Passthrough usually means that the receiver passes the video/audio through the receiver onto the tv. The receiver does nothing with the video/audio except pass it straight through the receiver. It does no processing of the video or audio. My Sony STR DG800 a/v receiver had hdmi passthrough so I could hook up more than one hdmi device to the tv with only 1 hdmi input on my tv. I still needed to run an optical cable from the PS3 and separate DVD player to the receiver to get any audio at all.
The opposite of passthrough (I am not sure of the antonym of passthrough) is that a receiver will process the audio and pass the video through. This allows you to take advantage of the PCM, DTS-MA, and True HD tracks on BD.
Most cheaper HDMI receivers will only have passthrough. If you have any desire to listen to better audio tracks, you will skip the passthrough receivers.
Hope that helps...if I was not true, anyone please feel free to correct me.
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