A Crippling Assumption

True or False?

An HDMI input on your receiver or processor means you can receive digital audio signals along with your digital video signals.

Answer: True. HDMI allows your HDMI equipped video player (DVD, HD-DVD or BluRay) to send a digital audio signal to your receiver or processor along with the digital video, thus eliminating one connection.

Answer: False. If your video player offers a digital video output, but it is of the older DVI style, the player can only sends digital video to your receiver on that cable. Don't throw away that optical or coaxial digital cable connection just yet.

Answer: True. Your receiver has an HDMI input and it is sitting there expecting the digital audio signal to be piped along with the digital video signal. Unfortunately . . . .

Answer: False. Your DVI equipped player forces you to buy a special cable with HDMI on one end and DVI on the other end. And that works great because. . . .

Answer. True. You have a picture, but . . . .

Answer: False. You have no sound.

Answer: True. You can hook up your digital coaxial or optical connection to overcome this limitation, but. . . .

Answer: False. Your receiver sees HDMI and its eyes light up. Efforts to force it to take audio via a standard digital audio input fail.

Answer: Maybe. You're doomed to component video and old school digital audio. Still, life ain't so bad.

Hey! Where's my downloadable software fix?

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