What is HDMI Pass-Through?I see on new receivers of home system.?

Question

What is HDMI Pass-Through?I see on new receivers of home system.?

Answer 1

HDMI Pass-Through on receivers and such is just that. If you hook up a receiver to a TV via a hdmi cable then only devices connected to the receiver with hdmi will be broad casted Thur the hdmi cable to the TV. If you have the same set but with a device that is component or composite hook ups to the receiver but have only the hdmi hooked up to the TV, it will not show up on the TV. You can now get receivers that have the ability to up convert to hdmi. With this set up you can hook up just one cable (the hdmi) to your TV and the receiver up converts anything from composite on up to hdmi.  

As for the sound, if the source you pass thru the cable is 100% digital, like Blue-Ray players, then you'll get sound. Even though cable and satalite say they are broadcasting HD, they are not sending everything in HD.

Answer 2

The receiver has 1 or more HDMI inputs that you can hook your HD equipment to, such as cable/satellite, Blu-ray/HD DVD, PS3 and then it has an HDMI out that goes to the TV. The advantages are less cables going to your TV, being able to switch your components through your receiver and being able to use HDMI cables for more than one device if your TV only has one HDMI input. Generally HDMI pass-through does not process the sound though, so you have to run another cable for sound.