HDMI for video and Optical Out for sound?

[takezo]

For all those people who have a Blu-Ray player, can you use HDMI to output video while having the the audio outputted optical?

The reason is that my HDTV does not have HDMI, butdoes have a DVI port with HDCP support. I bought a DVI to HDMI adapter. I know that HDMI carrys audio too. But i wana output standard Dolby Digital 5.1 via optical cable to my el-cheapo Home Theater system.

i am pretty sure it should do that, but i wana make sure.

[phloyd]

You are right - that should be possible.

[PurpleAardvark]

Yes you can I am doing that right now and I am having no problems. I did it a little different however HDMI to TV and Optical to my onkyo reciever. Every time I use the player it States HDMI aduio not supported but I am still getting sound from the uncompressed audio on the disc when selected. Hope this helps you out some.

[takezo]

Hmm. I don't need uncompressed audio. The standard Dolby 5.1 will be fine.

My El-cheapo HT system does not even support DTS. Not that it would matter. I just watched Ultra Violet (on DVD), and the sound was incredible. The movie it's self may not appeal to every one, i did not expect much from a highly over the top movie like UV. So i was prepared for it to be on the cheazy side.

It was the Blu-Ray demo, I saw running at Comp USA that made me want to rent it. After watching it, i don't think that I will need to add it my DVD collecton or future Blu-ray collection, unless it's really cheap.

I was just conserned that the optical out would be disabled when using HDMI, but i thught about it, and realized that old HT systems may not support 6 channel analog inputs or decode PCM. Thus Backwards compatibilty would make HDMI +optical a nessary solution.

now that i know it's posible with standalone players, the question is, will it be possible on PS3, my ideal Blu-Ray player? That is probably an answer only time can tell.

[baggani]

Yes it is possible. I have my system hooked up like this.

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by takezo

Hmm. I don't need uncompressed audio. The standard Dolby 5.1 will be fine.

The uncompressed audio will not be carried to your receiver via the digital optical connection. Digital optical connections are not capable of carrying this density of digital data.

I believe what PurpleAardvark is referring to is that when the BD-Disc has an uncompressed LPCM soundtrack (or DD True HD, or DD+ for that matter) you should be able to select these playback formats on the Blue-ray player, as the player will internally encode these formats to DD 5.1 at 640 kbps, which is a higher bitrate than what is currently available from DVD, for output on digital optical.

LPCM, DD TrueHD, or DD+ will be converted by the Blu-Ray player to high quality DD 5.1 when you use a optical digital connection to your receiver.

[shido]

Originally Posted by KC-Technerd

The uncompressed audio will not be carried to your receiver via the digital optical connection. Digital optical connections are not capable of carrying this density of digital data.

I believe what PurpleAardvark is referring to is that when the BD-Disc has an uncompressed LPCM soundtrack (or DD True HD, or DD+ for that matter) you should be able to select these playback formats on the Blue-ray player, as the player will internally encode these formats to DD 5.1 at 640 kbps, which is a higher bitrate than what is currently available from DVD, for output on digital optical.

LPCM, DD TrueHD, or DD+ will be converted by the Blu-Ray player to high quality DD 5.1 when you use a optical digital connection to your receiver.

Yeah, that's why he said "I don't need uncompressed audio"...

[takezo]

Yeah, I know that PCM is only availible via HDMI. But I could care less, cause my HT system is too weak for people to tell the difference between compressed and uncompressed audio. But I am not anal about that kind of stuff, standard Dolbly 5.1 is outputed optically. Which is the reason Why I asked if curent Blu-Ray owners if they can output the video via HDMI, while outputing standard Dolbly Digital via optical.

[Psiweaver]

PCM is avaliable via HDMI and 6 RCA Audio runs. Basicly like an SACD run. Optical just supports standard dolby digital up to 5.1

[KC-Technerd]

My point was that you will not get uncompressed audio from a BD player through the optical output. However the higher resolution audio formats on a BD disc will be converted by the player to DD 5.1 for the optical output, so an LPCM or DD TrueHD soundtrack can be played through the optical output.

In other words, the optical out option should work exceptionally well regardless of whether the BD disc has a DD 5.1 track on it or not, but "uncompressed audio" is NOT being provided to the receiver through an optical connection, even if a LPCM track is selected on the BD player. In this case the uncompressed LPCM track is encoded by the player into DD 5.1 for the optical output.

[theknub]

Originally Posted by KC-Technerd

....even if a LPCM track is selected on the BD player. In this case the uncompressed LPCM track is encoded by the player into DD 5.1 for the optical output.

did not know this. thankfully i do have analogue inputs on the receiver. just would need to finally utilize them if/when i get a BR player