Using my RCA Brand reciver for my new PC + HDTV configuration for HDMI?

[internalmemory]

Okay, well I didn't know exactly how to word the title but essentially how would it be possible to plug in my gaming PC tower to my receiver, and also my TV?

Currently I have the Xbox doing this and it's connected to both at the same time; HDMI to the TV and Fiber Optics to the receiver.

My Receiver is a RCA 1000W home theater receiver and it has 3 HDMI inputs (BD, SATA/Cable, and DVD), and it has 1 HDMI output also but I've heard running visuals through a receiver will lower the visual quality drastically.

This made me think of an alternative, and since I'm real iffy of even plugging any computer into my receiver since when I try it with my laptop it never works, no audio or video goes from the laptop to the receiver regardless what program and setting I have it on when all of my devices are set up for the playback. So then I thought of plugging my PC through HDMI to the HDTV which is a Sanyo 1080p 40", but it has 2 HDMI ports on the back and I'm pretty sure they're both inputs and zero outputs.

What is the cheapest, yet easiest way of making it possible to game on a PC using HDTV (+ tv speakers), along with my 5.1 home theater?

 

[ssddx]

just plug the hdmi out of your video card into the hdmi input on the receiver. the audio will be offloaded and then have the video just passthrough to the tv via the receiver output.

while my equipment is a few years old now i have a $1400 sound system, a $1500 television and my gaming computer hooked up in this manner. although... instead of hdmi out i use dvi since my older video card only has a micro-hdmi port and i dont have a cable for that.

picture is PERFECT, sound is PERFECT, and its a very clean easy setup. not sure who told you about a receiver lowering the quality. perhaps if you have some junky aftereffects or post processing being done (disable them if you do).

you can see my signature link if you wanted to see a photo (but it really doesnt matter..)

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you could use optical out... however quality isnt as good as it will be over hdmi. optical only supports compressed 5.1 while hdmi supports uncompressed.

 

[internalmemory]

Which HDMI input should I use? When trying to use them last night, I tried every input and none of them worked with my laptop - although granted I didn't plug my receiver to the TV so I didn't have anything going to the TV - I was just trying to test audio from my laptop to the receiver.

After trying that for an hour I tried to do some research and apparently most programs and files won't ever even attempt to go through the HDMI, for instance it seems that MP3's don't work through HDMI or that Winamp doesn't work through HDMI, so then I tried VLC and even with VLC's playback set to send audio through my HDMI device, no sound went through any of my speakers.

I had HDMI on my devices set for use, and VLC set for playback, but still no signal was going through... So now I'm under the impression that PC audio to the receiver, regardless the program or circumstance might not work. I just don't know if my receiver is designed for it, it's a relatively cheapo receiver as it's 1000W, but it's only around 200 dollars, and it supports full 1080p according to the box, with Digital Dolby DTS.

My TV was around 350 dollars on Black Friday, so nothing super special with that and that was around 2 years ago, bought my home theater around 1 year ago.

My Receiver is:
http/www.amazon.com/RCA-RT2911-1000-Watt-Theater-System/dp/B008658FRG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1400531372&sr=8-2&keywords=RCA+home+theater

My GPU is:
http/www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-Graphics-03G-P4-2888-KR/dp/B00H9ZRCBO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1400531491&sr=8-2&keywords=evga+gtx+780+ti

And my TV is something similar to this but not exact (I tried to get it as close as I could seeing as I don't know the exact model number of my TV):
http/www.amazon.com/SANYO-Class-LED-LCD-Digital-FVE3923/dp/B00ICWNM9O/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1400531550&sr=8-6&keywords=sanyo+1080p+40%22+hdtv

 

[ssddx]

my parents use their laptop hooked up to a cheapo $200 receiver via hdmi all the time for netflix, youtube and dvds.

my own desktop system is hooked up to a receiver. itunes, wmp, movies, youtube, games... ANY audio and ANY programs i've used so far work perfect.

now granted your HTIB set is rather low end... as long as it supports surround input over hdmi you should be fine.

