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What does Direct mode do on my Yamaha RX-V465?

56K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  MagnumX 
#1 ·
I recently purchased a Yamaha RX-V465 to complement my new HDTV. It's my first foray into home theater replacing 10 year old and 15 year old RCA TV & Aiwa receiver. This new receiver has me a bit confused with regard to some of the features.


First of all, I've got the audio being fed via HDMI into the receiver via my Motorola DCH3200 cable box. The audio shows up as Dolby Digital on the majority of channels.


I've noticed a difference in sound between the different modes and even after reading the manual I'm at a loss as to what the following modes mean (and yes, I did RTFM)


- Direct

- Straight

- There's a button called "Sur. Decode" which I have no idea what it does


I think that I've figured out the Stereo/7 Channel Enhancer. It seems like that lets me toggle between 2 speaker mode and a version that plays the 2 channel audio through all 5 of my speakers.


Can anybody help a noob out and explain some of these different options and possibly recommend what's the best one to choose for watching sports or movies?


Thanks!
 
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#2 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtcroz /forum/post/16470132


I

I've noticed a difference in sound between the different modes and even after reading the manual I'm at a loss as to what the following modes mean (and yes, I did RTFM)


- Direct

- Straight

- There's a button called "Sur. Decode" which I have no idea what it does

Direct mode bypasses some processing. Try listening to some favorite songs in Direct mode to see if you like it. You will lose bass management, in other words, your sub won't be used to play bass.


Straight mode is the most obvious mode. If the receiver is getting Dolby Digital, it will play Dolby Digital. If it's getting two channel PCM, say from a CD, it will play two channel stereo. Some processing is done such as bass management, and YPAO.


Sur. Decode will let you apply processing to two channel sources, such as music and get surround sound. Dolby Pro Logic II is the mode I would use if I wanted surround sound from stereo and did not have rear speakers.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the quick and helpful response.


So when I'm in "direct" mode, is it still using dolby digital compression and just bypassing sound processing of my receiver, or is it somehow getting the audio via a different higher quality transport? Is this something I would want to use for watching movies?


And it sounds like straight is the mode I want to be in if I'm not in direct mode and I want to bypass all those cheesy "Concert hall in Beirut", "Bomb Shelter" movie/music presets?


This seems to make sense now.


For anyone considering this receiver, I'm quite happy with it. It's not exceptionally loud. I'm using it to power two Polk TSI300s and a Polk CS10. I'm using my old Aiwa fronts as the rear speakers. It sounds absolutely fantastic, especially after using the microphone it comes with to automagically calibrate my speakers. It was a steal at around $300.
 
#4 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman /forum/post/16470193


Direct mode bypasses some processing. Try listening to some favorite songs in Direct mode to see if you like it. You will lose bass management, in other words, your sub won't be used to play bass.


Straight mode is the most obvious mode. If the receiver is getting Dolby Digital, it will play Dolby Digital. If it's getting two channel PCM, say from a CD, it will play two channel stereo. Some processing is done such as bass management, and YPAO.


Sur. Decode will let you apply processing to two channel sources, such as music and get surround sound. Dolby Pro Logic II is the mode I would use if I wanted surround sound from stereo and did not have rear speakers.

I assumed that in order to use the direct mode you had to have the left and right standard RCA type cables(from the DVD player) hooked up, instead of a digital cable.
 
#5 ·
On all my receivers, Direct works for either digital or analog. The signal path differs of course.


For digital, there's no room correction or bass management. Video circuits might be turned off, they are on my receiver.


For analog, it will bypass the digital section.
 
#6 ·
late into this thread, but on Movies I use straight or straight enhanced.

This is on Blu-ray for %90 of my movies. I notice it sounds quite a bit better than direct. Now for music Direct is like night and day compared to any other mode. It sounds SO much better it blows my mind, and pisses me off because I can't use my sub in this mode. For all my media I use my PS3 w/ bitmapping 3 on and most of the time I use 176khz upconverting.


I'm using this avr w/ Klipsch Towers and a Velodyne sub.
 
#7 ·
late into this thread, but on Movies I use straight or straight enhanced.
This is on Blu-ray for %90 of my movies. I notice it sounds quite a bit better than direct. Now for music Direct is like night and day compared to any other mode. It sounds SO much better it blows my mind, and pisses me off because I can't use my sub in this mode. For all my media I use my PS3 w/ bitmapping 3 on and most of the time I use 176khz upconverting.

I'm using this avr w/ Klipsch Towers and a Velodyne sub.
I realize this is an old post, but if it sounds better in direct mode, it's probably because you're NOT using your sub and/or YPAO correction modes (total bunk that turning off video circuits, etc. has any appreciable effect, IMO). But if you did auto-setup and use a sub, it will sound big time different in direct mode (e.g. I use bookshelf PSB speakers combined with a sub and they drop off below 70Hz so yeah they don't sound the same at all. Loud bass that might obscure softer sounds isn't there so one might get the impression that there's more detail or something, but in actuality you lost all your deep bass. That sure as heck doesn't sound "better" in my case.

Now if I had full range Left/Right channels, it might seem "better" since subs can create interference patterns with full range front speakers (I used to use a sub with my Carver AL-III speakers that can already do 27Hz on their own and you could get additive/subtractive room effects where they overlapped on top of the room's own standing wave issues), particularly with an LFE channel that doesn't actually know/care you have full range mains. Interference can lead to peaks/valleys in certain parts of the room (this might even help in some spots with standing waves, etc. but it's pretty darn random hit/miss without a room correction system that actually tests and looks for issues in the bass region (e.g. DIRAC is usually praised as very good at this type of bass wave room and/or source interaction).
 
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