# Best way to connect new Yamaha receiver?



## ticmxman (Aug 28, 2007)

I need to be sure I have my new Yamaha RX-V467 connected for the best audio from my HD DVR. From what I've read so far my Blue-Ray player has to be connect by HDMI to get some of the top audio formats. Is this the case with Directv as well? What option should I use?

1. DVR-HDMI-TV-/DVR-Optical or coax to Yamaha
I think I prefer this option and to switch inputs per needs, for example B-ray with Pandora playing thru Yamaha, while a football game is on the TV thru the HD DVR and TV sound muted. (some announcers are terrible)

2. DVR-HDMI-Yamaha/Yamaha HDMI to TV
This is the way I have it now and I could not do the example from above

Or is there some other way that would be better.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

I use option #1.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Since D* does not have lossless audio (like your BD player does), it's not necessary to connect it to the AVR via HMDI.

Some like to connect it to the AVR via HDMI anyway, so the AVR does the switching and some like to do it like you have outlined in #1.

Personal preference. If #1 works for you, that's the way I'd do it.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

Taking the audio via a seperate path can cause audio/video synch issues. Other than being able to listen to different audio while the video is playing, HDMI all the way is cleaner for synch and the number of wires.


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## ticmxman (Aug 28, 2007)

tonyd79 said:


> Taking the audio via a seperate path can cause audio/video synch issues. Other than being able to listen to different audio while the video is playing, HDMI all the way is cleaner for synch and the number of wires.


That sounds reasonable but is there a way around my problem outlined above?


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

ticmxman said:


> That sounds reasonable but is there a way around my problem outlined above?


Don't know your receiver well enough to say. Some will let you define an input as being split, some do not. Sorry.

You could drive both HDMI and component with HDMI for when you want picture and sound to go together and just component for when you want picture only from the DVR.

I use the SD outputs for Picture and Picture on my Sony and have been able to view the SD at full screen with sound coming from a different source.

Sounds like you are forcing a full time setup for a couple of hours a year.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

tonyd79 said:


> Don't know your receiver well enough to say.


I don't either "but":


don't have a sync issue/problem between HDMI [to TV] and digital through AVR.
My AVR has a setting to adjust delay [which I'm not using].


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

I would use #1 as there have been Audio Problems with HDMI to certain Receivers/Amps.


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## ticmxman (Aug 28, 2007)

Thanks guys,
I set it up with the DVR-HDMI-to TV-/DVR-Optical cable to Yamaha. The reciever has lip-sync compensation that is supposed to automatically make adjustments or I can manualy adjust if I needed. 

A cool thing this reciever does, you can set a macro on the remote's scene button and with a single press it switches the input source and sound field and if the unit is in standby mode it will power it on. 

I'm now good to go.


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

ticmxman said:


> Thanks guys,
> I set it up with the DVR-HDMI-to TV-/DVR-Optical cable to Yamaha. The reciever has lip-sync compensation that is supposed to automatically make adjustments or I can manualy adjust if I happen to.
> 
> I now good to go.


Great and let us know how it works and if you have any problems.


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## Ancient1 (Feb 13, 2010)

By running the HDMI directly from the DVR to the TV, you are eliminating the processing capabilities of your Yamaha, which are far superior to what you get from the DVR, and probably from your TV as well. My setup is as your #2, with HDMI from the DVR to the Yamaha, and then HDMI from the Yamaha to the TV. I can have a TV picture, and have sound from another source, including Internet radio, at the same time. The new Yamaha receivers have some amazing capabilities, and I have seen no indication of any audio problems, or any other kind of problems, for that matter.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

But if you get another hdmi device like xbox/ps3, and your tv does not have a second input, you will have to use the amp as a switch.


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## StuartMW (Dec 29, 2007)

I had been considering purchasing a receiver for my setup but ended up going for individual components since my TV already has 3x HDMI inputs. I left my D* receiver connected to the TV via HDMI, along with my Blue-ray player. I also have a (5yr-old) DVD Recorder that also connects to the TV via component (video) and analog audio.

Since the TV speakers are terrible I purchased a soundbar and connected the optical audio output of the TV to one (of 2) of the soundbar's optical inputs. The 2nd optical input of the soundbar connects to my HD radio tuner.

Using a universal remote (and the ability to program it via a PC) I've made the whole mess, I mean setup, work nicely. I also saved about $100 over the receiver solution I was considering and got HD radio to boot ;-)

PS: I also connected a Sony HWS-BTA2W Bluetooth receiver/transmitter to the analog input of the soundbar so I can play audio from any of my 3 PC's and PDA.


