Wasn't sure if this belonged in Visual Haven, or Echo Vale... so I put it in neither! Feel free to move it where it belongs.
So, I need a new receiver. The woman came home with a BluRay player yesterday, and I'm out of digital inputs, plus my receiver is kind of old, doesn't have HDMI, and the right rear channel doesn't work. In looking at receivers, I'm noticing that most have 2 or 3 HDMI inputs, and 2 optical and 2 Coax digital inputs. If I plug the HDMI cable from the BluRay, and my HD-DVR into the receiver, will it take the audio from the HDMI, or must I use a separate digital audio cable to get proper surround sound?
I have a semi-decent speaker setup with JBL mid level components (ES3s for the fronts, JBL Balboa dual 5.25" 4 way center, ES250E sub and some Klipsch Quintets for the surrounds), but nothing too fancy, and I don't plan on doing a 7.1 just yet, but I do want the capability, but I'm limiting myself to about $250US. I've found a few receivers that have caught my eye, but wanted to make sure I can use the digital audio from the HDMI and not have to run the separate cable first. Thanks!