Question AV set-up advice

Leumas_10

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I'm currently sorting out the cabling I need for a living room set-up. Looking to lose the cables in the walls so not wanting to forget about something! Any input on this would be appreciated..

All equipment to be fed into an Onkyo TX-SR606 and then out to a tv and also a projector (benq w1070)

PS3 - HDMI - Amp
Oppo BDP-80 - HDMI - Amp
Sky+HD - HDMI - Amp (I want to use the TV speakers for normal TV viewing when the amp isn't on. But use the amp and 5.1 for TV films and football etc on the projector so do I just run Optical or Coax from the sky box to the amp and let it passthrough the signal when on standby? Confused on this one)
5.1 system fed into the amp.

Then split the HDMI output of the amp with something like a Neet splitter and feed the TV and projector.

Also I'm not overly fussed about 3D but seeing as the projector supports it I feel like I should at least try to set-up to include it, neither my blu-ray player or amp support 3D but I may add a PS4 to the set-up soon. So would it be possible to run HDMI from PS4 direct to projector for the 3D video (bypassing the amp for video) and optical from PS4 to amp for the audio?

Am I missing anything obvious? Any advice would be great, cheers

Sam
 
Your AV receiver can passthrough an HDMI source (both audio and video) while it is in standby so you could passthrough the audio and video from your SKY STB via HDMI while not using the receiver. There would be no need to have additional optical or digital coax connections in place.

How far from the receiver will the projector be? If more than 8m away then I'd suggest you use HDMI over cat6 extenders to convey the signal from the receiver to the PJ. Yes, you can use an HDMI splitter to divide the HDMI output from the receiver between the TV and your PJ.

If you use optical from the PS4 then you lose the ability to access HD audio formats such as DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby's TrueHD. S/PDIF optical cannot convey these formats or more than 2 channels of PCM data. HDMI is required to convey these HD audio formats. This would only be an issue in relation to content sourced from Blu-rays though. Games do not use the HD formats. How many HDMI inputs does your PJ have? You'd need one for the connection from the AV receiver and another one if wanting to make a direct connection to your PS4. You'd also have the same issue associated with distance if the PS4 is to be more than 8m away from the PJ.

Maybe you'd be better looking at a new AV receiver, one that can handle 3D sequential video and maybe even one that has an additional HDMI output so that both the TV and the PJ can be connected to the receiver without need for an HDMI splitter? I'd suggest the Denon AVRX2200W.
 
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EDIT

On further investigation, your current receiver may not have the HDMI passthrough in standby feature I mentioned above. Again, I'd suggest replacing your receiver with a newer model if this feature is of interest. THe ultimate solution to most of your problems would indeed be to look at a newer receiver.
 
I realise upgrading the receiver would be the ideal solution, but I'm not wanting to spend the money just yet. I have very little interest in 3D but just trying to maximise the use of features where I can (still may not bother). The PJ has two HDMI inputs. So accepting the loss of HD sound on Blu-rays, I could run HDMI direct from the playstation to the PJ and an optical from playstation to receiver to achieve 3D? With there still being another HDMI input on the PJ to connect to the receiver.

I've just measured the cable run from where the amp will be to the PJ and its actually around the 8m mark, do you think I should be looking at the cat6 option? Is HDMI over cat6 generally more reliable, I'm worried about burying cables in my walls then having a HDMI cable fail.

Regarding the Sky box, if the receiver doesn't passthrough HDMI, would a solution be to split the HDMI output from the Sky box, run one HDMI direct to the TV for normal use without the receiver having to be involved. Then run another HDMI and optical (because SKY doesn't support 5.1 audio over HDMI?) to the receiver for viewing Sky on the PJ.
 
Thanks for your replies dante01
 
As said, you can run the HDMI connection from the PS4 to the PJ, but you'd then lose the ability to access the HD audio associated with Blu-ray discs if using optical to convey the audio to the receiver. You can only convey the HD formats via HDMI so a direct HDMI connection from the PS4 to your receiver is required in order to be able to stream the HD formats to the receiver. You've also the potential problem of having to cpnvey HDMI signals from the Ps4 to the PJ if the distance is longer that the 8m recomended maximum distance. You'd need to employ 2 HDMI over cat6 extenders, one for the Ps4 and another for the HDMI output from the receiver to the PJ.

