Official Sony BD Mega-Changer Thread: BDP-CX7000ES & BDP-CX960 - Page 105

Yes Nirto67 and wnl after some further research you are right, Coax/optical connections cannot transmit Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD 2.1 PCM, they can only transmit 2.0. The lossless format can only go through HDMI connections, as good as the B&K reference processors were back in the day they are as ancient as a walkman now, for high def surround processing anyway. All bluray movies are in the new format and I will only get surround from analog connections.

instead of selling the CS7000 I will start saving for a new processor and send the B&K to gather dust in my attics graveyard of useless gear. I think there's a Powermac and some Palm pilots up there somewhere.

I think there should be a name for when the technological potential of a thing advances past the point where hardware can be developed to use it.

But they can carry Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 as well as the 7.1 formats. The Blu-rays I have encountered usually have an audio track with one of these formats. They just don't default to using it. Check the blu-ray box and/or step thru the audio tracks while playing the disc. See if one of them gets you surround sound. Yes the formats are lossy, but they are no worse than the sound you have been enjoying from DVDs for these past many years.

I don't believe that is entirely correct. See above.

Well, he can get Dolby Digital 5.1, but when I hooked my Pioneer Elite Bluray player to the Yamaha DSP-A1, the Bluray's didn't have the same sound as the dvd's. While the DVD player would sound perfectly fine. I still have Yamaha DSP-A1, it sounds perfectly fine.


Shadowstorm, I would recommend that you buy something inexpensive to temporary replace your processor. If you have future plans for UHDTV (4k or 8k), which will also include a new audio format. Dolby is testing out Dolby Atmos in theaters now, and what I read it was coming for the home. I would just use your processor for audio.

Question on AVS forum
1- Can a digital coax or optical cable carry a Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD or DTS-MA 7.1 signal or does it have to go through the HDMI (when I bought the receiver I didn't know that the Onkyo SR800 HDMI was a pass-through only and won't accept the digital audio into the receiver)?

Answer:
No, coax/optical only supports Dolby Digital, or 2 channel PCM. 5+ channel PCM, DD+, TrueHD, DTS-HD/MA can only be sent over HDMI.

I have tried your suggestion on changing audio formats but I have not found one with the alternate formats or at least the remote button to get to the feature. I will continue to try different approaches.

I never used this feature, but the Sony 7000ES does have analog output. http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/sony-bdp-cx7000es-blu-ray-disc-changer
"The player does provide a set of 7.1-channel analog audio outputs to pass on next-gen Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks to nonHDMI receivers. Equally important, the 7.1-channel analog audio connection provides delay, crossover, and level adjustments for each channel. What it doesn't provide is built-in Wi-Fi - you need to connect your router to the Ethernet connection for metadata lookup, BD-Live access, and firmware updates." Bluejeans has those cables, because I use them for SACD. http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/6channel/index.htm I have the LC-1 cables, and they are thick.

I never used this setup, but I do recall a member in the forum that had the Sony 7000ES setup with the analog cables. I didn't get my first Sony 7000ES to about 3 years after I bought the Denon 5308.
Actually, you could sell the Sony 7000ES changer, and just go with an HTPC and J river media Center. I have it setup that way with a few bluray movies now. Sony 7000ES changer does have a better picture quality, but I am just using the Intel HD4000 with Ivybridge currently.
Edited by Nitro67 - 10/3/12 at 8:11pm

"Dolby Digital is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound." That would be 5.1

Dolby Digital EX provides 6.1 and 7.1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital

The "Audio" button on your remote will cycle through the audio channels during playback. Just below the numbers on the left.

If you press the "Display" button (on the right and two rows below the number pad) during playback then it will show you what audio track is currently being played. "Dolby Digital 3/2.1" means the unit is sending 5.1 that your B&K should be able to decode. If I recall correctly, this display will also come on when you press "Audio" to show you the audio track that was just selected.

