[Archived] RCA to HDMI/optical

[Iceman]

Having spoken to Biddy, I understand the whole surround setup etc. I was about to purchase an AV receiver, however received a very basic receiver with only RCA ports from my brother in law.

in fact, he also gave me 5 speakers and subwoofer. the amp is a 5 channel just so by the way.

so I have

HD TV with 3 HDMI ports

Bluray player

receiver and speakers

my setup now is:

HDMI from bluray player to TV for picture, RCA from bluray to receiver for audio.

question is, is there a converter, that would allow me to run RCA from receiver, to HDMI to TV or RCA to optical into bluray?

I want the best possible audio, any suggestions?

thanks

[Biddy]

No.

RCA = Analogue

HDMI = Digital

Optical = Digital

Thought you were going to buy a new Amp?

[Iceman]

i was going to, but then my brother in law gave me his. So would this only now act as 5.1 sound? Ive read of converters, that can can go from RCA to HDMI or optical.

i understand what you are saying Biddy, and i know the one is analogue and one is digital. Just thought i would check if there was another option, to get better sound through the speakers

[Biddy]

A converter cable cannot work unless it's got a DAC (Digital to Analogue Convertor) built in. The scams that sell the cables on ebay state that the "receiver must be able to convert the digital/analogue input". People think that it must be able to do this but its nonsense as an Amplifier will only be expecting a digital signal on HDMI and will only be expecting an analogue signal on RCA.

There are separate convertor boxes (hardware based) I have seen but these seem to be in the £100 range so you might at well put that towards an AMP.

The ONLY way to get better sound out of your blu-ray player would be to have an Amp that takes either HDMI or optical inputs as you don't have 5 audio discreet outputs on the blu-ray player.

Does the Amp you've inherited not have an optical input?

[Iceman]

I ,think it does have an optical. although some say, that RCA at times seem a better option than even optical. not sure why they would say that though.