Not sure of this Receiver

[Yuop]

I am looking for a new AV/R and not sure if this one is HDMI video only or video and audio together? YAMAHA HTR-6150BL 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[MrBoylan]

I am looking for a new AV/R and not sure if this one is HDMI video only or video and audio together? YAMAHA HTR-6150BL 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, the HTR-6150BL supports audio over HDMI, but only multi-channel PCM, DTS and Dolby Digital. It does not decode the latest surround codecs, DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD. If you use a standard DVD player or if you buy a Blu-ray player with built-in audio decoders, then you'll be fine, but if you get a Blu-ray player that only supports bitstream output over HDMI (for DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD), then this is not the best choice.

Also, this Yamaha receiver does not upconvert analog sources to HDMI. The HDMI output only works for sources that are connected to the receiver with an HDMI cable.

Here's the receiver on amazon for about $325 with free shipping (your purchase supports BPBS).

Regards,

-Chris

[Yuop]

Thank you for the fast reply. Well ok then how about this receiver,Yamaha HTR-6160BL 7.1-Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver. I am just overwhelmed and confused about all the different sound modes these days lol.

[MrBoylan]

Thank you for the fast reply. Well ok then how about this receiver,Yamaha HTR-6160BL 7.1-Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver. I am just overwhelmed and confused about all the different sound modes these days lol.

Yup, that one supports all flavors of digital audio over HDMI as well as analog video upconversion over HDMI. The easiest way to tell that is that the product page on the Yamaha site lists Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as supported formats. The only way a receiver can support these formats directly is via an HDMI connection with on-board codecs.

With the HTR-6150 I had to dig a little deeper (the user manual actually) to find out that it does support multi-channel PCM over HDMI, but not the more advanced Dolby and DTS lossless codecs.

The 6160 is a better choice overall than the 6150 for use with Blu-ray players and with an assortment of analog and digital source components.

And here's the Amazon link:

• HTR-6160 home Theater receiver on Amazon.com.

It's actually the same price as the 6150 right now - $349.95 with free shipping (be sure to add it to your cart with the seller of Amazon.com on the right hand side of the page, not some marketplace seller like eTronics).

Amazon lists it as currently out of stock and shipping in 2-4 weeks but I've found this estimate to be fairly inaccurate in the past (the stuff usually ships sooner).

Regards,

-Chris