If you use the Audio button and still can't find a DD track, then try a different disc. The back of the disc case will say what audio tracks it has. But in my experience most blu-rays have a 5.1 DD (or better) track. What titles are you experimenting with?

You can also try Nitro's suggestion of using the analog audio outputs. In the end it may be better audio quality since that can utilize the lossless formats. But only if your receiver/preamp supports it. But I seem to recall you tried that already and were not satisfied with the results.

This website here lists the audio formats for Bluray. Doesn't list a Dolby Digital EX format, but does list a Dolby Digital +. There is zero hits for Dolby Digital +. (I assuming that is Dolby Digital EX).
I used that site all the time, when I buy 7.1 Bluray's. Came in handy for me.


http://www.blu-raystats.com/Stats/TechStats.php

http://www.bigscreen.com/about/help.php?id=44

"Dolby Digital EX is an extension of Dolby Digital which provides for an additional rear surround channel of sound to be encoded into the Dolby Digital soundtrack.

This additional channel is matrixed into the left and right surround channels, and is therefore not a discrete channel. Not all movies are encoded with a Dolby Digital EX soundtrack.

With the release of Dolby Digital Plus for Blu-ray and HD DVD, we cannot see much of a use for this method to be used when Dolby Digital Plus offers up to 7.1 channels of discrete sound. Thus, you probably won't see much of this sound format on high definition releases."



Shadowstorm,

UHDTV is being developed for 4k and 8k video, and Dolby has just released Atmos for the theater, so you can expect a new audio format is coming for the home. DTS has released a new format as well. I just wouldn't spend a lot on a new processor, when I know that the equipment will change in few years.

Hello

anyway to speed up the loading times on these changers. It takes forever . Thinking of just ripping them to a harddrive an retiring this unit

Thanks

If you have BD Live turned on, then try turning it off ("BD Internet Connection"). But even with that off, some BDs just take a very long time to load.

I have My CX7000ES hooked up using the analog cables for 7.1 audio, that sound very good but of course it lacks the punch of digital audio i'll run with this until I upgrade to a better processor. I will follow your sage advise and wait until the new format is announced before spending more money on equipment.

Next I seek your grand wisdom on everything CX7000. Can this changer work with windows media center, I have heard you can control it using an RG232 cable. I want to connect the player to my VGX-Xl3 so I can get better thumbnails . If someone could give me the page such information can be found here I would appreciate it.

Well, you could just buy a denon that is inexpensive. I think that I saw one as low as $500. Or buy something used. The 22.2 audio format is primary for 3D TV, and Dolby has a few different formats based on Atmos.

The software that you can use is called My Movies, but I don't know if it will work that Sony VGX-XI3. http://www.mymovies.dk/ I looked up the specs, but it seems that it is rather old. I can't seem to figure out if it is HDMI 1.2 or 1.3a. You want at least 1.3a. Typically, people use an HTPC. People just build one themselves or you can buy one prebuilt. I posted my specs in post #3033 on the previous page for an HTPC.

Another software called J River Media Center 18 could control the Sony Changer, but I want it via RS-232. Currently, J river uses DLNA for devices, but I never tested that on Sony 7000ES changer. J river is free for 30 days, so you can play around with it. My Movies is free, but to get into the Sony changer settings then you need to pay $100. (My Movies is uses this points, but is basically 2500 points = $100).

My Sony 7000ES changers are controlled by Control4, but it works fine. Just that developers refused to make a Control4 driver for J River. Essentially, I want a system that plays music and movies. J river does that, but it doesn't have RS-232 plug and play setup. (I have requested that feature but that could take awhile).

Yes, I remember my dealer sold Escient in the past. I will be selling my control4 system soon. I have 3 Sony 7000 ES, but I could control up to 8 changers currently. (HC-300 ((2) RS-232), HC-800 ((2) RS-232), IO-Extender has ((4) RS-232). Control4 is fine for almost everything, but I wanted an uncompressed audio file format. The controller seems to limit audio to 48 Khz, on networked audio. Well, I could via Changers, but uhh my collection is over 2000 CD's. I have 2 Sony 777ES changers, but the power supply on one recently quit working. J river recently got into SACD, so it was rather easy via Nimbie to get my collection to hard drive.

