Pioneer BDP-320/BDP-23FD Owner's Thread - Page 5

I just received my BDP-320 yesterday. I have it connected via HDMI to my PDP-6020 and via optical to my Denon 3805 receiver.

The PQ is great. But a couple things I noticed were that it didn't get as hot as I expected from reading some of the previous posts (in fact, it was only mildly warm to the touch after 5 hours of use), and my receiver wasn't recognizing the Dolby Digital audio. I was using the "Pirates" Blu-ray. The Denon only recognized Dolby PLII for audio.

Any thoughts on what I may be doing wrong??? Thanks.

you can't do HD formats over optical, so Dolby PLII sounds right.

That was something i was concerned about too after reading early reviews, but my unit is not running that hot. I watched 2-3 movies yesterday, and it felt warm to the touch like you would expect it, but nothing out of ordinary

Would this apply also to a PS3 with optical out? My son's old Pioneer recever only shows Dolby Pro Logic.

Thank You Bob H.

you can't send TrueHD or DTS-MA with optical, ever. you will need to get a new receiver to benefit from those audio formats (i assume yours doesn't do HDMI)

That being said, is there an AQ difference in using the 320 or the PS3 if my AVR doesn't have HDMI and I connect via optical?

No, but the Receiver will not display the codec, it should only display PCM if sent from the PS3. From the 320, it should say Dolby. It's identical, the PS3 just decodes it before it sends it.

Optical can do DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 over optical. Even if it's HD codecs it still will do core 5.1 over optical. Try to do decoding by blu ray.
It will send core 5.1 to your receiver. Don't decode from receiver since it doesn't know HD formats so therefore it gives you PLII.

Hi and I'm sorry if this is being posted in the wrong thread, but I was wondering about the BDP120. Does anyone know if that unit is available anywhere? and if so, has it's chipset manufacturer been identified and confirmed?

So the AQ will be the same but my AVR will display different light or whatnot if I use the 320?

StewieHD... DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 both worked fine with my old Sony DVD player using optical so I agree that it should work. I selected DD 5.1 as the audio format in the "Pirates" Blu-ray so I expected my Denon to auto-select DD 5.1 but instead got Dolby PLII. Is there something else I need to select in the BDP-320 to make this work correctly?

To decode core Dolby Digital & DTS tracks, you must connect the Pioneer 320 directly via TOSLINK optical to the Denon 3805. You cannot connect them indirectly via first HDMI to the Pioneer 6020, then TOSLINK optical from the Pioneer 6020. When you do the latter, you get only two channel LPCM because, during their HDMI handshake, your PDP essentially says to the BD player, "Hey, I'm a two channel device. Send me two channel LPCM." So, your BD player outputs downmixed two channel LPCM to your PDP, which passes along that two channel LPCM to your receiver, which then applies Dolby ProLogic II matrix decoding. Not your desired result.

Rule of thumb: cut out the middle man. Connect your BD player directly to your receiver.

AJ

I'm pretty sure he is. He said HDMI to the TV, Optical to the Receiver (from the BD). I don't think he meant he was outputting Optical from the TV to the Receiver.

BDP-320 is connected directly to Denon using optical (audio) and directly to 6020 using HDMI (video).

John

I would check the settings on the Initial Setup menu. Make sure that the audio is set to output through the Digital Out, the correct AVR input is set with the correct mode, and that you are not processing the audio ouput from the TV. Also check that the Audio Out modes are set to be compatible with your AVR.

I had the same issue when I setup my Kuro and I disabled the HDMI audio out to eliminate this source of confusion.

I am looking forward to posting my "review" and "comparisons" on the 23FD here shortly...

Thanks Winston. I haven't made the analog connections yet to try the HD audio from the 320. Just trying to get the 5.1 DD audio to work as it did with my old Sony DVD player using a direct optical connection to the Denon. I'm stumped as to why it worked with the old Sony but not with the 320.

Just so I am clear, the lossless/HD codecs (TrueHD/DTS HD MA) need to be available on the Blu-ray itself to work, right? For example, the "Pirates" Blu-ray disks all state DD 5.1 audio, so they are not capable of producing lossless/HD audio?

