[Lee Batchelor]

Hi everyone,

I have a Bell Fibe service feeding my home theater TV section. I had a service guy in from Bell about a month ago on an unrelated issue. He was a real home theater enthusiast and stuck around to hear my system. One thing he noticed was my signal path wiring. My existing setup is as follows:

• Bell Fibe feed (via CAT 6 cable) > Bell PVR > Denon receiver (via HDMI) > Samsung 75” QLED

He said that’s not the optimal way to wire the system because my Denon receiver is about 20 years old and doesn’t support 4K. He suggested the following:

• Bell Fibe feed (via CAT 6 cable) > Samsung 75” QLED > Bell PVR > Denon receiver

Does this make sense? Is there a flaw in this idea? The Denon receiver has limited HDMI capacity. I know the newer ones have several HDMI ports. Many thanks!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I wasn’t aware that they were putting RJ45 connections on TVs now.

I guess it doesn’t hurt to try it his way. His suggestion would have merit if Bell provides a lot of 4k content that you regularly watch. But, check the audio output to make sure you are getting 5.1 to the Denon. It should have an indicator showing it does, when the signal is present.

Regards,
Wayne

 

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi Wayne and thanks. Yes, the current setup is showing all 5.1 speakers are active. I mainly record shows of interest on Bell TV, and then watch Netflix or Amazon Prime shows for much of my main viewing. The latter tends to be grainy compared to Netflix.

As for 4K content, I'm not sure if I'm getting a lot of those feeds. Plus, Bell Fibe is getting crazy on their pricing but that's another topic 😀.

 

[Lee Batchelor]

Wayne, I checked the back of my TV and there is a port labeled LAN. I assume that's the same as the RJ45 you mentioned?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Yes.,

Regards,
Wayne

 

[Lee Batchelor]

Okay, thanks!

 

[Da Wiz]

His way won't work unless your old AVR supports ARC (audio return channel). And if you do have ARC in your AVR, it will be limited to low-bandwidth Dolby or DTS for the least sound quality. You'll never get TrueHD, or Atmos or DTS:X or DTS HD MA. He is right about never getting UHD/4K video through your old AVR. It's really time to get a more modern AVR, preferrably one that has Auro-2D/Auro-3D which sounds better than anything Dolby or DTS have. In fact, Dolby is trying to "kill" Auro-3D by hiring away key employees from Auro and by jiggering Dolby-encoded discs so they could not be processed with Auro-2D or Auro-3D. Auro took Dolby to court and won, forcing Dolby to stop blocking Auro processing of Dolby soundtracks. Why Dolby doesn't just make Dolby Surround work better is a huge mystery. Also, if you are going to add height speakers, use the Auro-3D recommended locations for height speakers... it works the best for ALL immersive soundtracks while Atmos speaker arrangements with speakers that fire straight down from the ceiling sounds the WORST of any immersive speaker layout system.

 

[Lee Batchelor]

Great info, Da Wiz. Thanks. You're 100 percent right about my AVR. It's an excellent Denon receiver but very dated. I have thought of upgrading. Someone out there would likely buy my old one or I could just give to my kids.

Thanks again!

 

[Da Wiz]

I forgot to mention... newer receivers support eARC for "enhanced Audio Return Channel" that will pass ANY audio signal "backwards" to the receiver. But if you do get a newer receiver with up-to-date features, you won't need eARC even though you have it in the new AVR. Auro-2D/3D is what you want to look for in a new Denon or Marantz AVR (may be other brands supporting it also, but I'm not certain about WHICH brands).

 

[Lee Batchelor]

Thanks. Now you got me thinking about a new AVR. I'm going to look over other makes as well. The Denons tend to be pretty pricy. Up to $3,000 last time I looked .

 

[Da Wiz]

This is the least expensive model I see that has Auro-3D. If you want more than 9 speaker channels, you would need an outboard amplifier to power 2 more or 3 more channels. This model has some future-proof features like support for 8K video source passthrough. Dolby Vision is all over Blu-ray discs and streaming services, so that's useful to have also. Support for 120 Hz refresh rates is another future-proof feature. This listing is from the US Denon website. It MAY be possible to find this model for sale elsewhere for an even lower price.

 

[Lee Batchelor]

Wow thanks for researching that, Da Wiz! That's temping. I'm in Canada, close to Toronto. I'll see what I can find.

 

[Da Wiz]

Prices in Canada are higher and the markdown for the reduced price is not as good as the US markdown... from Denon Canada web site... this is the same model receiver with Auro-3D

 

[Lee Batchelor]

I kind of figured that. I'd also pay 13% tax, which brings the total to about $3,000 .
Not sure I can get that past the Secretary of War .