Kodi Community Forum

Hey Everyone,

I just bought my first PC which I plan to use as a HTPC to run XBMC on. I'll be hooking it up via HDMI to my Plasma, but I'm not sure how to hook up the audio from the computer to my Onkyo receiver.

I know in some cases HDMI can do both video and audio, but just curious how to go about this. My PC has HDMI output on it and so does the TV. Any ideas or if anyone can point me in the right direction.

In all but a few rare cases, HDMI passes audio as well as video, that's why it's High Definition Multimedia Interface. You should be able to pass the audio from your HTPC to your TV over the HDMI connection. You may have to do some investigation to determine what setting will effectively allow this based on the chipset of your PC.

You're saying your TV has HDMI out? You may want to check that, most TVs don't do HDMI out, just in. What it probably does have is optical out via a TOSLink connection.

Does your Onkyo have HDMI out to your TV? If you want the best format support, you're probably going to want to go in the following direction:

This way, your receiver handles all the audio responsibility and passes the video to your Television.

You can also do the following, but you may lose some audio capability. My TV (LG LCD) does not support DTS audio passthrough, so I lose any sort of DTS sound when running in the following:

My receiver (AVR) does not support standby passthrough. So if I connect the HTPC to the AVR directly, I need to have the AVR on if I want to use the HTPC, so the bottom scenario allows me to use my HTPC without the AVR being on. The downside is, I lose DTS audio and have to downmix to stereo if that's the only audio format available.

Hey Pumkinut,

Thanks for the help. I'm pretty new to all of this stuff so forgive me for any errors I make in describing my setup. I'm still trying to learn about all of this stuff. When I said my Plasma has HDMI out I just meant it has a HDMI port. My bad

My plasma does have a TOSlink connection.

My current setup I have is my Plasma TV has HDMI and A TOSlink going to the receiver.

Now that you said HDMI handles sound I'm curious as to why I've been told to hook up my TV to the receiver using both HDMI and the TOSlink? I also don't use the speakers on my tv at all. I have all my tv audio sent to the receiver.

Okay, so your saying I can just plug my computer into the receiver using HDMI then correct? That way the receiver can switch from my different devices including the PC. Do i have that correct? The TV will handle the image and the receiver the sound?

I have no clue if my TV or receiver support the passthrough thing you mentioned. Thanks for the help.

You need to have the TOSLink from your HDTV to the receiver for getting audio from the TV to the receiver. Unless your TV and your receiver are ARC (Audio Return Channel) capable, there's no way to get audio from your TV to the AVR.

Without ARC, audio is only one way. Your receiver has HDMI out, and your TV has HDMI in.

Quote:Okay, so your saying I can just plug my computer into the receiver using HDMI then correct? That way the receiver can switch from my different devices including the PC. Do i have that correct? The TV will handle the image and the receiver the sound?

Yes, the receiver will take all the HDMI inputs and allow switching between them and pass the video out to your TV via HDMI.

If, for some reason, you have any audio coming from your TV, that will traverse the TOSLink to the receiver.

For media from a server via pc, run a hdmi cable from pc video card to back of your receiver, then another hdmi cable from back of receiver to the tv's hdmi input.

hdmi carries both pure hd audio and video
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Please note you need a hdmi connector of the back of your video card in the computer, a receiver that's cable of hdmi switching and a hdmi input on the back of your tv.

If you intend to show multiple sources up on your screen then your receiver is going to need the required number of hdmi ports on it.

for example if you have a pc (media from a server), a tv, a xbox, a bluray player, each device gets connected to the back of the receiver using one hdmi cable, then just one hdmi cable from receiver to tv hdmi input

You switch the sources via the receiver, the tv just acts as a dumb screen, you need to tell it what source you are going to be providing it.

hope something helps.

Thanks Pumkinut. Exactly what I needed.

tcman47 Wrote:For media from a server via pc, run a hdmi cable from pc video card to back of your receiver, then another hdmi cable from back of receiver to the tv's hdmi input.

hdmi carries both pure hd audio and video
-------------------------------------------------------

Please note you need a hdmi connector of the back of your video card in the computer, a receiver that's cable of hdmi switching and a hdmi input on the back of your tv.

If you intend to show multiple sources up on your screen then your receiver is going to need the required number of hdmi ports on it.

for example if you have a pc (media from a server), a tv, a xbox, a bluray player, each device gets connected to the back of the receiver using one hdmi cable, then just one hdmi cable from receiver to tv hdmi input

You switch the sources via the receiver, the tv just acts as a dumb screen, you need to tell it what source you are going to be providing it.

hope something helps.

As always TCman47 your answer saves the day. Your post just helped me clarify a few other things I was thinking about. Thanks.

Josh