It does pass audio. You have to turn the option on though. It is off by default.

Just reading through the thread and some basic questions:

If I bought the Onkyo 674, I have a PS3 (HDMI), Oppo DVD Player (HDMI), Xbox 360 (Component), Wii (Component), Cable HDTV PVR (Component).... will this all be able to hook directly, will it all come out of one HDMI cable into my television's HDMI slot with all the sound working correctly through the receiver?

And this handles the PS3's Blu-Ray PCM5.1+ correct?

Yes to all. They can be hooked directly and will all output through HDMI to your TV. The receiver will also support the PCM output by the PS3.

4 pages on this thread and no mention of a Yamaha. surprising. i guess most of their HDMI receivers are expensive.

My first receiver was a Yamaha, then upgrade to a Sony, which was crap. I figured that all sounded great because of the Yamaha, but hadn't learned my lesson, so I upgraded to a Kenwood. It was better then the Sony, but nowhere as good as the Yamaha. So I upgraded to a Yamaha.

But it is time to upgrade again, and I am thinking about an Onkyo 604. But something really keeps me thinking I need a Yamaha.

Yeah, I had a Sony receiver too....it was terrible.

Sony receivers arent an upgrade from ANYTHING. Their regular receivers are nothing but problems AND their sound quality stinks.

The ES line has some decent features but they sound horrible.

I was in a high end audio store and asked about an ES they had on the floor and he told me dont bother. Said they only sell them to people who insist on a Sony.

I listened myself. Same speakers (3 different pairs) and against a Yamaha and Denon the Sony ES was CRAP.

Actually, Yamaha has a new receiver I'm strongly considering: http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/p...l?CNTID=547398

I downloaded the manual and it looks like it does what it's supposed to do (with no "gotchas" like lack of bass management on multichannel PCM).

My Sony (dont remember the model #, 935ES I think?) would have a hissing in the rear speakers whenever you would turn on the receiver. It would last about 15 minutes and then eventually go away. Very annoying.

The sound quality wasnt all that great.

Worst receiver I ever owned was in the Sony ES line. Yamaha's are good, but were much more expensive than the Onkyo options.

That may be my next receiver.

Here's another question:

How much is the difference between PCM 5.1 and regular ole DTS/DD 5.1? Is there some analogy that I can understand to see if upgrading is worth it?

Linear PCM is loss-less audio. Dolby Digital is the most compressed of the 3, DTS is slightly less compressed.

If you did a double blind I would bet you could tell the difference, but you may or may not hear it if you put in a disk randomly.

I would say its worth getting equipment that could handle it if you have to upgrade now anyway, but not if you are just upgrading to upgrade.

The best way to test this is to start a movie with DD 5.1 and switch to lossless part of the way in. It will seem like someone had their hands over your ears and then removed them as soon as the PCM track kicks in.

I am looking at receivers, paricularly the Onkyo 604. Cnet review says "7.1-channel A/V receiver with HDMI switching for two HDMI sources"... as well as "Won't convert analog video signals to HDMI". I'm rather new to this, but was wondering what all this meant. It says in the description that I'll need to run two cables to the TV, but will I still receive the same quality audio? If I were to purchase this receiver, what would be the best way to hook it up to a Blu-Ray Player and an HDTV (2 HDMI). New to this, thanks.

I've got the 604 and I'll try to answer your questions the best I can. The best way to hook up your BD player is to run one HDMI cable to one of the two receiver's HDMI inputs, and another cable from the HDMI out of the receiver to your TV. The receiver will process the audio and then send the video information to your TV.

Basically: BD Player ---> Receiver ---> TV

You'll get uncompressed PCM audio, but the Onkyo can only do a max of 5.1 for PCM, even though it's a 7.1 receiver. You could get 7.1 through a Dolby Digital/DTS source and have the receiver do matrix processing for the extra two channels.

I believe the "won't convert analog video signals to HDMI" means that for all the other video sources you connect to the receiver, i.e. game systems, dvd players, cable boxes, etc, the receiver won't upconvert these images to be output by the single HDMI out. You'll need to connect the video output for these sources with the same type of cable to your TV i.e. composite to composite, s-video to s-video, component to component.