Probably the best that I seen in terms HDMI switching is Savant Systems. There is a video on how fast the switching is on this link. http://www.savantsystems.com/video_gallery.aspx Yes, Savant has a driver for the Sony 7000ES changers, but via Mac OS X. I verified that with Savant Systems. J river Media Center is developing a new version for Mac OS X. Supposed to be done for audio only by the end of year. I asked the Savant Systems installer if they would develop a driver to hook J River Media Center to Savant, and he was interested in developing it. So, I just wait and see.

My HTPC specs was designed around Mac OSX, so it is planned for me. There are few issues with 4k and 8K video, so might have to wait to see the next version of HDMI or Thunderbolt. That is if you plan to upgrade in the future.

anyone have a remote for the bdp-cx960 that they are looking to sell? I need it to program my logitech harmony 890. for some reason i cant get it to work. Bought my unit at Best Buy as a open item. Remote was not included. any suggestions are greatly appreicated even if you are not trying to part with your remote.

Harmony/Logitech online knows this player. I never used my original remote to program my 900 at all. That changed last month because I bought a 3D Sony player. Both responded so I had to move the BDP-CX960 to command remote two. That required the original. Harmony had me press a couple of buttons and then it took care of all the rest.

The BDP-CX7000ES is off to the Laredo repair facility for the 3rd time. This time, I loaded the 240 disks (mostly bluray) and it read and recognized nearly all of them. It worked for a week and then this weekend I got an Error code 8003 and the player was locked. I manually opened the door (it would not respond to any command), removed all the disks and it is shipping today. What a PITA ...

Is the My Movies software used to control the 7000ES the same as the My Movies used in Windows Media Center. it looks the same.

I own My Movies, but only use the collection management feature. I know you need to have Windows Media Center running in the background or I was told to control Sony 7000ES. Changer control is setup in collection management. You need an USB hub to control the Sony 7000ES changers. Just go to their forums, and they discuss on how to set it up.

OK - So I've ignored AVS forums and this thread a looong time ago and found myself here again; read a few pages of the newer posts.

In a Nutshell, Does Sony or anyone else have now or on the horizon, a 200+ disc Blu-Ray player with full menus, gracenote title lookup, etc.... ?

No rumours that I've seen mention of. Of course we can't tell what corporations are planning.

My first one broke and they sent me another and now this one is broke. I will be my third one.

I get no picture and no sound. Changed HDMI cables and inputs on my Anthem.

I built a HTPC before the Sony Mega changer was announced as I was getting impatient for a jukebox blu-ray player. As soon as it came out I sold my HTPC because it was just too high maintenance. My 960 is still working but in anticipation of it failing at some point I am wondering what kind of physical disk catalog/storage system, for a large collection, people use for a single disk player ?

I have been looking around and found this.

http://vidabox.com/products_rackclientv3.php

Looks cool

Yes it does. Looks like it has to be bought and installed via a dealer. I'm guessing it costs several thousand $$$ though.

It can be done yourself or them via internet.

The pricing was actually pretty good. They have different sizes and yea 2-3500.

My system specs for the HTPC is based of this company specs. http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/fanless_music_server.html
I used a different passive power supply in mine. I built mine with SSD drives, but Areca has released this thunderbolt storage setup. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151134&name=RAID-Enclosures Here is the optical cables. http://www.macworld.com/article/1166542/optical_cables_for_thunderbolt_ports_shipped_by_sumitomo.html
Belkin is going to be the distributor in the USA, but I haven't seen this cables in the USA yet. (Areca is costly, but it is the best. Sans Digital is going to make one too) The advantage with Thunderbolt is that you can daisy chain more storage. Also, when you build an HTPC. I usually keep the hard drives out of the HTPC.