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## SWORDFISH (Apr 16, 2007)

Ancient1 said:


> By running the HDMI directly from the DVR to the TV, you are eliminating the processing capabilities of your Yamaha, which are far superior to what you get from the DVR, and probably from your TV as well. My setup is as your #2, with HDMI from the DVR to the Yamaha, and then HDMI from the Yamaha to the TV. I can have a TV picture, and have sound from another source, including Internet radio, at the same time. The new Yamaha receivers have some amazing capabilities, and I have seen no indication of any audio problems, or any other kind of problems, for that matter.


I agree, the Yamaha receivers are excellent for home theater. 
My setup is the same as yours, DVR-HDMI-Yamaha / Yamaha-HDMI-TV.
I often listen to music while programming the DVR, viewing the guide, checking sports scores, etc.

SF


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Use #2.

My Marantz SR7005 upscales to 1080p extremely well. And the AQ has been fantastic from HDMI.

(Keep in mind the Marantz is HDMI 1.4a compliant)


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Ancient1 said:


> By running the HDMI directly from the DVR to the TV, you are eliminating the processing capabilities of your Yamaha, which are far superior to what you get from the DVR, and probably from your TV as well.


Incorrect.

Even if you do run your HD video signal via HDMI through your AVR, you want to try and use pure pass through (if your AVR has it) and send the signal from the DVR to the TV unaltered. The DVR is already processing the signal. Your display will process the signal too. There's very rarely an advantage of adding an additional processing step, and certainly not with low or mid-tier AVR's.

Now, if you're talking about upscaling SD via HDMI, then it's possible an AVR will do a better job of it than your display, but again, it's very doubtful on a mid-tier AVR

There's a greater likelihood that an AVR will damage the video signal than make it better.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Spartnstew - I think it depends on the age of the AVR. A 2011-era AVR can do wonders.

For example, my AVR has: an Anchor Bay 10-bit Video Processor/Scaler

<<The ABT2015 10-bit processor, Anchor Bay's fourth-generation video engine, provides exceptional performance including transcoding, deinterlacing, and scaling to give you the flexibility and convenience once restricted to video professionals. Thanks to this processing power, you can now connect all your video sources, even legacy formats such as videotapes, and display their outputs via HDMI on your high definition TV. >>


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Spartnstew - I think it depends on the age of the AVR. A 2011-era AVR can do wonders.
> 
> For example, my AVR has: an Anchor Bay 10-bit Video Processor/Scaler
> 
> <<The ABT2015 10-bit processor, Anchor Bay's fourth-generation video engine, provides exceptional performance including transcoding, deinterlacing, and scaling to give you the flexibility and convenience once restricted to video professionals. Thanks to this processing power, you can now connect all your video sources, even legacy formats such as videotapes, and display their outputs via HDMI on your high definition TV. >>


Yes, Anchor Bay and Faroudja can be good at scaling SD from legacy inputs (composite, component) to HD, but it will do very little (and usually nothing) with an HD signal from HDMI to HDMI.

Not to mention, the Yamaha 467 AVR that the OP has does not have that chip, nor does it do much scaling at all.

HERE'S a good, but brief discussion


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

thanks


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## ticmxman (Aug 28, 2007)

spartanstew said:


> Yes, Anchor Bay and Faroudja can be good at scaling SD from legacy inputs (composite, component) to HD, but it will do very little (and usually nothing) with an HD signal from HDMI to HDMI.
> 
> Not to mention, the Yamaha 467 AVR that the OP has does not have that chip, nor does it do much scaling at all.
> 
> HERE'S a good, but brief discussion


While it probably doesn't make any difference to the question I asked, I returned the Yamaha 467 and got a Yamaha Adventage RX-A700 reciever.


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## kikkenit2 (Oct 26, 2006)

ticmxman said:


> While it probably doesn't make any difference to the question I asked, I returned the Yamaha 467 and got a Yamaha Adventage RX-A700 reciever.


Most avr's work like this. If you select a video source then an audio source it will play both together. When you ask the receiver to only use the audio from bluray and not the video it gets tricky. The receiver now has 2 video sources to pick from. It doesn't normally want to override the video that belongs to the audio that is active. If you can feed the avr the pandora audio without a video connection you can easily combine both sourses. That A700 may have settings deep in the menu structure that lets you select priorities when inputs conflict. My onkyo 1007 does. Kind of like scheduling priorities during recording conflicts on a dvr. Sending some video sourses to the tv and some to the avr is the most common workaround and is quite simple but has it's own deficiencies.