Hope that helps.

Noname is correct in that it wont convert the other sources to HDMI, but it will convert to component so anything you connect to the reciever that isnt HDMI, will be converted through to component. So you dont have to have all those other cords going to your TV, instead needing only one HDMI, and one component. The 674 will convert everything through to HDMI, however.

This Onkyo is due this month with a list price of $299. It has 2 HDMI ports, but I'm not sure if it passes audio.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4162666

http://translate.google.com/translat...ctive%26sa%3DG

This page has the specs on the Onkyo 505. It says to have 2 HDMI inputs, 1 HDMI output. Again, I'm new at this so someone can better tanslate all the meanings of the specs and answer cinema's question. I'm also wondering if it will handle PCM 5.1

It doesn't appear the Yamaha RX-V661 or Onkyo TX-SR505 support DTS-HD, DD plus or True HD. Don't you want a new receiver that supports these HD audio codecs?

Frankly, I don't understand all the interest in HDMI receivers. Your essentially using your receiver as a video switch instead of having to change inputs on the TV. A good remote like the Logitech Harmony will do this for you. Plus running my video signals thru another device rather direct to the TV opens up the possibility of interferace or HDCP issues. The only benefit I could really see is if your TV only has one HDMI input such as mine does. A receiver with 3 HDMI inputs and 1 output gives you more flexbility.

I don't understand all the extremely negative opinions on the Sony Receivers. Granted I haven't done any AB tests with other products but I have no complaints on my Sony receiver. A DVD with a good DTS track sounds great. I was considering an eventual upgrade to one of these new receivers. http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_ro...ase/28268.html
Sony makes many leading products such as cameras, camcorders, and TVs. Are you guys telling me that for some reason their Sony Receivers are just significantly worse than all their competitors? That doesn't make sense. It's logical to think they'd strive to put out a quality product in the receiver line too.

your player will support it and it will send the decoded information to the receiver via hdmi 1.2a and above. you can even use the analog outputs on the source and the analog inputs on the receiver to send the information.


1- 1 cable to your television
2- a digital signal is just a series of 1s and 0s. there is no "loss".
3- hdcp issues, from what i understand, will actually be a bigger deal if you chose to have your receiver do the conversion.

1- you cant do everything well.
yamaha makes great receivers, but terrible speakers.
same with onkyo.
some companies make some things very well, not so much with other things. i owned a sony receiver thinking the same thing you do. the sound quality and build quality compared to wither of my 2 yamahas is night and day.

2- when companies have a name in the business, they sometimes use that name to sell products that arent on par with other companies. Sony used to make plasmas. Do they any more? Nope. Their plasma stunk.

3- sony mass markets every electronics product know to man. i would rather buy my equipment from a more specialized company that does something well. denon, yamaha and onkyo specialize in ht receivers,


sony doesnt make a terrible receiver, its just not as good as others on the market for th same price. they rely on people like you who are brand loyal to buy sub-par products because of their comfort level with the brand.

i would buy a Sony:
LCD (own one)
LcoS
PS3 (own one)
DVD Player (own one)
digital camera


I would not buy a Sony:
receiver (used to own one)
speakers (used to own some)
cd player (their DACs stink)
plasma
turntable
head unit for my car

brand loyalty screws the consumer

Well... there you go.

I know it sounds silly but I always liked the blue light that comes on the Sony receivers when it's decoding DD 5.1 or better. I could easily tell if the channel is broadcasting in DD 5.1 when sitting too far away to read the receiver display. Does Onkyo and Yahama have something similair? Another silly thing for me is my preference on the text display color. I like the blue text versus some receivers that use orange or green. The blue text matches my Sony DVD in that regard.

I guess for me it's less about brand loyalty than it was about pure cosmestics.

that's even worse!



you cant imagine how many of my friends buy the same brand because the "want their stuff to match".

Another receiver to add into this mix is the Panasonic XR57. I've been looking into this set, but over on avs someone said,
"The unit will not pass 1080p signals over HDMI and will not do surround processing on lossless PCM."

Will I not receiver lossless audio with this receiver? Has anyone had any opinions on this Panasonic?