I know this is probably a really dumb question ... but what cables would I use for the analog connection?

The lossless audio tracks on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" BDs are multichannel LPCM -- an unpacked, uncompressed (albeit inefficient) format. The lossy audio tracks on the aforementioned BDs are multichannel Dolby Digital (640 kbps).

AJ

Thanks for clarifying that AJ.

When watching any given Blu-Ray movie there are basically (3) Lossless type formats that would be on a given disk. Keep in mind that some movies don't have a lossless audio option. The three choices to look for are:

1) PCM/Multi Channel/LPCM (These all mean the same thing)

2) Dolby TrueHD

3) DTS HD Master

So if you have your player connected to properly send all three of the Lossless formats then you'd always want to pick one of those within the movies audio menu.

The ONLY way to get lossless is the following:

1) Have an HDMI 1.3 receiver that can decode all of the lossless codecs to receive them via bitstream from the Blu-Ray player.

2) Have a player that can decode all of the lossless codecs and then send it to the reciever as PCM/Multi Channel either via the analog outs or via HDMI. The key is you have to user either HDMI or the Analog Multi channel inputs of the receiver. If you have a receiver that does NOT have HDMI and does NOT have multi channel inputs then you CANNOT listen to any of the lossless audio tracks.

There are several reasons on why somoene would pick one setup versus another of the above. Those reasons tend to be based on what their equipment can accomodate (ie the player and the receiver) and their personal preference/taste.

Thanks for clarifying the HD audio options. Since the Denon 3805 does not have HDMI decoding, I will connect the pre-outs from the 320 to the Denon and try that next.

I'm still concerned that I couldn't get Dolby Digital 5.1 to work via optical from the 320 directly to the Denon. I just hope there isn't something wrong with my 320.

John

Interested in the 23 fd review!

Does your Denon 3805 have any HDMI inputs on the back? If yes then check if your Denon can accept a multi-channel/PCM/LPCM signal and play it (check the owners manual). If that answer is yes then your easiest setup would be to go HDMI from the Blu-Ray player to the Denon but set your Blu-ray players audio to PCM versus auto. That way the 320 can do all of the decoding (since your Denon cannot with the new HD codecs) and you'll get Multi-Channel/PCM displayed on the Denon 3805. In this scenario you'd be hearing lossless audio.

There are a couple of reasons why you couldn't get the DD5.1 to work via optical. It's either a setting within the 320 or a setting within the 3805.

EDIT: According to the owners manual for your 3805 is does NOT have any HDMI inputs what so ever. It's also possible that within your 3805's audio settings that you told it to apply Dolby Pro Logix II processing to the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal. If that is the case that would explain why your receiving is displaying Dolby Pro Logix II because it's applying that sound processing to the audio it's receiving.

I believe that the multi-channel analog inputs for your receiver are on the back left hand side right above the Zone 3 inputs.

In this scenario how many of the little white boxes are filled in with white color on the 3805's display (left hand side)? The white boxes are indicating how many channels of audio the 3805 is receiving from the 320. If the 3805 shows (6) total boxes then your receiver is getting 5.1 channels of audio from the 320 and it's applying the Dolby Pro Logix II processing to it. If the 3805 shows (2) boxes then the 320 is only sending the 3805 2 channel audio. Let us know which it is and we can go from there.

6 of the speaker indicator lights were lit.

O.K. if six were lit then your are getting the correct audio from the 320 (Dolby Digital 5.1). This then points to your receiver is just applying Dolby Pro Logix II processing as that is what it has been told to do. If you want to see Dolby Digital in the display hit the "direct" button on the remote or on the 3805 unit itself. That should disable the Pro Logix II sound processing.

FYI that you will get better sound if you connect the 320 to your 3805 via the analog outs from the 320 to the analog in's on the 3805 (again back left hand side just above the Zone 3 inputs). You'll need (6) RCA audio rated cables if you have a five speaker system and (8) if you have a seven speaker system, also assuming that you have a subwoofer.