Question I think I need a new Receiver....

Scott_Mac

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I had a bizarre moment recently. My wife turned to me and said those amazing words "I was thinking that maybe we should get a new TV".

A trip to John Lewis later and I'm about to click go on a lovely LG OLED55B7V.

The problem that this now causes is that whilst I have an amazing AV amp, it's a bit on the old side.... most of my media comes from Plex on a Mac Mini and as such I know I'm going to be missing out on a lot of new fancy things, but don't know exactly what. I know for a fact that the Mac Mini won't kick out anything better than DTS over HDMI so I won't be getting much use out of Dolby Atmos etc (though I do have an Xbox One S that can now be used for 4K video etc). So am wondering what I will actually gain from an upgraded AV amp....


[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]My current amp won't have 4K pass through, but does that matter if the TV upscales it anyway? All of my media on Plex is only 1080p at the moment! All logic suggests I should upgrade, but that then opens up the can of works, that is... to what!?

I can't afford the modern replacement to mine, which in order to future proof would be the MRX720. So am back to considering mid range Japanese products... Marantz SR6010, 6011, 7010, 7011 etc.. or the Denon XW3300, 3400, 4300, 4400 etc...

Can anyone who is more up to date on HDR and all that jazz offer me something useful!?

TIA
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There are some workarounds to upgrading your AVR.

You could split audio and video out of your sources. So 4K video direct to the TV, and audio to the AVR. Problem with this is if you want HD audio (Dolby True HD or DTS HD MA) or multi channel PCM, you have to use HDMI. You can get sources with dual HDMI outputs, one for video and one for audio, such as a PC with a dual output graphics card, or a 4K disc player with dual HDMI's.

For those sources that don't have dual HDMI outputs, you could use HDMI for video and digital audio out for audio, but then although you would get Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1, you would lose the HD audio.

You could also connect your sources direct to the TV, then pass the audio through the TV into the AVR via ARC or toslink , but again you would lose HD audio and multi channel PCM.

You might want to do a listening test first of all, and see how much different / better HD audio sounds on your set-up compared to standard 5.1 DD / DTS. Then you will have a better idea of what you might be sacrificing.
 
I'm thinking of getting the same TV and after doing some research was thinking about the Denon x4300 for around £800 although I see there is a new model the X4400 but that is £1200. My reason is that I have a PS4 Pro and want to take advantage of 4k and HDR and I was also thinking of getting Sky Q.
Maybe what you should do is enjoy the new TV for a while and have a think about replacing your amp. Unless you plan to watch 4K or get an Xbox One X, maybe your current amp would suffice?
 
There are some workarounds to upgrading your AVR.

You could split audio and video out of your sources. So 4K video direct to the TV, and audio to the AVR. Problem with this is if you want HD audio (Dolby True HD or DTS HD MA) or multi channel PCM, you have to use HDMI. You can get sources with dual HDMI outputs, one for video and one for audio, such as a PC with a dual output graphics card, or a 4K disc player with dual HDMI's.

For those sources that don't have dual HDMI outputs, you could use HDMI for video and digital audio out for audio, but then although you would get Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1, you would lose the HD audio.

You could also connect your sources direct to the TV, then pass the audio through the TV into the AVR via ARC or toslink , but again you would lose HD audio and multi channel PCM.

You might want to do a listening test first of all, and see how much different / better HD audio sounds on your set-up compared to standard 5.1 DD / DTS. Then you will have a better idea of what you might be sacrificing.

Thanks - I had thought the same but none of the sources I currently have offer the Dual HDMI output as you say... I was planning on testing first as you say, but like to go in to these things prepared for what I may need!!!
 
I'm thinking of getting the same TV and after doing some research was thinking about the Denon x4300 for around £800 although I see there is a new model the X4400 but that is £1200. My reason is that I have a PS4 Pro and want to take advantage of 4k and HDR and I was also thinking of getting Sky Q.
Maybe what you should do is enjoy the new TV for a while and have a think about replacing your amp. Unless you plan to watch 4K or get an Xbox One X, maybe your current amp would suffice?

Xbox One S does 4k for film watching... as you say though, testing what I have first makes sense. I am assuming that regardless of what goes in to the amp, the picture on the TV is still going to be markedly better than that of my current 10 year old 46" LCD!
 
I had a bizarre moment recently. My wife turned to me and said those amazing words "I was thinking that maybe we should get a new TV".

A trip to John Lewis later and I'm about to click go on a lovely LG OLED55B7V.


Wake up you are dreaming again.... ;)
 
'I had thought the same but none of the sources I currently have offer the Dual HDMI output as you say...' - you could add a suitable 'Splitter' to your 4K_UHD capable source for under £150 (single Source) or around £300 (Dual Source).

