View Full Version : sub overpowered during ps3 dvd playback only???


insidious_plots
06-22-08, 03:58 PM
ok, i've had enough and want to figure this out today...
i have read at the board for years for all my HT, laserdisc, and now ps3 needs, so, i have confidence in this particular hive mind...

when i play a dvd and the deep bass gets really powerful, there is a god-awful racket, like the sub is being overpowered, a popping, horrible sound... yet, i play music and i can rattle the dishes in the kitchen cabinets with clean low frequency...
i have an older, not-too-fancy receiver, same goes for sub, but the sub is powerful enough that i have kept it turned down to half pretty much the whole time i've used it... i am using an optical connection and, again, it only happens during dvd playback... games and music are perfect, but, when i play a dvd, i have to turn the sub so far down to keep the noise from happening that the bass is not satisfying...

now, here comes something more confusing...

when i popped in the star wars dvd earlier (with the receiver's sub output at max to try to create the problem) to test a couple things, it sounds fine until the big ship fires and hits the top of the little ship at the beginning of the movie (yeah, i've lost some geek factor and forgotten the names of the ships) and then the horrible sound... i haven't played much past that, so i have a reference for testing..
BUT
when i go into the thx optimizer and do the sub frequency sweep, it comes out perfectly, even with the sub at max (again, that's the refeiver sub output at max, not the knob on the sub)... now i'm really confused...

i know a few things, but not everything, about all this stuff and i see that, in the ps3 settings, i can change the blu-ray playback to pcm or bitstream, but, there isn't an option to do it on dvd playback... i DO have the blu-ray output set to pcm (so, my receiver shows a 2-channel digital signal) and it HAS happened with blu-ray playback on both settings, but, i don't have a reference point on a bd yet, though i did put the first few minutes of the fifth element on earlier to see how it sounded and it was fine.. the dvd playback is still showing full 5.1 dolby, so, this means it is getting a bitstream, right? and therein may very well lie the problem?
i am confident in my equipment, so i have every reason to believe this has to do with the signal the ps3 is putting out and perhaps some option i have yet to change..

i was going to wait until i had all my thoughts sorted on this so my post wouldn't be as jumbled as it was, but, i really suspect there is something obvious i am missing and someone will post my answer in a matter of minutes...

i look forward to that :P

insidious_plots
06-22-08, 04:57 PM
ok, it happens on blu-ray, too...
near the beginning of fifth element, when the big metal dude puts the figer key thingy in and the wall opens up, the bass gets really deep and my sub makes that horrible sound...
but, i still can't get it to do it with music...

imdjenk
06-22-08, 06:59 PM
Try to reproduce the problem on a stand alone dvd player and see what happens. I doubt its the PS3. Sounds like your sub is having trouble reproducing LFE's or your receiver is clipping during those peak moments. DD 5.1 will output some extremely low frequency to your subs that music usually will not. Let us know the result of the stand alone DVD player.

TXBDan
06-22-08, 08:06 PM
Is it a DD versus DTS thing? they record the LFE track 10db differently i believe

insidious_plots
06-22-08, 08:15 PM
well, again the subwoofer freq sweep test in the thx optimode on the star wars dvd doesnt cause the terrible sound and it goes 200 to 20... but, yeah i'll try a different player later and post the results... right now i'm at a cafe, tapping out this msg on my psp ;) thanks for the reply...