Looking to upgrade to a 4K Bluray: Bluray -> Amp -> TV, or Bluray -> TV -> Amp?

[NeilF]

I have an LG OLED E7 TV, and an Onkyo 646 (with a 5.1 speaker setup).

I currently have a regular 1080p Bluray player which I'm looking to upgrade to a 4K player.

I'm wondering if someone can suggest the best means of connecting it, and any issues/limitations I might encounter with audio such as Dolby Atmos.

So the two options seem to be:-

Bluray player --HDMI--> Amp --HDMI--> TV
or
Bluray player --HDMI--> TV --HDMI ARC--> Amp​

The latter is obviously the more straight forwards, has less risk of the Onkyo messing around with the video (eg: I don't think it supports Dolby Vision?), and indeed this is the setup I currenty use for all my Netflix, Amazon Prime and Plex viewing (ie: TV --HDMI ARC--> Amp). ie: Just watch the stuff on the TV, and pipe the sound over ARC to the amp.

Anyone able to clear up any issues/limitations with either of the two wiring options given the bells and whistles of HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos etc etc etc available with a 4K Bluray player?

Thanks!

 

[pugheaven]

What you would want is: Bluray player --HDMI--> Amp (ARC Monitor IN/OUT) --HDMI--> TV (ARC OUT)

That is how you should be connecting especially if it is ARC 1 as that won't transmit High Def Sound from your AMP, only Dolby Digital/Plus/Atmos but it'll all be lower quality (which is fine for most people)...

... if you're going down this route, you would usually run you're AMP as the hub. However, in certain cases i.e. where you have say Netflix for example only on your TV and you don't have it on the bluray, you would use ARC then to ensure that the TV then pumps sound through to the amp and out instead of TV speakers...

I personally have everything input into the AMP, then ARC the amp to the TV, this way, the AMP gives you all the bootylicisous HD TrueHD/DTSHD sound etc for the inputs into the AMP i.e. Bluray, 4k Player, HD-DVD etc, BUT then when you switch to the TV (with ARC out enabled), this will pump the sound from say netflix, Amazon etc etc from the TV to the Amp (Only at Dobly Digital Plus/Atmos maximum though as you don't get high def sound from streaming services).

EDIT: Sorry just realised, you have a DV TV, then if thats' the case, yes option 1 is the better as if you're amp doesn't support DV you'll lose it between the amp and the TV... so apologies... yes, Option 2 for your setup is the one to go for, however, just be aware that I don't believe you'll get TrueHD and DTSHD and all the high def sound etc going through to the amp, ARC1 is only for normal lower bit rates on sound. For high def soudn you'd need eARC

 

[lucid]

Get a UHD 4K Blu-ray player with dual HDMI out for exactly this reason.

HDMI 1 (picture only) output goes directly to the TV for full beans Dolbyvision goodness.

HDMI 2 (audio only) goes directly to the amp for full HD audio with ATMOS (if the amp supports it) and no problem if the amp doesn't support DV.

Job sorted.

 

[NeilF]

Get a UHD 4K Blu-ray player with dual HDMI out for exactly this reason.

HDMI 1 (picture only) output goes directly to the TV for full beans Dolbyvision goodness.

HDMI 2 (audio only) goes directly to the amp for full HD audio with ATMOS (if the amp supports it) and no problem if the amp doesn't support DV.

Job sorted.

Thanks...

Yes, the Onkyo 646 supports Atmos and DTS:X (bearing in mind I have 5.1) - https://www.whathifi.com/news/onkyo-tx-nr646-and-747-amps-feature-dolby-atmos-and-dtsx

And you recon that I'd notice an audio difference with the 'sexy audio' going straight to the Amp, rather than via TV--ARC-->AMP?

Reason being is the dual HDMI units cost significantly more than the basic single HDMI ones

 

[lucid]

And you recon that I'd notice an audio difference with the 'sexy audio' going straight to the Amp, rather than via TV--ARC-->AMP?

Oh hell yes. The amp is certainly capable of letting you hear the difference between lossy audio in DD/DTS and lossless Dolby True HD/DTS-HD Master Audio. This is before factoring in the benefit of ATMOS when you're ready to upgrade.

If your Onkyo had eARC (and the TV too, of course) then I would agree with @pugheaven in going TV then amp. You see, it wouldn't matter for sound which way you connect because eARC has the capability to carry HD audio with ATMOS.

The thing is that your amp has the standard ARC connection and not the later eARC version.

Once again, @pugheaven is bang on when he says that its a bottleneck for sound. It 'dumbs down' the audio to either basic 5.1 DD (DVD audio quality) or possibly DTS. Whether the TV supports DTS at all, or in just 2 channel stereo mode or DTS 5.1 will be given in the manual. Very few TVs do pass DVD-quality DTS 5.1 , and even if they do, it's still not the HD audio version of DTS that about half your Blu-rays probably carry.

II you're feeding the amp audio after it has passed through the TV then you're hobbling the performance back two decades or more. Did you really pay all that money for your Onkyo only to throw away so much of what the amp can do?

 

[NeilF]

So question - With a dual output bluray player setup as follows:-

• Bluray --HDMI--> TV
  
• Bluray --HDMI--> Amp

Does the audio get sent to both the TV and Amp? ie: For simple viewing, can I just leave the amp off, and turn the TV on, and get TV audio from the bluray player?

And then if I turn the Amp on, will I than have to fiddle with the TV volume (to turn it off), so as to only hear the sexy audio from the amp? Or does it then not send audio to the TV automatically?