SKY does now support Dolby Digital 5.1 over HDMI. They released a firmware update not that long ago that now makes this possible. This would allow a single HDMI connection to an AV receiver which could be used to convey 5.1 audio to that receiver. You can however do as you suggest with the SKY STB and have both a HDMI connection from the STB to your TV and also another optical S/PDIF connection from the STB to the AV receiver. You'd need to plit the HDMI output from the SKY box if wanting to share the video between the TV and your PJ. The issue is that you are already proposing you split the receiver's HDMI and the PS4's HDMI outpt and you'd also be one HDMI input short on the PJ if wanting to connect the PS4, the receiver and the SKY STB to it. You'd need a matrix to resolve this and I'd suggest your money would be better spent on a new AV receiver than a HDMI matrix. If insistent on keeping your existing receiver then you are going to be left with no other option other to employ at least one HDMI matrix and several HDMI splitters. The cost of these would be better spent on a new AV receiver, in fact the cost is probably comparable to what a new receiver would cost you?
 
Ok so now I am leaning towards a new receiver :suicide:

Will have to have a think about what I'm really bothered about achieving from the set-up and what I can do with the receiver I have for now. It's more confusing now than before I sat down to figure things out. Thanks for all your input.
 
Let me simplyfy it for you. If you were to replace your current receiver with say a Denon AVRX2200W then you'd benfit in the following ways:

You'd have the HDMI splitter integrated into the receiver so you can output video to both your PJ and your TV without need of an external splitter.

The receiver can passthrough sequential 3D video so no need to run HDMI video connections from 3D sources directly to your PJ while having to send audio via lesser capable types of connection to the receiver. The receiver also incorporate HDMI 2.0a and is HDCP 2.2 so will also be ready for use with UHD 4K content too.

It has the HDMI passthrough in standby feature I mentioned so you can have just the one HDMI connection from your SKY STB to the receiver. You'd simply passthrough this signal to your TV while the receiver is in standby and thus removing any need for seperate connections to both the receiver and your TV from the SKY STB.​


Wiring would be a lot simpler. You'd have all your source components connected directly to just the AV receiver via HDMI. You'd have an HDMI connection from the receiver to your TV and another HDMI connection via the receiver's 2nd HDMI output to your PJ. The connection to the PJ would probably still benefit from the use of an HDMI over cat6 extender though if the distance is greater than 8m.
 
Decided to just forget about 3D for the time being. Sticking with the amp I have I've just set-up all the equipment to see if everything works out ok.

Split the HDMI output from the Sky box with a neet splitter and fed one HDMI direct to the TV and another HDMI into the receiver. The blu-ray and PS3 then also feed into the receiver via HDMI. I've then split the single HDMI output from the receiver using another neet splitter, with one HDMI (8m) going to the PJ and another to the TV. It all seems to work fine.

One thing I hadn't considered was outputting sound from the PS3 and the Blu-ray player to the TV when the receiver isn't in use. Is it possible to run optical or coax cables from both PS3 and Blu-ray to the TV and achieve a sound output this way when the receiver is not powered on. Or would that require me manually changing sound output settings each time I wanted to watch or play something on PS3/Blu with the amp off?

It's not really a major issue, the PS3 and blu-rays will mostly be watched on the PJ anyway with sound fed through the receiver to surround sound. But if I can't achieve a sound output to the TV I may as well discard the splitter on the receiver and just feed one HDMI direct to the PJ.

Any input on this would be appreciated!
 
TVs do not have optical audio inputs and even if they did, why would having a seperate audio connection from your sources be desirable? You'd still not get any video signal via the TV from those sources. You'd have to use the HDMI output to your TV from the sources and then use the optical outputs from the sources to the receiver. You can output audio via both optical and HDMI simultanaeously. There's no real issue with doing this with your SKY box because the highest form of audio associated with TV broadcasts is Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital can be conveyed via both optical and HDMI. The issue would be with the PS3 while playing Blu-ray content. You'd lose any ability to convey formats such as Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio to the receiver if using optical. Only HDMI can convey these HD formats commonly used on Blu-ray titles. You really want the sources to be connected to the receiver so that you get the best audio possible.

I'd suggest you simply use the receiver all of the time for the audio and not use the TV's own speakers at all. THere's no real reason not to use the receiver for the audio and I've personally not used a TV's own speakers for at least the past ten years now. I'm not sure why you feel the need to bypass the receiver if using your TV? Forget about using the TV to output audio and use the receiver to both select sources and handle all audio duties.
 
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Yeah apologies, after coming away from it all for now I don't even know what I was thinking to be honest. It's not even an issue and anyway as you've pointed out not possible for the obvious reasons you've mentioned. The receiver will be on for all duties other than regular Sky viewing on the TV.

Thanks for all your advice.
 

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