Want HDMI video but not audio

First, you can send 1080p to your plasma over component for BD discs (just not for upscaled SD DVD). Second, you can send HDMI to your display and still use analog or digital audio to your receiver simultaneously (just reduce the audio on the display to zero if you don't want anything coming from the display's speakers).

Depends. You could use analog 5.1 outs to get the same quality, you just have to run 6 cables and make sure that you get a blu ray player that supports that. The Denon and Pioneer units jump to mind, as does the upcoming Oppo player.

You can only send 1080i over component for BD.

S~

SAZ,

Your best bet would be to run HDMI to your TV. You would also be better served audio wise to use the 5.1 multichannel inputs of the receiver over optical or coax in order to take advantage of the advanced audio codecs (TrueHD and Master Audio). These are unavailable over optical/coax. The most you will get is standard DD and DTS (although at a slightly higher bitrate than most SDDVDs). Get a BD player that decodes everything and has analog outputs such as the Panasonic BD80, Samsung 3600, Sony 550, etc.

S~

Nice move on Plasma monitor. I wish more displays were made as monitors only. Samsung has option for internal mute to completely turn off the audio system but I never use internal speakers so I wish I there were more displays with no speaker at all.

The audio in an HDMI stream is sent between frames in the blanking interval. If a device doesn't support audio it simply ignores it and looks for the start of the next video frame. That is why HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI. DVI spec has no standard for audio. No DVI sink will understand the audio signal. However a DVI display will simply ignore everything in the blanking interval. The blanking interval was used to give CRT based displays time to re-align electron gun. So it is backwards compatibility built on top of backwards compatibility.


Theoretically yes. However in most instances (not all) most people can't tell the difference between component & HDMI once they are both calibrated. Unless you have a specific reason to use component I would use HDMI.


Digital Audio can't carry full resolution of advanced codecs like TrueHD & DTS-HD.

If you AVR does not have analog input then digital (s/pdif) is your only option.

If you AVR does have analog input then your will want a player that has 5.1 or 7.1 analog outputs.

Ultimately if in the future you upgrade to an AVR w/ HDMI in out you can hook it up like BD Player -HDMI-> AVR -HDMI-> Plasma. If nothing else it is good for reducing cable clutter. 5 HDMI sources connected with audio & video connections using only 5+1 cables (5 to AVR, 1 to display). That is my wifes idea of AV nirvana.