New to Home Theatre Audio - Will this work?

[sfric]

Hello,

I have a Sony Blu-ray player and a Comcast HD cable box connected to my TV via HDMI. I'm considering purchasing a used Yamaha receiver with a Digital Audio connection (No HDMI). I'm thinking if I connect a line from the digital-out on the TV to the digital-in on the receiver, this will allow me to use all the features of the receiver such as surround sound, dolby, etc..

Is my assumption correct?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Ric

[ZIPPO]

It will if you get 5.1 speakers too.

[My_Two_Cents]

You can, but why? If you are in the market to purchase a new receiver, there is really no reason not to get one that handles HDMI audio and switching. Without it, you will never be able to take advantage of HD audio, which is 50% of the blu-ray improvement over DVD. The Onkyo 606 is a great entry-level receiver that will meet all of your current and future needs for some time to come, and the price is not much more than a non-HDMI receiver. My 2 cents.

[jeff92k7]

Supposedly yes. But this assumes that your TV will "pass-through" the Dolby Digital core codec back out via the optical connector. You may need to check your TV manual to see if it does this.

If so, then that will work fine.

[sfric]

Thanks Everyone...

My choice of receivers is driven purely by budget. The receiver i'm looking at is a Yamaha HTR-5230 and will cost me $60.

To Jeff's point: According to my TV's manual, (Sharp Aquos LC-42D65U) the TV will allow me to choose "PCM" or "Dolby Digital" if connected to an AV amplifier via the optical digital port.

[Beta Man]

I'm guessing by the fact that you list PST as your default, and you're user-name, I'd say you're in San-Fran.... if that's not the case, I'd be more than happy to GIVE you a receiver if you could pick it up locally.

Nothing special, but It'd save you $60 towards speakers perhaps

[sfric]

So, in my quest to install a very low-budget home audio system, here's what happened:

I ended up getting the Yamaha receiver for $50 and Sony 5.1 surround speakers for $20. I followed through with my original plan to connect the TV to receiver via digital optical. However, that didn't work too well. Then, I connected the cable box and blue-ray player to the receiver using digital optical.

After making the necessary setting changes on the BR player and calibrating the speakers, the audio on my "home theatre" now sounds awesome! The fact that I did if for less than $100 also helps!

[Driver_King]

Nothing a little placebo effect can't help.