Should I upgrade home theatre to one with HDMI?

Kr4 is correct but let me elaborate by saying that you need HDMI to get the highest quality audio meaning Dolby TruHD and DTS HD Master Audio playback. These formats are commonly found on many available Blu-ray discs and do sound considerably better than the lower resolution Dolby and DTS formats you can get with the Toslink optical or coaxial S/PDIF-RCA digital connections.

I also found recently that my AVR's HDMI 1.3 inputs will not pass 3D signals from a Blu-ray player although they have no trouble delivering hi-def 3D from Comcast Cable. If I plug the Blu-ray player directly into the TV and bypass the receiver then I can get 3D but have to settle for lower quality audio via Toslink or RCA S/PDIF. Blu-ray players and 3D tv's use the HDMI version 1.4.

I'll probably spring for a blu-ray player with 2 HDMI outputs in the future to circumvent this minor issue.

If a Blue-ray player like an Oppo 95 is connected via 5.1 analog and the prepro set to bypass aren't Dolby TruHD and DTS HD MA passed through without HDMI?

db

Yes, dbphd is correct...

-RW-

Plato,
Another way to solve your minor issue is using a HDMI Splitter w/ 3D support.

You can connect the DirecTV receiver to your AVR via coax or Toslink and get Dolby Digital 5.1 and run the HDMI cable directly to the TV. This is how I hook up my DTV HR-24