Question Newbie questions about my first AVR

[joshtbh]

Hi all,

Recently picked up some bargain speakers in a slow attempt to build my first surround sound setup, so I have some questions about AV receiver.

I have a 4K TV, and a 4K capable Xbox One S which i'd like to obviously continue to function in 4K after introducing an AVR, so am I right that the AVR market is immediately narrowed down to "4K passthrough" ones only?

If so - are there any gotchas here? Like I read stuff about HDCP etc, I don't fully understand what I need to look for in order that my Xbox One S can output juicy multi channel sound, whilst still outputting to the TV as it always did.

hope my question makes sense!

 

[joshtbh]

extra question: What exactly will happen if I buy a "non 4K Passthrough" AVR, would I need to connect my Xbox One S directly to my TV via HDMI, then feed the AVR using optical instead to achieve multi channel output?

 

[Deleted member 39241]

extra question: What exactly will happen if I buy a "non 4K Passthrough" AVR, would I need to connect my Xbox One S directly to my TV via HDMI, then feed the AVR using optical instead to achieve multi channel output?

Yes, that is an option. Potentially you could get a downgrade in audio that way as optical audio does not support the HD audio codecs, Dolby True HD or DTS HD MA, nor multi channel PCM. But you can get 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS via optical.

If you connect the source to the AVR via HDMI, then you should get all audio passed through to the amp as HDMI audio does not have the same limitiations as optical.

However, eARC is coming (enhanced ARC) it is part of the HDMI 2.1 specifications, but is, apparently, coming to some non HDMI 2.1 devices soon. I don't believe any are available on the market yet. This will allow all of the HD audio to be transmitted from the TV to the AVR via the HDMI ARC connection. However, both the TV and the AVR will need to be eARC enabled.

There are some other things to look out for with 4K passthrough, as not all 4K is just 4K. There is also High Dynamic Range, Dolby Vision and Hybrid Log Gamma. I've not got a 4K TV, so that is about the extent of my knowledge on that one.

 

[raoulx]

Are you buying new Joshtbh? If so a lot if not most AVR's in the past few years allow 4k passthrough and have great features. Being very generalised here, but you'd struggle to find one without it these days as most companies try get as many features in as possible for most end users. I bet £300 plus you'd get something quiet nice

 

[JH4]

You can't go wrong with any of the current Denon AVR's, imo. Super reliable and fully featured. Similar specs for all of them. You just pay more for the higher power outputs and number of channels. My main one is over 10 years old, and still going strong, in daily use.. ( Touch wood.. ! )

 

[joshtbh]

Don't think I can afford new @raoulx but I placed an order for a Denon AVR-X1100W but I think it will arrive broken as it's from Amazon Warehouse and it seems there is a high liklihood that it will have a broken screen

So I am looking at the slim Marantz receivers e.g. NR1502, but they're very old so won't have 4K passthrough capabilities.