Ok so I am looking to get a receiver or theater in box in the next month or so. Currently I have an xbox 360 hooked up to a samsung lcd tv via hdmi and my pc hooked up to the tv via hdmi for video and analog for audio.

Ideally I would like a receiver that i can plug my xbox in via the hdmi as one source and then hook my pc to the receiver via the hdmi for video and use the digital optical out on my pc to the receiver for audio as the second source. I keep reading people running the video to the tv and then using the optical out of the tv to hook to the receiver but that would limit the audio to 2 channels on my tv.

So is it possible to run video via hdmi and audio via optical from my pc to the receiver and hdmi from the receiver to the tv? I know that my pc can output this but I am curious if most receivers are set up to handle this nowadays?

Ok so I am looking to get a receiver or theater in box in the next month or so. Currently I have an xbox 360 hooked up to a samsung lcd tv via hdmi and my pc hooked up to the tv via hdmi for video and analog for audio.

Ideally I would like a receiver that i can plug my xbox in via the hdmi as one source and then hook my pc to the receiver via the hdmi for video and use the digital optical out on my pc to the receiver for audio as the second source. I keep reading people running the video to the tv and then using the optical out of the tv to hook to the receiver but that would limit the audio to 2 channels on my tv.

So is it possible to run video via hdmi and audio via optical from my pc to the receiver and hdmi from the receiver to the tv? I know that my pc can output this but I am curious if most receivers are set up to handle this nowadays?

Yes. Just look for a receiver that supports audio via HDMI for the 360.

Thanks, I saw that the Onkyo HT-RC160 in an email ad for a good price and I believe that it is capable of carrying video and audio via hdmi. It may be a little more than i need though. Not to mention i would need to buy my own speakers.