What do I do with my HDMI out on my receiver?

Question

So I am buying a receiver that has an HDMI AV connection. The back of the receiver has a slot for the HDMI cable and says HDMI out, do I plug that into my television? Sorry, I am new to HDMI...

Answer 1

only if you are using your receiver to pass video.  ie.. hooking cable box to receiver and then out to tv.

Answer 2

Simple answer -- yes -- but to give a bit of an overview:

Receivers act as switching devices. You connect source devices (like a DVD player, cablebox, satellite receiver or VCR) to the "in" ports and display devices (like a TV, HDTV, projector) to the "out" ports. The receiver input selector then switches between inputs and sends the video from the selected input to the output video device and the audio is amplified and sent to the speakers connected to the receiver. That way the TV is left on one input setting and the receiver is used to select sources that are heard from the speakers and seen on the display (if appropriate. e.g. a CD doesn't have video, while a DVD does).

There are usually several types of inputs that can be used for most sources, in some cases all are live simultaneously, while in others the input type must be selected via a menu available in the receiver (This explains why sometimes cables are connected but no signal is heard).

If the receiver simply "passes through" the signal you can only get output from the same type of input (e.g. HDMI out will only connect to the HDMI "in" ports (e.g. it won't take a signal from a composite (yellow RCA jack) or component video (red/blue/green RCA jacks) input and output on HDMI).  Some receivers "transcode" inputs to different types of outputs. In this case, for example, a composite or component input signal would be available on the HDMI output.

Finally, HDMI can carry both video and audio, but not all HDMI outputs pass both. This can be an issue on, for example, a satellite receiver (since you would need an additional connector to get audio to the receiver). The HDMI output from a receiver however is usually only required to connect video to a display (e.g. HDTV or projector) since the audio is processed by the receiver and output to the speakers connected to the receiver (not the speakers in the TV).

Maybe more than you wanted ... but hopefully useful.

Answer 3

Yes you plug your tv into the one that says out.