HT Electronics connectivity

Okay so I have been out of the industry for a while. I got out of commercial sales of electronics just as HDMI and DVI were coming onto the scene.

Rcently I have collected a few components that have HDMI connectivity. Namely a television a STB, and a DVD recorder. However, my A/V controller does NOT have HDMI connectivity (pass through or otherwise).

Knowing that HDMI carries both audio and video I am wondering if it is possible to connect via HDMI as the video only link and use the optical outs for audio.

Does anyone have experience with a number of component that offer HDMI?

Do the optical outs (on most components) still function when HDMI is connected?

( I know I will find out once I start connecting the equipment it's just that I am planning out the cabling needs for my components and don;t want to bother with HDMI cables if the optical feeds shut off with the HDMI circuits on)

GilaMinumBeer said:

Knowing that HDMI carries both audio and video I am wondering if it is possible to connect via HDMI as the video only link and use the optical outs for audio.

Click to expand...

I have a Panasonic front projector with HDMI input for video and an Awia tuner with optical audio input both hooked to my HD Motorola cable box. Works great!

The HDMI cable makes a big difference in video quality, even over component.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Do the optical outs (on most components) still function when HDMI is connected?

Click to expand...

I have the optical audio hooked up to the tuner and the RCA audio hooked to a standard TV on my cable box. Both will actually work at the same time.

AnOldUR said:

I have a Panasonic front projector with HDMI input for video and an Awia tuner with optical audio input both hooked to my HD Motorola cable box. Works great!

The HDMI cable makes a big difference in video quality, even over component.

Click to expand...

Thanks. that is the response I was hoping for.

I do really want to skip the A-D / D-A conversions where I can but was afraid that the need to daisy chain would prohibit the seprate optical path from functioning and I really don't care to use the 2 channel outs on the TV for the Audio path (since that is the end of the signal path for video).