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## kikkenit2 (Oct 26, 2006)

ticmxman said:


> While it probably doesn't make any difference to the question I asked, I returned the Yamaha 467 and got a Yamaha Adventage RX-A700 reciever.


Look in the manual for the yamaha a700 page 74 "Combining HDMI/AV1-2 Input source video and audio". It explains how to do what you want. But basically if you want to eliminate the tv remote just plug the bluray into hdmi 1 and cable/sat dish box into hdmi2. Now also connect toslink optical from bluray to avr toslink labeled AV1. Then when you want to watch bluray movies select hdmi1 on avr remote. To watch tv select hdmi2. To watch tv while streaming pandora music thru stereo first start pandora then select hdmi2, then select av1. You now have video from tv and audio from pandora (bluray). No need to connect anything to tv except hdmi out. Looks like Yamaha does allow you to rename inputs but the remote is all 1,2,3 etc. instead of dvd/bd vcr/dvr cbl/sat game tuner tv/tape aux port cd phono net like my onkyo.


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## ticmxman (Aug 28, 2007)

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try.


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

DTV box best audio DD5.1

Any non stone age DVD player best audio DTS/DTS-ES

Blue Ray player best audio Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD Master Audio

With *very* few exceptions the best audio your TV can accept is DD 5.1.

Plugging the DTV receiver direct to the TV via HDMI and using optical/coax to the receiver is nice as it leaves an HDMI port free for better toys later.

A standard DVD player with upscaling you can either divert its audio to the receiver entirely and hook up HDMI to TV and optical/coax to the receiver or pass the HDMI through the receiver. If you pass it's audio to the TV you'll have to dumb down DTS to either 2 channel PCM (which does this on ALL digital outputs). Not advisable.

By hooking a BlueRay player's HDMI to the TV you get the best video but are limited to DD5.1 a low bit rate compressed audio codec.

By hooking the BlueRay players HDMI to your receiver you get the uncompressed audio formats like TrueHD, DTS-HD MASTER, multi channel PCM and that great picture.

Optical and coax do not support the high bit rate "uncompressed" audio codecs.

Yamaha's analog to HDMI video conversion works good but their upscale engines tend to lighten the depth of the color slightly when upscaling HDMI input sources. I've an RX-Z11, RX-V3800, and an RX-V2600 currently in my home and all have the same effect. I leave it's upscaling OFF and upscale at the device level and what is analog anyway?

Another nicety about having the DTV receiver connected to the TV via HDMI and then optical/coax to the receiver is that it can run independently of the AV system. Spouse or crumb grabbers can just watch TV without firing up the whole shebang.

Yamaha input priority for audio, HDMI, Optical, Coax in that order. You can assign different inputs to the various "names" (not so needed with 4 or more HDMI inputs these days) but...

Also using the receiver's HDMI audio pass through to the TV may enforce you having to dumb down all the better audio codecs.

If only the TV manufacturers let you pass all the HDMI audio bitstreams OUT to the receiver in full glory. Then you could have the TV be the hub of the home theater like in the old ProLogic days.

Don "analog? how quaint" Bolton


ticmxman said:


> Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try.


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## ticmxman (Aug 28, 2007)

Certainly a lot of options. With the HR22s HDMI connected directly to the tv and optical to the Yamaha I get the absolute best picture but no on screen menus from the Yamaha. Not a big deal I'm sure the novelity will wear off once I settle on my audio preferences. For now I just have to change to the input on the tv coming from the Yamaha/ blu-ray HDMI to view the menu. 
I may connect the DVR via HDMi to the Yamaha directly for a while till I'm done tweaking the settings.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Using the AVR to switch both audio and video is certainly more convenient than using both the TV remote and the AVR remote independently to change sources. No use paying addtional $$$ for a remote to control everything if you can use the AVR to obtain much the same functionality while keeping your AVR's on-screen interface.

Obviously, my recommendation doesn't take into consideration the bogglingly persistent DIRECTV audio drop issues that might be avoided by configuration #1.


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## Ancient1 (Feb 13, 2010)

I'm not having any audio dropouts using HDMI from the HR24 to the Yamaha, and then HDMI to the TV. Since the new Yamaha's are 1.4 compliant, I am using Pangea cables which support 1.4, and my picture quality is outstanding. Going from the HR24 directly to the TV results in a much softer picture, and of course if you use an optical audio connection, you lose the full surround sound capabilities as well. I have full menu capabilities for both D* and the Yamaha at all times - not sure why you would be losing the ability to see menus.


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## larryah (Jul 29, 2010)

I just got a Pioneer VSX 1020-K AV receiver and have HR24 to receiver using HDMI, PS3 to receiver using HDMI, and receiver to TV using HDMI. Audio and Video are excellent. If you have enough HDMI ports, why complicate things?


