I dont understand...

[manty]

I am confused and i am sure you guys will enlighten me

If you have a Home cinema amp. Why should you connect a S cable or similar from Sky or dvd to it, and then feed to the TV?

I obviously understand the sound side of things, but not the Video

My set up is quite old, and i have optical feeds for the sound, and either S or composite for the video but have never connected the Video, and its always seemed pretty good.

[dave_s13]

I think I understand the question???

Simply put, the AV receiver allows you to plug all your AV feeds into it and then you run ONE wire to the telly. It means you don't run out of inputs on your TV set. And the switching between sources is handled automatically, no manic pressing of several buttons on several remotes.

Some TV sets only have 2 HDMI inputs. You might have 3 or 4 bits of kit, hence you run out of places to plug them in.



Do I win?

[manty]

Yes, You do win !


And you did well to decipher my original question, which should have been more like........



I have connected my Sky using a HDMI cable and the DVD using component cables directly to the TV, and used the optical cables (sound) from both units to the back of my Av Amp.

What advantage would there be by running the HDMI and components to the amp, and then a cable from the amp to the TV


Cheers

[DeputyDawg]

No advantage, depends if you have more components (DVD, Blu ray etc) than inputs on your TV. In your case I would leave it as is and let the amp handle the audio.
Usually better to run cables direct from source to TV (pros and cons for both) but most modern amps have upscaling capabilities.

[dalos260]

Depending on the amp, you may actually find it gives an improved picture, particularly if it's up-converting from composite (if the amp does this).

Also, depending on the amp again, you can get TrueHD sound through the HDMI to the amp. This would be from a Bluray player though, Sky doesn't do TrueHD sound. In fact, if I have heard correctly, Sky doesn't transmit Dolby Digital through HDMI, so optical would actually be better for the sound from your Sky box.

[dave_s13]

dalos260 said:

Depending on the amp, you may actually find it gives an improved picture, particularly if it's up-converting from composite (if the amp does this).

Also, depending on the amp again, you can get TrueHD sound through the HDMI to the amp. This would be from a Bluray player though, Sky doesn't do TrueHD sound. In fact, if I have heard correctly, Sky doesn't transmit Dolby Digital through HDMI, so optical would actually be better for the sound from your Sky box.

This is 100% correct. Sky do not pass DD via HDMI, you need to use the optical output. Oh and you only get DD on the subscription movie/sport channels.