[ChrisTaco]

Let me give an idea of my current setup.


Samsung PN50B650

Denon DHT-485XP HTiB (1 dig coax in, 1 dig optical in)

Xbox 360

Custom HTPC

DirecTV HD DVR

(everything networked together)


Right now I have the DirecTV HD-DVR using the digital coax in on my receiver. My Xbox 360 is using the digital optical in on my receiver. I tried using the 360 as an M$ media center extender, but due to the banhammer, I'm having a tad bit of problems with that. lol. I think it sucks anyway due to it's lack of formats it can/can't handle.


I'd rather just have my HTPC connected to the tv directly using a displayport to HDMI adapter. At which I'm going to buy a new sound card since my MB doesn't have a SPDIF out. The problem is, I'm out of digital inputs on the back of my receiver.


What is my best option to have 3 units connected to my 2 digital input receiver? Preferably low cost as well. I'd LIKE something that'll change between the sources automatically without me having to get up and throw a switch. I'm not sure I can use a Y adapter to combine the 2 digital coax sources into the 1 input at the back of the receiver. So if someone can clarify that, it might just answer the thought I've had in my head.

 

[JChin]

If the Xbox, HTPC and Direct TV has HDMI then you can use something like a 4X1 HDMI Switcher with Toslink & Digital Coaxial port from Monoprice .

 

[ChrisTaco]

That still technically won't work.


The 360 doesn't have HDMI, relegating me to only use the optical input on the receiver for my audio.


The HTPC is using a Radeon 3470 card to offload video decoding, and has only dual displayport out on the card. I sourced it off a Dell system, hence why it doesn't have the standard DVI/VGA/S-Video connections of most 3rd party cards. Since displayport doesn't carry audio like HDMI, this relegates me to using SPDIF out to connect to my receiver.


Not sure if this matters, but with the HTPC, I'm using it only to watch movies and shows, I'm not recording any TV, so there's no TV card in the PC.


So you can see my predicament. Only thing I had thought was to buy a Y-adapter for the digital coax, and have my 2 sources (HTPC and Satellite receiver), connect to the Y, at which I'll have a two into one. Thing is, it should work theoretically, but I don't know if that will mess w/ the preamp stage, or something else that might not have crossed my mind.