Joe
 
'I had thought the same but none of the sources I currently have offer the Dual HDMI output as you say...' - you could add a suitable 'Splitter' to your 4K_UHD capable source for under £150 (single Source) or around £300 (Dual Source).

Joe
Thanks Joe - but I'd rather put that money towards a proper upgrade... seems an expensive stop gap!
 
'but I'd rather put that money towards a proper upgrade...' - that can be mighty costly when you have an 'amazing' AVR already.

Remember those mid range units sporting all the latest Features may not sound anywhere close to your current AVR with your speaker system.

Joe
 
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'but I'd rather put that money towards a proper upgrade...' - that can be mighty costly when you have an 'amazing' AVR already.

Remember those mid range units sporting all the masters Features may not sound anywhere close to your current AVR with your speaker system.

Joe
Agreed, I was looking at something like the Marantz SR7011 or Yamaha 2070 - so maybe not a massive drop?

My biggest issue I think is that the Mac Mini won’t output hi res audio over any output anyway so is there much point changing as it’s my primary source... also the speakers aren’t exactly cutting edge! I’m thinking that for the Mac I could just use optical audio out to the amp and native 4K over HDMI to the TV - likely better than getting the TV to upscale the HDMI?

If I were to get an HDMI switcher for the Xbox and/or YouView (assuming I change to the UHD) is this suitable? 2 Port HDMI 2.0 18G UHD/HDR Splitter - from LINDY UK

Thanks
 
Speaker technology hasn't really changed and if you are happy with the sound you don't need to upgrade them
 
Speaker technology hasn't really changed and if you are happy with the sound you don't need to upgrade them

I think it's more that we'll be moving soon, so on reflection waiting until we move and doing a full upgrade, properly is probably the smarter move!

I'm erring more towards keeping the setup 'as is' but routing the video signals direct from the sources to the TV and using splitters or Optical Audio for now in other (A new thought for the Mac Mini is to use the DisplayPort to output video to the TV and then HDMI for audio to the amp....)
 
Hi-Rez Audio - are we talking Music files or Movie files?

Speakers - definitely better to wait and asses the New room.

UHD - unless you plan to add in a high quality Video Processor (such as Lumagen) it is best to keep your non-UHD content in its native format through to the TV and let the TV do any conversion.

TV - if you are planning to ‘pre’ switch Sources via a Switch a good Feature on the TV is to have multiple menu settings on a ‘per signal type’ basis on the TV HDMI ports.

AVR - what do you currently have?

Joe
 
Hi-Rez Audio - are we talking Music files or Movie files?

Speakers - definitely better to wait and asses the New room.

UHD - unless you plan to add in a high quality Video Processor (such as Lumagen) it is best to keep your non-UHD content in its native format through to the TV and let the TV do any conversion.

TV - if you are planning to ‘pre’ switch Sources via a Switch a good Feature on the TV is to have multiple menu settings on a ‘per signal type’ basis on the TV HDMI ports.

AVR - what do you currently have?

Joe

Hi Res Audio, limitation is on movies. It'll only do DTS or Dolby Digital.

No idea on the switching options of the TV as I haven't got it yet... one would assume it's pretty good as it's an LG OLED?

AVR is the Anthem MRX300 - not super high end, but bloody good!
 
Anthem MRX300 - supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD via HDMI. Without adding additional loudspeakers (and amplifier channels) to your system I'm not sure what you are missing.

Source - maybe time to consider a change of streamer device if you want to support multi-channel HD audio (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD) and further down the line Immersive audio (Auro-3D, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X).

A Dual HDMI Output BD or UHD. Player wth streaming capabilities that will work with your Mac Mini would likely be on my shopping list rather than a new AVR.

XB1S - not something I have tried but I believe with the addition of some server software on your Mac Mini you can stream content via the XB1S.

Joe
 
Hi Joe,

Yes, i'm aware that the streamer is the limiting factor here from an audio perspective... but the audio is acceptable as most of my stuff is ripped to use DTS-Core which is excellent.

I think I may have a solution anyway - I can output from the Mac Mini using Optical for audio, which I believe will still give me the DTS-Core... or in the worst case scenario I can use Mini DisplayPort to HDMI for the video to get 4k direct to the TV and still use the HDMI to the amp for audio.

I've purchased the above Lindy HDMI distributor to handle the output from the Xbox One S and as you suggest I am going to try running Plex on it using the Mac Mini as the media source - it may solve everything!

For now, i've decided to not change the Receiver and will see how I get on. As and when we move i'll then look in to changing speakers/sub and amp!

Thanks

Scott
 

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