avr with hdmi but without true hd?

[corElement]

Questions..

what does an avr without true hd but has hdmi basically do?

pass through? aka does not upmix stereo to 7.1?

if one uses an avr which does not have true hd specification ( including all those nice tech snr specs true hd has ) but uses an htpc with hdmi soundcard with hdmi 1.3a/b/c with bit streaming, does it matter if the avr has bit streaming or not? will the dolby true hd of the soundcard and its technical superiority be carried over with the avr or will the avr with hdmi but without true hd lower the high tech specs to its own?

if the avr does not have true hd but has hdmi and the soundcard has true hd and hdmi 1.3 will the avr simply pass it through? if thats the case then what does true hd do?

 

[santhosh]

Questions..

what does an avr without true hd but has hdmi basically do?

pass through? aka does not upmix stereo to 7.1?

There are AVRs which have Dolby Tru HD but not DTS HD MA. Eg: Basic Philips BDP available in India. I have not come across an AVR which had DTS HD, but not Dolby Tru HD, this could be because DTS is more difficult to implement(for an AVR manufacturer) as it needs more power and bandwidth.

if one uses an avr which does not have true hd specification ( including all those nice tech snr specs true hd has ) but uses an htpc with hdmi soundcard with hdmi 1.3a/b/c with bit streaming, does it matter if the avr has bit streaming or not? will the dolby true hd of the soundcard and its technical superiority be carried over with the avr or will the avr with hdmi but without true hd lower the high tech specs to its own?

if the avr does not have true hd but has hdmi and the soundcard has true hd and hdmi 1.3 will the avr simply pass it through? if thats the case then what does true hd do?

About True HD or DTS HD, they are just lossless audio formats, which the processor needs to understand. As long as these audio formats are processed, you will get 7.1. But whether the 7.1 is lossy or not, depends on how the connections are made. Let us look at some of the scenarios that I am aware of:

• If the source(BDP/PS3 Slim) supplies lossless sound (over HDMI) to a HD Audio capable AVR for processing, you will get the full lossless sound. If the AVR is not capable of processing HD Audio, it will downmix to lossy audio. For Eg: DTS MA HD gets downmixed to DTS 5.1, similarly Dolby Tru HD gets downmixed to DD 5.1.

• If you have an AVR with 7.1 analog inputs, and your source (Dune BDP or Oppo BD83(?)) has analog outputs, you can get the source to do the processing of lossless audio and push the signals into the analog inputs of the AVR. You can get lossless audio this way. Another way is for your Dune BDP to directly output processed lossless audio to power blocks.

• If the source(Phat PS3/other) cannot bitstream lossless HD audio, the PS3 processes the audio and sends the processed lossy audio to the AVR over HDMI. Whether it is lossy or not is debated on various forums. This is called LPCM (Venkat has put together an informative post on this, dig it out).

The most popular/safest/uncluttered way to do this is to have source bitstream lossless audio over HDMI to your AVR/Processor (assuming it is HDMI capable and knows how to process HD Audio). The AVR/Processor does the processing and sends analog out to the speakers via speaker cables.

 

[anm]

if avr doesn't have hd audio decoding, you can still enjoy it if it can take 5.1 or 7.1 lpcm. Most sources should have an option of either sending hd coded data, or 7.1 channel decoded data as lpcm that your avr must be able to understand. LPCM can also be transferred over hdmi.

 

[spirovious]

AVR which dont support HD-aud,but has HDMI can process DD/Dts via it OR only work as switch to pass video(like HTiB)
If AVR has 5.1 ana in,you can still enjoy HD-aud decoded by BD player.