Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HD Audio question

I have an Onkyo Tx sr 575 receiver with HDMI 1.3 inputs but does not internally decode the new HD audio formats although my Blu ray player does decode internally and outputs by PCM, am I hearing the new HD Audio formats this way>? If so I don't have to be in the market to upgrade just yet?

Chris, yes you are if your HDMI connection on the 575 processes audio as well as video. Regardless of whether the decoding takes place in the player or in the receiver it has to be decoded into PCM, which is the fundamental digital audio format. So, for example, it starts out on the disc as Dolby TrueHD, the player decodes it to PCM and your 575 receives it and converts it to analog form for amplification. Whatever quality may or may not be present in the Dolby TrueHD will be received. Note that the receiver can't indicate that the material is Dolby True HD, since it has no way of knowing what it was before the player decoded it to multichannel PCM.

Thanks John for clarifying that. I kind of figured it would as I thought about it to myself and came to the conclusion that it should work. So now I got to get a new HDMI cord as I have jsut been using the optical for now. I'm happy about this as I don't have to upgrade just yet.

Chris, your comment about using optical rather than HDMI alerted me to the possibility that the 575 doesn't process the audio from the HDMI connection. The 576 definitely does, but I'll take a look at the 575 now. To be continued.

Okay, just checked the 575 and found that the HDMI connection doesn't process the audio, as the 576 now does. So, you wouldn't be able to use an HDMI cable to receive Dolby True HD or DTS MA. Assuming that the player has multichannel analog outputs it would both decode to PCM and then convert digital PCM to analog and send it through those outputs. You'd then have to use multichannel analog inputs(and cables)on your 575. Those HD formats, even after decoding, can't go out on optical or coaxial digital cables. Only the DD or DTS track(which may be very good and practically indistinguishable from the HD)can be transmitted on the optical or coaxial digital cables.

I haven't hooked up any HDMI to the receiver yet, jsut from the sources to the TV.

Thanks, I just looked at the Onkyo website and it clearly states right after it mentions the HDMI capability that a separate Audio connection is required. Oh well. It would have been nice if it was able to pass the audio as the performance is fine for me for now as I am running the efficient Paradigm Monitor 11's. Any recommendations for a new receiver? I like Onkyo 876/906 and have been looking at the new Pionner Elite SC-07 and Yamaha's Z7.

Chris, again note that even though the HDMI connection on the 575 can't be used for the audio, if the Blu-ray player has multi-channel analog outputs then it'll decode and convert the HD formats to analog to be sent to the the multi-channel analog inputs on your 575.

Nevertheless, as to a new receiver, the 876 is excellent and there's a report in another thread here today that J&R has it on sale for $899.

Thanks for the suggestion, thats a great price as well but unfortunately I'm up in Alberta Canada here and the lowest I've seen for the 876 is 1700, 1900 for the SC-07, 1700 for the Z7 as well. If the dollar was better and I didn't care about warrenty I'd figure out a way to buy one in the states and sneak it out here. I'll keep looking in the meantime and enjoy what I got for now.

Thanks again for helping out, appreciate it.

Merry Christmas

Now that our dollar has droped off again it really sucks being in the north, no good deals anywhere.

Jason, I just came across this website this morning and it seems to have pretty decent prices, but I did notice that the everything I looked at is refurbished.