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now... normally i would personally suggest routing both audio and video to your receiver via hdmi then using passthrough on the receiver which pushes the video through the hdmi out on the back. this provides the best sound output and outputs video to your tv.

to get sound you will ned to make sure your default audio device is set to be hdmi (normally the receiver shows up listed). you can access playback devices by right clicking the volume icon. under configure make sure its set to 5.1 and run a speaker test.

an alternate way of hookup is to ignore video passthrough and instead just run a digital optical cable (spdif optical) or digital coax cable (looks like a single rca cable port with an orange ring) from pc to receiver. sound quality isnt quite what hdmi would be (surround sound is compressed to send over optical while its uncompressed over hdmi) but on such a cheap set you might not ever notice.

to get sound this way you would need to make optical out your default audio device.

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i would suggest trying to use a program other than VLC. i've heard of some definite issues with it in a few previous threads where audio didnt work for movies. try testing with windows media player.

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as for your laptop... setting the default audio device should fix the issue... however do try using projector modes as well.

remember... sometimes getting the hdmi handshake can be a pain. some devices absolutely refuse to work together if they arent turned on a certain order (probably because of whatever they set the delay to for the unit to stop checking for a hdmi input signal... so it just gives up trying too fast)

normally i turn on the tv and receiver first then the source. as an alternative you could turn on and off the receiver or tv while your source is on and that may work (or just swap the input on your receiver back and forth).

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if hdmi absolutely refuses to work... optical should work fine and should be your next course of action.

 

[internalmemory]

Alrighty, this is just speaking for my laptop - granted my Gaming PC (which isn't finished yet) could be a completely different situation, and I'm not planning on using a traditional monitor with it at all I just want to use my TV with it since I don't have a computer desk and I prefer comfortable lounging when I game anymore.

But when I set up my sound device to Nvidia High Definition HDMI it switches to that yes, and in configuration is doesn't have 5.1 it only has Stereo, or like 2-speaker stereo. When I test it, no sound goes through whatsoever and none of the speakers get the test feedback or beeps.

Sadly my laptop doesn't have any other audio outs except for the traditional headphones jack. (My laptop is an HP G60 from around 2009).

I've also tried using WMP, despite how much I hate the program because it uses resources like no other and it barely supports any formats without downloading and installing dozens of codecs - well... That was basically my problem, WMP didn't support any of the files I had as for movies - I didn't try music but most of my music is 320kb MP3's and most of my movies are MP4's and I don't have my music library set up with WMP.

How can I tell if my receiver supports Surround-In? Also - what does "Line-In" mean, when I press on my remote it says "Game/Line-In" where I can change from Game/Opt (I have optical from my Xbox right now), and I press the button again and it just says "Line-In" - what is that?

 

[ssddx]

are you sure that you have your receiver set to the correct input? this would be whatever port you have the pc plugged into.

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also you listed only the headphone jack on the laptop for audio (but yet you say you have a hdmi? hdmi supports audio). if you wanted to use optical you would need a usb soundcard which supported optical (but hdmi should work).

i also note that it doesnt seem like you tried using projector/display modes (the fn+f5 keys normally). this is how i always connect when using video passthrough on a receiver.

the goal is to at least get audio AND video from the laptop. once you at least get *somthing* we can work with it from there.

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as for your gaming tower, typically hdmi is how i would suggest hooking up.

 

[internalmemory]

Okay, I'll have to start working on it further later tonight after I finish my paper for school.

And I meant audio other than HDMI and I wouldn't consider HDMI as an audio output since it doesn't seem to grab all audio according to many forums, it only grabs specific audio depending if you have a filter for it - other than that HDMI is more of a hybrid of audio+video but not a dedicated solution to either individually.

But I never thought about the keys for it, I'll try that later, and turning on the devices the way you suggested. I've also recently downloaded and installed AC3Filter, I've had it before in the past but I never found a use for it so I uninstalled it.

 

[ssddx]

"since it doesnt seem to grab all audio"

thats odd since i've been using nothing but hdmi for a good 4 years now and i've never had an issue. not once.

i've never had to go out of my way to specify filters for it. the only thing i needed to do was set my windows to output 5.1 and i changed the quality level to max.

hdmi is a combination audio/video solution however it can be used for audio only if need be.