Henry –
This is daunting at first glance, but not terribly hard to understand if you break it down into bite size pieces. HDMI, though touted as being a great one wire solution, comes with a lot of headaches. When it was first rolled out, there were numerous and never ending problems. It has gotten much better over time. So, considering the early growing pains of HDMI, the best advice I can give you is whatever you buy, make sure it is an 09 or newer model year. Do not go bargain shopping for used gear unless you want headaches or have hundreds of hours to waste on internet forums weeding out devices with bugs. Just don’t go down that road….
If you wish to incorporate 5.1 surround, eventually, you will need a surround audio processor to do this. This can be a stand alone surround Pre-Amplifier paired with external amplification (higher costs) or an Audio/Video Receiver with inboard amplification (lower costs). Your best and simplest route is the surround AVR. Most, if not all modern AVR’s have video switching and video processing built in. Some will allow you to bypass their internal video processor, some will not. There are merits to both directions, but that depends on how well the AVR or display process video. Nowadays, most displays have terrific video processing capabilities, so the need to have the AVR do this is mute. Years ago, displays sucked at video processing, so the AVR manufactures started including better video processors. The tide has shifted in about that last three years.
With HDMI, both audio and video signals are transmitted from the source device to the display and audio processor. A typical set up will be Source > AVR > Display – and that’s it. You then go into the AVR and run an automated set up program and it does the work for you. You can later pick up a hand help meter and verify the settings, make changes as needed or just forget it and be happy.
There’s obviously a lot more to this, but I won’t overwhelm you right now. Other’s will follow and provide more input as you ponder this some more and ask specific questions.