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Ancient1 said:


> Going from the HR24 directly to the TV results in a much softer picture, and of course if you use an optical audio connection, you lose the full surround sound capabilities as well.


Incorrect. Optical carries every sound format that the HR24 is capable of delivering.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

larryah said:


> I just got a Pioneer VSX 1020-K AV receiver and have HR24 to receiver using HDMI, PS3 to receiver using HDMI, and receiver to TV using HDMI. Audio and Video are excellent. If you have enough HDMI ports, why complicate things?


1. Some people like to watch TV without using their audio gear.
2. 3D is in it's infancy and doesn't always play nice with receivers in the mix.


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

Ancient1 said:


> Going from the HR24 directly to the TV results in a much softer picture, and of course if you use an optical audio connection, you lose the full surround sound capabilities as well.


Who told you that if you use an Optical Optical Cable you will lose the full Surround Sound capabilites???


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

He may have misunderstood my statements earlier? Coax/Optical despite having adequate bandwidth, do not support the HD audio codecs. Which for a sat receiver is not applicable.

What need to be understood is that the HD receivers ONLY process and forward DD5.1 or PCM 2 channel.

Don "hope I didn't mislead him" Bolton



richierich said:


> Who told you that if you use an Optical Optical Cable you will lose the full Surround Sound capabilites???


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

lugnutathome said:


> He may have misunderstood my statements earlier? Coax/Optical despite having adequate bandwidth, do not support the HD audio codecs. Which for a sat receiver is not applicable.
> 
> What need to be understood is that the HD receivers ONLY process and forward DD5.1 or PCM 2 channel.
> 
> Don "hope I didn't mislead him" Bolton


Just curious as I have to have Optical Digital Audio into my Denon AVR5803 as it is an older Denon and doesn't have HDMI inputs/outputs and mine has worked Great for Years!!!


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## PhilipDC (Aug 16, 2006)

I just replaced an older Denon (no HDMI at all) with a brand new Denon AVR791 with 4 HDMI inputs and 1 output. Hooked DVR and Blu-ray to receiver and then to the TV. One of the nice things is the connection between the TV and the receiver goes both ways, enabling me to use extra pay-per-view services (my TV has Amazon-on-Demand, but my blu-ray does not) straight through the TV and still getting surround sound.


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

Yep. All 3 of my big iron systems have HDMI to the TV and optical to the AV receiver. My Cbl/Sat HDMI ports sit open for the next new HDMI equipped toy I might wish to add:grin:

Since the DTV receivers have no DTS or HD audio codec processing/passing capabilities this works fine passing the DD5.1 to the TV (the one surround sound codec they (TVs) can process). You can run the TV stand alone or run the AV system too.

All of my BluRay players however run HDMI to the AV receiver and it to the TV so I can enjoy the HD audio codecs as well as standard DTS codecs.

What you have is perfect.

Don "HDMI: Half Defined Mysterious Interconnect" Bolton



richierich said:


> Just curious as I have to have Optical Digital Audio into my Denon AVR5803 as it is an older Denon and doesn't have HDMI inputs/outputs and mine has worked Great for Years!!!


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## Ancient1 (Feb 13, 2010)

My bad. SpartanStew is correct - the optical cable WILL carry any audio the D* receiver will send out. Of course, when D* brings out a receiver that will deliver more than just Dolby Digital, the optical cable won't handle it. I just don't see the point in using 2 cables, when one HDMI will take care of everything, with no question as to what audio is coming through.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Ancient1 said:


> My bad. SpartanStew is correct - the optical cable WILL carry any audio the D* receiver will send out. Of course, when D* brings out a receiver that will deliver more than just Dolby Digital, the optical cable won't handle it. I just don't see the point in using 2 cables, when one HDMI will take care of everything, with no question as to what audio is coming through.


The other piece of this is broadcasters arent broadcasting anything the D* receivers cant transmit over a digital optical or coaxial yet either....I think we are still a few years away from getting DTS-HD or DD True HD from broadcasters, or it could be some completely new audio format by that time.


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

Ancient1 said:


> I just don't see the point in using 2 cables, when one HDMI will take care of everything, with no question as to what audio is coming through.


If your Receiver such as my Denon doesn't have HDMI Input Ports then I need Toslink to get my Digital Audio Input.

I spent $5,000 on a very expensive Denon AVR5803 Receiver and I am not about to Upgrade to one that has HDMI Input just to have HDMI when I am happy with my Toslink.


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