A/v home cinema, xbox, 4k people.. help needed.

skunkwerx

In a position where I could possibly pick up an xbox one X for the same price as an xbox one S.. however I’m not sure either will actually work with my current set up, which is just standard 1080p hd. 


Basically from my limited understanding the xbox one x and s are 4k gaming machines. I can’t afford to upgrade my tv and receiver and also my xbox in one hit, so I figured on getting the xbox first as its a limited time offer. 

My current xbox is the old/first release of the xbox one, so its just standard 1080p hd/plays blu rays too. I’m actually trouble shooting it today and tomorrow as either the console is fucked, or my internet is because online the gaming isnt smooth, its almost like it stutters if that makes sense.. 

So really thats my first port of call here, as if the xbox is fine, I’ll have another headache trying to figure out why my internet is doing what its doing.. 

anyway! 

I think that I can plug either xbox S or X  into my old lg 1080p tv and they should work, but obviously only be showing me 1080p Hd not 4k. 

The problem is I have an old Onkyo AV receiver which everything goes through. 

I plug my xbox, blu ray player and set top box into the Onkyo Receiver via their own hdmi cables, then have 1 Hdmi cable going out from the Receiver to the Tv. 

That way I get the ease of just switching channels on the Receiver to whatever source I want, and I ‘think’ the receiver then just automatically switches to whatever audio is best for that source. Ie dolby hd or dts hd when playing blu rays. But I can cycle through the options anyway.

The xbox was always weird, it did its own internal 5.1 thing and didnt or doesnt support dolby, so for that I think the receiver is just set to play what its fed, ‘all channels’ or straight thru or something its called. 

I have a 5.1 set of speakers powered by the Receiver too. 

My issue is, would plugging a 4k source such as the xbox one x into my Onkyo Receiver actually work at all, ie, the Receiver cannot do 4k so would it just pass through a 1080p hd picture through to the tv? 

Also what about audio? The current receiver is capable of dts x hd and dolbys high def of similar standard, so would it just limit whatever ultra Hd the xbox puts out and play it at the best grade it can? 

The workaround would be plugging xbox x straight into the tv, then running an optical cable back from tv to Receiver to enable me to still utilise my surround sound etc, but that would complicate the set up and make switching between sources a little more time consuming. Also possibly add lag? 

But also, again, would that even work? 



I intend to do a hell of a lot of saving, buy a 4k rated receiver, a tv capable of 4k uhd, and upgrade my speakers. 
I’ve seen a Denon receiver for £500, a Tv for £329 and various speaker packages for up to £500 odd on richer sounds.
That way the xbox can go straight into receiver, then on to tv and hopefully happy days. 

My standard hd set top box I imagine will still work plugged into a 4k receiver right? 

But that plan has opened more questions that I have no energy to research until I have the cash. The whole 4k hdmi grades baffle me, then there is HDR etc.. I thought 4k was just 4k.. but apparantly there are a few particulars that an av receiver would need to enable the best possible workings.. or something.. anyway this is for another thread when the time comes!

haha thanks all. 

strumjoughlamps

Xbox will be fine albeit as you already know you’ll be 1080p..

You could optical the tv to the receiver and then hdmi devices to tv. This will be the way if/when you upgrade to 4k tv but keep receiver. 

Sporky

It's actually really simple if you already know the answer.

The XBox will have a little chat with the receiver, which will go roughly like this:

Xbox - Wakey wakey. Who are you?
Receiver - Hello. I'm an Onkyo AV receiver. I like 1080p60  (and these resolutions and timings that are lower than 1080p)
XBox - Send me your HDCP stuff and we'll get going
Receiver - Here's my HDCP stuff
XBox - Here's mine

Then they do a jumping high-five and gaming commences at 1080p, because that's the highest common resolution and timing that both support. The receiver will also mention what audio capabilities it has and if the XBox likes any of them it'll send that too.

You don't (at this stage) need to worry that the XBox can do various flavours of 4k because the AV receiver can't and this doesn't cause either a problem.

If/when you upgrade your screen and receiver and so on there will be some acronyms that are definitely worth paying for, some that are probably worth paying for if they're not much money and some that aren't really worth paying for. But which ones are which will depend on when you buy. Fundamentally you want HDMI 2.0 (or better) and HDCP 2.2 support.

If you want to read the techie detail the above is basically Hot Plug Detect (or HPD) followed by EDID followed by HDCP. If that's not nerdy enough then move on to reading about infoframes and if that isn't nerdy enough you could always have a go over TMDS which is the actual signal format in HDMI.

skunkwerx

Sporky said:

It's actually really simple if you already know the answer.

The XBox will have a little chat with the receiver, which will go roughly like this:

Xbox - Wakey wakey. Who are you?
Receiver - Hello. I'm an Onkyo AV receiver. I like 1080p60  (and these resolutions and timings that are lower than 1080p)
XBox - Send me your HDCP stuff and we'll get going
Receiver - Here's my HDCP stuff
XBox - Here's mine

Then they do a jumping high-five and gaming commences at 1080p, because that's the highest common resolution and timing that both support. The receiver will also mention what audio capabilities it has and if the XBox likes any of them it'll send that too.

You don't (at this stage) need to worry that the XBox can do various flavours of 4k because the AV receiver can't and this doesn't cause either a problem.

If/when you upgrade your screen and receiver and so on there will be some acronyms that are definitely worth paying for, some that are probably worth paying for if they're not much money and some that aren't really worth paying for. But which ones are which will depend on when you buy. Fundamentally you want HDMI 2.0 (or better) and HDCP 2.2 support.

If you want to read the techie detail the above is basically Hot Plug Detect (or HPD) followed by EDID followed by HDCP. If that's not nerdy enough then move on to reading about infoframes and if that isn't nerdy enough you could always have a go over TMDS which is the actual signal format in HDMI.

Cheers bud. 

Thats the kind of simple I needed. 

I’ll deffo be posting again when the time comes to upgrade the rest of the gear.

I remember about 10 years ago when I initially purchased all this stuff (except the xbox), it was initially complex then seemed pretty straight forward.. 

But back then all I remember it being was 1080p is the highest, so get everything that can do that and plug it all in! 

It surprised me all the 4k, then various hdmi grades, Uhd options and that hdcp2.2 you mentioned!  

Sporky

Ah yes. And then you get into REC2020 support. And whether the HDR support actually results in high dynamic range on the display (it doesn't on any TV I've ever tested, and on only two commercial displays). Good Times. 

Adamski

Another issue is that your receiver will always add additional input lag on to the signal, even with passthrough. Personally I always plug my consoles directly in to the TV then HDMI ARC to the receiver. Anything where Lag doesn’t matter goes in to the receiver, such as my Apple TV. 
 
Depending on your kit the lag might not be loads but certainly enough to take it over 50ms if you include whatever your TV already adds. 

If you can get the X then I would, regardless of if you have 4K or not because it’s additional power will also support higher frame rates and better textures at lower resolutions where as the S will just upscale. 

Axe_meister

When You Do upgrade to 4k you will need new cables. Whilst the 1.4 standard does support 4k, I believe it is at 30fps only.
I made the mistake of upgrading my receiver early to be future proof but it is only 1.4 capable.