Wich one means that the A/V receiver will decode and output the audio and forward the video to the TV?...?

Question

PASSTHROUGH, REPEATING/REPEATER, or SWITCHER?

My goal is to have the the A/V receiver output the audio and forward the video alone to my TV set (or forward BOTH to the TV, because I can just lower the volume on the TV set to 0).

Answer 1

Receivers always forward the video to the TV. Where else would it go? If you are feeding the receiver a audio/video signal from some source (maybe a DVD player), You will use separate wires for audio and video. Ideally, you will have a digital audio output from the DVD player that connects to your receiver. The audio is decoded and sent to the amps and speakers connected to the receiver, it never reaches the TV.

If you are using a TV with a built-in tuner, the video does not go through the receiver, and you plug the TVs a digital audio output (if it has one) into the receiver. Or, you use the TV's external analog audio output. Your TV menu should allow you to turn off the set's internal speakers.

Answer 2

On most receivers:

Passthrough: The signal sent is passed to another connected device, and (for the most part) does not actually have any effect on the receiver or its settings. This is what you want if you want the audio signal to ONLY come from another device, and not from the receiver at all.

Repeater: The signal is caught by the receiver and then replicated and transmitted back out. Some receivers will use this signal and then retransmit, some use a different setting. In any case, normally this means that the receiver is going to output audio, and also send the audio to another device to do the same (like if you wanted a separate amplifier for one set of signals, but the other set to be from the receiver).

Switch: The signal is caught by the receiver and then used to change settings or activate/deactivate specific components. Usually this is what you would want if the receiver is going to be outputting the audio.