onkyo
HT-SR800, which has the HDMI, ports? How much better would the HDMI
make my PQ or SQ? Any help or insight you could provide would be
greatly appreciated.

 

[diogen]

If you want to buy the whole "trinity" - player-AVR-TV - to get the most out of the next generation HD/BD formats, you should consider both, the audio and video streams.

AUDIO:
Even the best DVD-generation AVRs can't handle anything above SPDIF for movies (640kbps AC3 and 1.5Mbps DTS).
The newest HD/BD formats offer many more audio formats of higher bitrates (HD starting at 1.5Mbps DD+) and better quality.
There are different ways to "process" this high resolution audio
- decode them in the player and output the resulting PCM to the AVR (using it as a simple amp): any 7.1 AVR with 7 RCA audio inputs will do;
- send it as bitstream from the player to the AVR to be decoded in the AVR: HDMI only, not every player can do that, not every AVR can do that;
- send it as decoded 7.1 PCM over HDMI (same as previous).

Do you want to hear the high resolution audio?
If yes, either get an HDMI switching AVR and use HDMI cables to connect player->AVR->TV or leave the decoding to the player and connect it to the TV using HDMI and AVR - using 7 RCA cable.
If no, i.e. AC3/DTC is enough, connect the player to the AVR using optical/coax digital cable.

VIDEO:
An HDMI cable delivering the image to the TV (directly from the player or through the receiver) should pretty much offer the best you TV is capable of.

My personal opinion: I wouldn't buy today a new AVR not capable of HDMI switching and bitstream decoding of (at least some) high resolution audio formats.

Diogen.

 

[allargon]

AUDIO:
Even the best DVD-generation AVRs can't handle anything above SPDIF for movies (640kbps AC3 and 1.5Mbps DTS).
The newest HD/BD formats offer many more audio formats of higher bitrates (HD starting at 1.5Mbps DD+) and better quality.
There are different ways to "process" this high resolution audio
- decode them in the player and output the resulting PCM to the AVR (using it as a simple amp): any 7.1 AVR with 7 RCA audio inputs will do;
- send it as bitstream from the player to the AVR to be decoded in the AVR: HDMI only, not every player can do that, not every AVR can do that;
- send it as decoded 7.1 PCM over HDMI (same as previous).

Do you want to hear the high resolution audio?
If yes, either get an HDMI switching AVR and use HDMI cables to connect player->AVR->TV or leave the decoding to the player and connect it to the TV using HDMI and AVR - using 7 RCA cable.
If no, i.e. AC3/DTC is enough, connect the player to the AVR using optical/coax digital cable.

VIDEO:
An HDMI cable delivering the image to the TV (directly from the player or through the receiver) should pretty much offer the best you TV is capable of.

My personal opinion: I wouldn't buy today a new AVR not capable of HDMI switching and bitstream decoding of (at least some) high resolution audio formats.

Diogen.

IMHO, the SR800 is a waste of money since the included receiver does video switching only over its two HDMI ports. (It does not accept audio over HDMI. Even a few higher end manufacturers like Cambridge Audio have this silly limitation. However, Onkyo's 505 receiver is just a previous generation. Their newer ones are fine.) You will still need to send audio from the A3 via digital optical (or analog RCA).

I agree with Diogen to get a receiver that accepts PCM over HDMI. I don't agree with him about spending the extra money to get a receiver that decodes over HDMI, since you don't have a player that will send bitstream audio.

Are you set on a HTTiB, if not consider an Onkyo 604 and some separate speakers. The SR700/800 aren't bad solutions. (I have a cheap Sony HTTiB connected to my A2 in my bedroom via toslink.) They're just not optimal for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.