Hd 5.1 Audio Question

[kwaboy]

I have a bit if a worry, when HD TV becomes available it says that it will include 5.1 surround sound.

Am I being stupid to how this works

I connect my Sky box to the TV via HDMI/Component/DVI but is there going to be a digital coaxial/optical output from the sky box to connect to an amp?

Does this make sense, can someone help, how do I get 5.1 sound from the HD STB

Thanks

[Rasczak]

when HD TV becomes available it says that it will include 5.1 surround sound.

Am I being stupid to how this works

I connect my Sky box to the TV via HDMI/Component/DVI but is there going to be a digital coaxial/optical output from the sky box to connect to an amp?

HDMI can carry multi-channel audio as well as high def video and so in theory your connections will be as follows:

Sky HD HDMI Out >>> HDMI In On Amp >>> HDMI Out On Amp >>> TV HDMI In

...however in reality it is going to be sometime before all amps have HDMI inputs and thus in the intrim many (most) people will use a seperate audio connection (optical or coaxial).

[Rimmer]

Originally Posted by Rasczak

...however in reality it is going to be sometime before all amps have HDMI inputs and thus in the intrim many (most) people will use a seperate audio connection (optical or coaxial).

Even if there were a few that take HDMI audio it would be a start...

HDMI was designed to carry multichannel uncompressed audio, so the player/digital box would do the decoding. This should simplify the decoding process in the amp and make it easy to add new codecs because the amp would not need to know any of the new codecs. Instead it seems that HDMI will carry the compressed bitstream, which means the amp has to know the codecs. Since the HD codecs are new this is presumably why HDMI audio amps are so hard to find.

[kwaboy]

So would I be right in thinking that like I have now that I use a digital cable from my dvd player to my amp in order to get 5.1 sound that, I will

HDMI cable from Sky Box >> HDMI in on HDTV - to get the HD picture

Then Digital Cable out from Sky Box >> Amp to produce 5.1 surround sound

Does that make sense

[ash]

Yep correct

[kwaboy]

Thanks very much for the help

Glad im on the right tracks, was a bit worried didnt know what I was talking about