Yamaha RX-V1600 vs Onkyo TX-SR605

[csukasem]

I am using Yamaha RX-V1600 and quite satisfied with its performance.

I just bought PS3 to play blu ray discs and, wow, it's awesome both video and audio.

What if I change the reciever to be Onkyo TX-SR605:

1. I think the audio should be a lot better for blu ray, right ?
2. Will I lose anything in audio if I watch standard DVDs ?

Thanks for your opinions.

[L.J.]

Oops forget my last post. The 1600 has HDMI inputs and accepts MC PCM via HDMI right. If so, then your fine. I'm assuming the 1600 is HDMI v1.1 and that's all you need. The 1.3 in the Onkyo isn't needed since the PS3 is doing all the decoding.

Are you using a HDMI connection from your 1600?

[csukasem]

Oops forget my last post. The 1600 has HDMI inputs and accepts MC PCM via HDMI right. If so, then your fine. I'm assuming the 1600 is HDMI v1.1 and that's all you need. The 1.3 in the Onkyo isn't needed since the PS3 is doing all the decoding.

Are you using a HDMI connection from your 1600?

I am using HDMI for picture, direct to my Panasonic 50" plasma and using optical cable from PS3 to Yamaha for audio.

[L.J.]

I am using HDMI for picture, direct to my Panasonic 50" plasma and using optical cable from PS3 to Yamaha for audio.

To enjoy the HD audio (mcpcm, TrueHD) you need to run a HDMI cable from your PS3 to the 1600 and then another HDMI cable from the 1600 out to your display.

Using the optical cable gives you a higher bitrate, with most BR, but it's not lossless.

Going with the Onkyo will add no benefits. HDMI 1.3 is pretty useless right now.

[csukasem]

I think my 1600 is only 480p. So will using HDMI, to achieve lossless performance, give me worse picture ?

[L.J.]

I think my 1600 is only 480p. So will using HDMI, to achieve lossless performance, give me worse picture ?

Well I did a little bit of reading and although the Yammie is HDMI v1.1 it doesn't support 1080p passthrough. The max resolution it will accept via HDMI is 1080i. You would have to set your PS3 output to 1080i if you ran video through the Yammie.

The 480p means that your Yammie can take 480i analog video signals and scale them to 480p.

Edit: You already have your PS3 connected to your display. Try going back and forth and see if you can see a difference between 1080i/1080p. If I'm not mistaken, even if you feed your display a 1080i source, it will scale it to 1080p anyways. Not sure how much degration this causes, if any.