You can use J River or My Movies for the catalog system. My system specs are on the previous webpage. I boot the hptc in a few seconds with the new SSD drives. J river is close to developing for Mac OSX. http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=75129.0 Once that is developed, then I talk with Savant Systems again to develop the driver.
Edited by Nitro67 - 10/20/12 at 12:21pm

When playing the 2D version of "Prometheus" on my Sony BDP-CX7000ES the chapter menu pops up on the screen at the start of each new chapter a few chapters in. Anyone else experience this issue? I am running the latest firmware and haven't encountered this issue before with a given title. That being said, I took matters into my own hands and now have full control over my Blu-ray experience. Purchased an external Blu-ray writer for my laptop and ripped a movie only copy (no compression with chapters maintained and primary audio track) to a BD-RDL which plays back perfectly in the changer, including my PS3 which also had trouble playing the original disc. Best of all, playback starts instantly. The standard "resume" feature also applies as has always been the case with the DVD format. So long as you don't play another disc you can press stop, then resume playback from that point. No need for bookmarks or specific support for resuming playback, something that should have been standardized and "required" with the Blu-ray format to start with. In any event, for those that haven't tried, BD-R's using the Blu-ray folder (BDVM) structure play back effortlessly in these Sony Blu-ray changers. I'm in the process now of backing up my entire Blu-ray collection on BD-R for use with my changer. The original discs are going back on the shelf in their original packaging for safe keeping.

Not that issue, but when we watched it the image started seriously pixellating at about 40 minutes. At that point we had to stop and switch to the DVD because it was pretty unwatchable. I don't know if I have a bad blu-ray or if the new copy protection is tripping up the CX7000ES. I haven't checked to see if the firmware is up to date, so that's my next step. If it still isn't working I may have to send the whole set back in for a replacement.

UPDATE: Just checked the player and it is up to date with version 15.4.020. But I know I haven't updated it recently. Could this still be a copy protection problem? Don't you have to periodically update the player as new copy protection schemes are employed by the disc manufacturers?

Well, the 2D version of Prometheus had artifacts errors on about the last hour of the movie for me. Although, I buy my Blurays from Amazon. Amazon replaced it, but I haven't had time to watch it. I didn't have the menu error, but it is possible that Prometheus has some manufacturing errors. If you think it is copy protection error, then your method will work. Actually, it is legal to do this as well. I think it falls under the fair use law. Well, my collection is BD-R's in the changers, because it gives me a backup copy. As long as you own the Bluray disc, another option is to rip to hard drive. Another option if the changer has issues in the future, seems to be wide spread now. Sony needs to learn better quality control.. The other option is to rip to hard drive and use J river Media Center which bypasses the beginning. . Sony 7000ES changers do give a good video quality, but I am still comparing them to video card. I currently using HD4000, but I might go to a workstation card (Nvidia K5000).if you want to go Mac OSX in the future. AMD Firepro series for Windows. Why these cards? First they are lower in watts than your consumer card. Another reason is that you be able to go 4k in the future. Just need a TV with DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, well, multiple displays.


If you have a rather large collection, then buy a Nimbie http://www.acronova.com/product/auto-blu-ray-duplicator-publisher-ripper-nimbie-usb-nb21/9/review.html
Rip to ISO, and burn via Imgburn for BD-R. Imgburn has the guide to setup the process. Requires a different booktype 2.50. J river requires you to be in folders, so you have to extract the iso with winrar.

If you have bluray from another region, then it has to be played back via HTPC Bluray drive or from a server. It won't work via the changers. I tested it before, but won't work.
Edited by Nitro67 - 10/20/12 at 5:59pm

Sony hasn't updated their firmware since May 2011. Amazon was able to change the Bluray for me rather quickly. I try the next one, but if it is firmware issue, then Sony needs to start updating.


Well, it might be the discs.

Here is a post about it. Post 23.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1433609/prometheus-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review

I have the 3D version as well, but I check later. I usually, just buy the 3d and 2d version. Typically, the only work around is to take off the copyright protection.
Edited by Nitro67 - 10/20/12 at 8:44pm