PC to A/V Receiver

arcobaleno

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Apr 30, 2015
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Dear Sir or Madam,
I would like to connect PC to A/C receiver, I plan to buy soon. Idea is to play movies/music on blue ray player/burner on PC, and connect it on A/V receiver via video card (nForce 700 series) with HDMI cable.
Is it possible to connect these devices this way? Do I loose fidelity of music when CD or BlueRay is played?
Which A/V receiver function allows this connection if possible anyway?
Most grateful for any answer or idea.
Best regrads.
B.B.
 
Solution


Nothing will make a regular signal from cable look like HD, you will need to get HD service if you want that. If you go cable box to receiver it will be only for routing the signal and selecting the source, not for video processing.
Yes, you can send the audio output to a receiver, are you going to pass the video as well through it since you want to use HDMI? If you are, make sure you get a receiver that works properly with HDMI inputs, some of them are only pass-through signals for switching inputs, not for playing the audio through them.

You won't lose any quality doing that.
 

arcobaleno

Estimable
Apr 30, 2015
5
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4,510
Hi again,
First off all, many thanks for this answer. It is very complicated to enter into these topics, really, there is a lot of information going around.
Yes, my plan is to use HDMI output from video card to ether listen music, or to watch movies.
What would be the question for people in hi-fi stores to ask to make sure A/V receiver is right for me, please? What feature A/V receiver should have to be able to play video and audio form PC? Is it the term upconversion?
I was reading article "What Does It Take To Turn The PC Into A Hi-Fi Audio Platform?", and is there a big difference between audio driver on audio card and video card with audio capabilities, please? I would like to use Foobar 2000 as well, and avoid Windows drivers, I mean, is that possible?
Or, am I wrong all the way?
Thanks a lot.
B.B.
 


Foobar 2000 is just an audio player, it does not replace any drivers.

Upconversion is just taking a lower sample rate of something and changing it to a hither sample rate, you probably see that for things like DVD players that "upconvert" DVD to HD resolution. It has nothing to do with a computer to receiver connection.

You will get as good of a quality by going though the video HDMI sound as through the sound card. There are exception but for normal use, there is no difference. If you will be using a $1,000 set of speakers with a $100+ sound card with a $500 receiver, then you may be able to tell the difference. With regular price stuff, it will be the same.

If you are going to be asking an audio store person this, just ask them the same thing you did here. Basically, the better the receiver is, the better it will work with different configurations. If you go to a dedicated audio shop you will likely find a more knowledgeable sales person that will be able to get you what you need without trying to sell you more than what you need. A good sales/tech person is a hit or miss thing though, you can go to a big store like BestBuy and get some kid that knows less than you, or find a guy with 15 years experience that builds his own amplifiers at home for a hobby LOL
 
Since you will be connecting to the AV receiver with HDMI that will allow you to use the digital to analog converters in the receiver for better fidelity. That means that the sound quality of the receiver will be important. There are brands such as Marantz or Cambridge that are more music quality oriented.
 

arcobaleno

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Apr 30, 2015
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4,510
Thanks to everyone who helped on this topic.
I would like to have option to do upconversion of cable TV signal to "near HD" quality. Is that possible? Do you have any specific suggestion for a/v receiver for this kind of video processing with some normal pricing, please?
 


Nothing will make a regular signal from cable look like HD, you will need to get HD service if you want that. If you go cable box to receiver it will be only for routing the signal and selecting the source, not for video processing.
 
Solution

arcobaleno

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Apr 30, 2015
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4,510
Many thanks. So same routing would happen with playing DVD? I mean, DVD signal will not be processed in a/v receiver to look like HD, in case receiver is capable of video processing?
 


Correct, the processing will happen in the DVD player if it has upconvertion but that is not exactly just making the signal HD. http://www.cnet.com/news/what-is-upconverting/

Seems if you get a BluRay player and play DVDs on that, you will get as good of a quality on an HD set as you can.
 

arcobaleno

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Apr 30, 2015
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4,510
Thanks a lot. That is good article. Now, I am starting to wrap my head around some video features on a/v receivers. I am trying to buy decent a/v receiver, but since I am not rich, I have to weight carefully features on a/v receivers.
So if I am going to connect a/v receiver to TV with HDMI and PC to a/v receiver (video card HDMI output), do I have to have specific input on a/v receiver for that (named like PC), or i can use any HDMI input, please?
And what feature a/v receiver has to have to be able to watch internet content i.e. You Tube, Ethernet input, WiFi?
Thanks a lot to all of you, for answering my questions. I spent so many hours trying to decipher various reviews and manufactures manuals to find answer on these questions.
Thanks again.
 


You don't need a special computer HDMI input on the receiver, any will work.

For watching internet content, that does not come from the receiver but the computer, media player box, DVD/Blue Ray player or your TV if they have apps for those things.