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Planning new Gaming/HT setup, advice?

556 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Worf, Jun 1, 2021

Xn0r

Discussion Starter · May 31, 2021

Hey,

I'm planning out upgrades to my existing Gaming/Home Theater setup. The features I want to simultaneously take advantage of are:

Dolby Vision/Atmos
- My room isn't suited for rear surround, so will be using front and/or rear height speakers
GSync/FreeSync/VRR on my gaming PC
- Should I connect the video card to the TV directly and use eARC to get Atmos, etc, back through the receiver?
  - This is the approach I'd settled on, since I figured going directly from video card to display would be best for latency and compatibility with Gsync/VRR. But I see that some new models/chipsets coming out might support connection through the receiver. What's best?
HDR on my LG OLED (will be upgraded to 2021 model soon)
- Obviously want to take advantage of the brightness and blacks of the OLED for HDR, but this is probably not going to be an issue with any of the new receivers as this is working nicely with my existing one
DIRAC or some equivalent "configure for room" system
- I've used Onkyo's Level Calibration system, which worked pretty well with some tweaking. This system is supposed to be better.
At least six HDMI inputs (five in a pinch)
Preferably under $2000, under $1000 even better

From reading some of the threads on here, I'm now aware (thankfully) of the issues with some of the first gen HDMI 2.1 video chips.

I had resigned myself to wait for the new Onkyo models (TX-NR6100 or 7100) to come out this fall, but not sure if there are decent/working receivers out now, or other brands I should wait for beyond the new Onkyos (not married to Onkyo)? But reading the threads, it appears that we're all basically in a wait state for the next gen chipsets at this point? Is this more or less true?

There are a bunch of brands out there that I wasn't aware of until recently (NAD, Anthem for instance). Although a few of the brands appear to be the same mfg with different brand names.

So any advice? Recommendations?

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Worf

· #2 · May 31, 2021

If you have a gaming PC, you don't have to worry about eARC. You can run an hdmi cable to your tv directly, then run another HDMI cable (either from an onboard graphics or via a DisplayPort adapter) to the receiver. This lets you avoid potential audio latency issues with eARC. You can use onboard graphics for this as it's a non demanding task.

As for the receiver itself, if you plan on more HDMI 2.1 devices like an xbox or ps5, then yes, you'd have to wait for the next chipsets. Else, you can buy a regular receiver on the market now, or wait for the fixed units to come put and decode to get a flawed used unit cheap, or a fixed unit new.

If you do not plan on HDMI 2.1 devices like an xbox or ps5, HDMI 2.0 is perfectly adequate as UHD players and streaming devices do not take advantage of HDMI 2.1 features - HDMI 2.1 is pretty much only for gaming. This opens up a huge avenue of used but good receivers, as well as buying cheap the flawed 2.1 receivers that people will get rid of.

If you do plan on it, then you have no option but to wait. And in this case you might want to wait a year or so to make sure the chips work and are relatively bug free and scope out the situation - not all ports will support HDMI 2.1 after all, and maybe the next generation, once again you might only have 1 port usable.

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Xn0r

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 31, 2021

Worf said:
If you have a gaming PC, you don't have to worry about eARC. You can run an hdmi cable to your tv directly, then run another HDMI cable (either from an onboard graphics or via a DisplayPort adapter) to the receiver. This lets you avoid potential audio latency issues with eARC. You can use onboard graphics for this as it's a non demanding task.

As for the receiver itself, if you plan on more HDMI 2.1 devices like an xbox or ps5, then yes, you'd have to wait for the next chipsets. Else, you can buy a regular receiver on the market now, or wait for the fixed units to come put and decode to get a flawed used unit cheap, or a fixed unit new.

If you do not plan on HDMI 2.1 devices like an xbox or ps5, HDMI 2.0 is perfectly adequate as UHD players and streaming devices do not take advantage of HDMI 2.1 features - HDMI 2.1 is pretty much only for gaming. This opens up a huge avenue of used but good receivers, as well as buying cheap the flawed 2.1 receivers that people will get rid of.

If you do plan on it, then you have no option but to wait. And in this case you might want to wait a year or so to make sure the chips work and are relatively bug free and scope out the situation - not all ports will support HDMI 2.1 after all, and maybe the next generation, once again you might only have 1 port usable.

Oh! I hadn't thought of simply running another cable just for sound. I've been waiting to upgrade my TV until new receivers come out, but if I do it this way, I wouldn't even have to. Great tip/idea!

My current mobo/chipset doesn't have onboard gfx. But my current 2080 card has two HDMIs (in use for monitors), and two DP connectors. Between those I should be able to get an HDMI to both the TV and the AV receiver. My AV receiver doesn't have a DP input, by my 2nd monitor does, so I could swap the HDMI it's using for DP, freeing the HDMI for a direct TV run.

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Worf

· #4 · Jun 1, 2021

Or use a display port to hdmi adapter. Though display port is better for monitors anyways.

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