Hey fellas,

My current display is a 65 inch Samsung HDTV, with DVI imputs. Just wondering, before I purchase both the 970 and a Toshiba HD DVD player - will these units be compatable? I assume I will need to purchase a HDMI to DVI cable for use with the new player. Just wondering if I will be able to receive all the benifits of HD by using this setup?

Thanks for helping a new guy out.
Jason

The 970 should pass the HD dvd signal with out any problems to the tv. Just utilize the Toshibas HDMI out and connect straight to the DVI input on the 970. Likewise lead out with the 970 DVI output to either the HDMI or DVI input on the Samsung tv.

You could go straight out of the HD dvd players HDMI output to the tv's input. It is probably a HDMI input but I don't know this for sure. In any event bypassing the 970 would eliminate the need for a second cable running from the 970 to the tv. However, you would be giving up the switching capability offered by the 970 if you choose to take this more direct route. This is just one of those personal preferences you will have to sort through.

I will say that I have connected my Toshiba up to the DVI inputs of both a sony LCD and JVC HDILA with no problems.

As for the audio I suggest hooking up the 6 channel external outputs of the Toshiba to the 6 channel external inputs on the 970. This will allow you to utilize a hi-rez LPCM transmission of Dolby Digital Plus found on all HD dvd's. If you choose Digital coax. or a fiber optic output for your audio you will not be able to use the Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack on the disc. The best you could hope for is DTS or standard Dolby Digital. Neither of these two options are capable of carrying Dolby Digital Plus. Actually the Toshiba will transcode a standard Dolby Digital signal to DTS automatically. Granted DTS and DD are good but they fall short compared to the external 6ch. LPCM Dolby Digital Plus sound track.

Also,if you do run the video through the 970 you will need the HDMI to DVI cables.

Hope this helps.

This is a common concern (and one reason that I wrote my HDMI FAQ recently). As E'pin points out, the audio from an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player can be connected to almost any existing surround receiver or processor using multichannel analog cables. That has been done to afford backward compatibility with the huge base of installed receivers and processors that lack HDMI 1.1 or higher inputs. A number of HD-DVD owners have also been using their players' SPDIF (coaxial or optical) outputs with great success: the HD-A1 and HD-AX1 both convert Dolby Digital Plus to full bitrate DTS on the fly.

If you happen to have two DVI or HDMI sources, you can use DVI-DVI and DVI-HDMI cables (such as these two ) to connect both sources to the 970 and the 970 to your display - the 970's switching will pass HDMI video without any trouble. If you only have the one HDMI source, you may find that running the HDMI cable straight to the display for video is just as easy.

Thanks for the detailed message guys. Does Outlaw stock these 6ch cables that I would need to pass the better audio?

Outlaw's PCA would do just fine. They offer three-packs of 0.5-meter, 1.2-meter, and 1.8-meter pairs that would get you the six cables you'd need.

What Gonk said. Get the PCA cables. I have not tried them myself but have heard nothing but good things about them here in several threads.

Link to all different discussions on interconnects

http://ubb.outlawaudio.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/forum/f/28.html

Note that when the Toshiba HD-DVD player is connected via HDMI<->DVI it senses this and sends a RGB signal that clips blacker-than-black and whiter-than-white video signals, but that when connected via HDMI<->HDMI it uses sRGB signals, preserving that information. The latest issue of "The Perfect Vision" has some good details about this.... and about how the earlier firmware versions on the Toshiba HD-DVD players were getting it "wrong" even in the HDMI<->HDMI connections.

So if your display has a HDMI input, bypass the 970's DVI switch.

So even if you have HDMI-to-DVI cables on both sides of the 970, the Toshiba will identify it as a DVI switch? Interesting...

I'm not sure. It would be an interesting test.

More info about the Toshiba in this regard is here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=714732