I recently purchased an Onkyo 805 receiver and listen to high rez music through an HDMI 1.3 connection to my Oppo 980. I was listening to Queen's "Night at the Opera" DVD-A with my 4 year old daughter last night and noticed that the I was getting 2 channel sound despite having the receiver set to "Multi-Channel" and the DVD-A set to MLP Hi-Res. I then tried other DVD-A's (Flaming Lips and the Doors) with the same receiver settings and got 5 channel output. I ruled out a problem with the receiver configuration based on these results.

I put the Queen DVD-A back in and this time went to the Setup menu on the Oppo and changed the downmix option from "Stereo" to "5.1" and the 5.1 mix kicked in. Does anybody know why the Queen DVD-A would do this and not my other DVD-As? I would love to know.

I recently purchased an Onkyo 805 receiver and listen to high rez music through an HDMI 1.3 connection to my Oppo 980. I was listening to Queen's "Night at the Opera" DVD-A with my 4 year old daughter last night and noticed that the I was getting 2 channel sound despite having the receiver set to "Multi-Channel" and the DVD-A set to MLP Hi-Res. I then tried other DVD-A's (Flaming Lips and the Doors) with the same receiver settings and got 5 channel output. I ruled out a problem with the receiver configuration based on these results.

I put the Queen DVD-A back in and this time went to the Setup menu on the Oppo and changed the downmix option from "Stereo" to "5.1" and the 5.1 mix kicked in. Does anybody know why the Queen DVD-A would do this and not my other DVD-As? I would love to know.

I don't see how you were getting 5.1 on any DVD-A with your downmix set to Stereo. Downmix at 5.1 is the standard setting for multichannel DVD-A and SACD on the Oppo 980.

I don't see how you were getting 5.1 on any DVD-A with your downmix set to Stereo. Downmix at 5.1 is the standard setting for multichannel DVD-A and SACD on the Oppo 980.


Thanks for the quick response. To be honest, I didn't think downmix mattered if you connected through HDMI. I assumed that the receiver would decode the 5.1 since the connection is not analog. Am I wrong? I left my setting on "Stereo" because I didn't want my Stereo SACDs to be downmixed to 5.1, but I guess I will have to adjust the setting based on what SACd/DVD-A I am listening to at the time.

Thanks for the quick response. To be honest, I didn't think downmix mattered if you connected through HDMI. I assumed that the receiver would decode the 5.1 since the connection is not analog. Am I wrong? I left my setting on "Stereo" because I didn't want my Stereo SACDs to be downmixed to 5.1, but I guess I will have to adjust the setting based on what SACd/DVD-A I am listening to at the time.

The downmix setting does impact HDMI output for hi rez sources. It does not seem to impact HDMI or other digital outputs for DD or DTS soundtracks. Keeping the setting on 5.1 should not cause any problems for your stereo SACDs. While set at 5.1, it should play the number of channels acutally on the disc up to a max of 5.1. The only exception is the documented bug that causes 4.1/4.0 DVD-A discs to play at 2.1/2.0 via HDMI. The work around for this bug is to change the downmix to 7.1 (which makes no sense at all). Downmix set to 7.1 allows all channels on the disc to play but it reduces all channels to 48 kHz.

I left my setting on "Stereo" because I didn't want my Stereo SACDs to be downmixed to 5.1, but I guess I will have to adjust the setting based on what SACd/DVD-A I am listening to at the time.I, too, do not want my stereo discs REMIXED to 5.1 but the Oppo will not do that anyway. Leave it at 5.1 if you have 5.1.

I, too, do not want my stereo discs REMIXED to 5.1

I guess I have good taste then:D:

I think I just got myself confused when I upgraded from my HK 525 w/ analog outs to my current Onkyo with HDMI 1.3. With the HK, my stereo SACDs would get remixed to 5.1 if I had the Oppo on that setting.

I, too, do not want my stereo discs REMIXED to 5.1
I'm sure some stereophiles would have no problem with the term he used. :D

I'm sure some stereophiles would have no problem with the term he used. :DYou mean the anachrophiles.;) I do agree that converting 2 channel originals to more channels is a process fraught with traps and few can get away with it. OTOH, I was objecting to the idea that going from 2 to many was down (or up, for that matter), as opposed to simply different.