Question about Home theater on a budget & HDMI 1.4 ARC

[sshe11]

Hi all ! I am new to these forums and after some researching I have narrowed down on the equipment list below. Please let me know if it's the correct setup.

1. Panasonic VIERA L32D25 with HDMI 1.4 ARC
2. Philips HTS3541 home theater system with HDMI 1.4
3. Tata Sky + HD STB
4. xbox360

I plan to connect if as follows:

Tata Sky+ HDMI -> TV HDMI
xbox360 HDMI -> TV HDMI
Philips home theater HDMI 1.4 -> TV HDMI 1.4 (HDMI :: Manufacturer :: HDMI 1.4 :: Audio Return Channel)


If I understand correctly, using HDMI 1.4 will enable me to send audio back to the home theater system from the TV. Does this mean that 5.1 audio from my Tata Sky + box and xbox360 can be sent to the Philips home theater ?

 

[prankey]

^ You will most probably get PCM 2.0 (stereo) only through this setup to your AVR! You would need to connect everything through the AVR to get multichannel and lossless audio.

 

[sshe11]

I thought that was the case if I used the Optical Audio Out from my TV.

But now with the new HDMI 1.4 spec I can get full 5.1 audio to the home theater via the TV.

Or am I reading the HDMI spec wrong ?