hdmi confusion

[victor2]

hi guys,first post here.i was wondering if you guys could clear the air for me.i am swapping to a direct tv hd receiver to complement my sony sxrd.should i keep my component video and toslink audio cables or use the hdmi cable?

[Mr Peabody]

Keep your component and Toslink. Especially if you are running the Toslink to an HT receiver. It's been a while but last I learned of HDMI is it only is 2 channel. I understand the actual cable may be capable of 5.1 but nothing outputs 5.1 through HDMI, at least last year it didn't, things may have improved. Still I don't think the picture improvement would warrant the change. The only advantage to HDMI is it will deliver a video and audio signal in one cable. I think of it as the digital version of the RF connector that used to come with VCR's. In my opinion it's way over hyped, all about nothing. And the cable is very expensive.

Let me know if Direct claims their HDMI will do 5.1. Right from Sony, Toshiba and LG's mouth, when I checked last year they did not output 5.1 from the HDMI output of their DVD players.