[JayBenoit]

Hello all,

I took advantage of the Gamestation deal and got my hd/dvd drive at the weekend. I'm hoping to hook it up to my Samsung amp to get surround sound. Can anyone tell me the best way of doing this?

I connected my elite to the amp via HDMI which gave me surround sound but no picture. Is it possible to use one output for picture and another for sound as I saw a review about someone outputting using Optical for sound. Could I run an optical cable into the amp and go HDMI straight into the tv?

Thanks for any help.

J

[Andy98765]

Everything is possible but it would REALLY help if you told us the model number of the amp?

[JayBenoit]

Sorry. Amp is a Samsung AVR710. Review with spec below.

http://www.whagi.com/html/Samsung_HTAS710.html

[Andy98765]

If you read the link you posted it states
"Once I wired it all up and managed to get it under my HDTV etc, the whole setup looked cool. I have my SKY HD via optical and my 360 via optical also and switching between the two inputs is as easy as pressing one button, the system detects the input be that prologic or Dolby Digital and switches itself to the correct format."

[JayBenoit]

Funnily enough I did read it. I was merely asking for some advice from anyone on here that could assist. I'll try elsewhere.

[Andy98765]

Unless there is something to gain I would connect the HDMI direct to the Tv and run a optical cable direct to the AV amp.

[GuyScissorhands]

Is it possible to output sound from the HD DVD Drive connected to an Amp (without the console). I take it the A/V cable goes into the Amp and the sound could go via HDMI or Optical, but there is no Optical on the Drive am I correct?

[DragonOfSilver]

The drive itself does nothing but provide data for the 360 to process, and store the hd dvd movie player and any saved data for the 360 to run also. all output is entirely from the 360

[Jacko Jab]

I've got the same amp - when I plugged my 360 into one of the HDMI inputs I got surround sound and picture so not sure why you're only getting sound and no picture. I prefer the picture quality through VGA (I don't know if your TV has a VGA input) and I use one of the optical inputs on the amp for surround sound.

Unfortunately you can't run 2 inputs at the same time (e.g. optical for sound, HDMI for picture) which is a pain as I only have 1 HDMI input on my TV so have to watch Sky with Dolby prologic as the Sky HD box does not send 5.1 through the HDMI cable. I have my upscaling DVD player plugged into the second HDMI input on the amp - fortunately that does send Dolby and DTS through HDMI.

[GuyScissorhands]

Probably a silly question but has anyone tried adding this to a PS3/PS2 via USB?
Don't have a Xbox so looking for a cheap and easy way to use the output of an existing device so that I can connect my amp ;]

[DragonOfSilver]

It's just a drive, it does NOT do the hd dvd playback, or any other processing on the discs that are put in it, it just allows the console to read the discs, plugging it into any other console will do nothing, except perhaps show up as a removable drive if they support such.

[Mungbean]

Originally Posted by Jacko Jab

I've got the same amp - when I plugged my 360 into one of the HDMI inputs I got surround sound and picture so not sure why you're only getting sound and no picture. I prefer the picture quality through VGA (I don't know if your TV has a VGA input) and I use one of the optical inputs on the amp for surround sound.

Unfortunately you can't run 2 inputs at the same time (e.g. optical for sound, HDMI for picture) which is a pain as I only have 1 HDMI input on my TV so have to watch Sky with Dolby prologic as the Sky HD box does not send 5.1 through the HDMI cable. I have my upscaling DVD player plugged into the second HDMI input on the amp - fortunately that does send Dolby and DTS through HDMI.

I have a little trick that will help you here mate .....

get your VGA/Optical cable in your hand - the part that you plug into your xbox covered in a grey plastic surround - well if you look close to this you will see that it is in two bits (top and bottom). Get a penknife, carefully put the knife into the seam that joins the two plastic parts together and wiggle the knife so you can split the two apart - and bobs your uncle, you can get rid of the plastic bit and be able to plug optical to your xbox and hdmi to your tv

happy days -

[GuyScissorhands]

Thanks for clearing that up DragonOfSilver ;D

[Jacko Jab]

Originally Posted by nickb

I have a little trick that will help you here mate .....

get your VGA/Optical cable in your hand - the part that you plug into your xbox covered in a grey plastic surround - well if you look close to this you will see that it is in two bits (top and bottom). Get a penknife, carefully put the knife into the seam that joins the two plastic parts together and wiggle the knife so you can split the two apart - and bobs your uncle, you can get rid of the plastic bit and be able to plug optical to your xbox and hdmi to your tv

happy days -

I saw a thread about this the other day - it's not an issue for me as I've an AV receiver which takes video and audio through HDMI but that trick will help the original poster

[garyscottmagic]

Does this actually improve picture quality over component?

Thanks for the replies
Best wishes

Garyscottmagic