Best Way to Connect Video & Audio

[sarnell2]

What is the best way to connect Video & Audio w/out potentially sacrificing any quality?

Back in the "DVD Days" I would always connect the video cables directly to the TV as to preserve the best quality and connect the spdif audio to the receiver.

But now with Blu-Ray (I haven't made any purchases yet, still trying to understand everything)...

Say you have a 1080p/24 TV and a 1080/24 Blu-Ray Player, and also a receiver (not sure if they make them 1080/24). The Blu-Ray Players seem to only have 1 HDMI out, so you're pretty much forced to go to the receiver (to get the best uncompressed audio). If you go from the blu-ray player to a "good" receiver via hdmi to a hdtv via hdmi, are you potentially sacrificing any quality in the video (even though i understand it's digital but it seems people have had varying luck with different hdmi cables) and can you preserver a 1080/24 picture (or will you lose the 3:3 along the way)?

[Baritonic21]

I do home delivery for circuit city and i'll tell u first hand cause i've seen som hd(blu ray) ethusiasts...there is absolutely no noticeable difference between goin thru the receiver or directly to the tv...now if its a twenty foot hdmi then there's definetely gonna be quality loss...also wat u wanna look at is the maximum transfer rate for the hdmi cable...cause there's cables that can't output to 1080p cuz the transfer too slow...

[sarnell2]

i've got my heart set on one of those 1080/24 pioneer plasma's (72hz) that do the 3:3 and i'm worried that if i went through a receiver i'd lose the 3:3...anyone know if that can be preserved through a receiver (and which ones)??

[quetzalcoatl]

All the receivers do with HDMI video is pass it through to the TV. So you would not lose a thing.