The "Official" Onkyo TX-SR608 Thread (No Price Talk) - Page 106

I'm in the process of upgrading my setup, but I'm a cheap ass. I got a smoking deal for a 1080p 50" panny plasma for $650 and I decided why stop there. I then found some Polk Monitor 60 towers for my fronts and a CS2 for my center, $345 shipped for all 3. I have an old setup I've been using and I hooked up the new fronts and center then moved the old fronts to the rear but it sounds awful. The receiver is an Onkyo HT-340 and I have no idea what the speakers are, I bought the setup (receiver&speakers) as a refurb many years ago for $140.

Anyway, I have come to the conclusion it is time to upgrade anyway since even my HTPC has HDMI and it would be nice to have a receiver that everything can run in to before actually going to the TV so there isn't wires all over the place. I have been looking at the Pioneer Elite series and some of the Onkyo's since they seem to go on sale regularly and offer what I think I'd need. I've been focusing mostly on the Onkyo TX-SR608 because it seems to go on sale regularly and seems to have great reviews here and retailers sites when it comes to bang for buck. I'm pretty sure that receiver will be fine for me, I just want confirmation I'll be making the right choice. I'm pretty certain the rears will also be replaced with some monitor 30's or something since I'm going to have to spend $ anyway I may as well just finish it off. I'm so clueless when it comes to this stuff but from this thread being so active I assume this is still the receiver to buy when it comes to bang for buck? nothing has changed?


room is approximately 20'x30' if I had to guess

I see, I can select either audio source in the Audio section of the Home menu.

Hi ,



I have recently received my 608 and am excited about getting it going, however I've been frustrated with a picture problem with my Sky HD box. I've got the Sky HD connected to the CBL/SAT input and then HDMI output to my 720p TV.



Everything seems to work well but every few minutes the picture goes and I am left with just sound. If I turn the tv off



Some other things to note - TV Speakers turned on (don't have speakers set up yet) and I have tried with Sky settings on Auto and on 1080i. I have tried with the HDMI control turned on and off on the received. Both make

no difference.



This problem only happens when connected to Sky HD, when I am on another HDMI Source (BD or zuneHD) it works fine. Additionally when TV is connected directly to the Sky HD box it also works with no issue.



Any one on here got an ideas or something I should try next? Do I have a dodgy receiver, dodgy TV or dodgy Sky box..



Thanks,

Chris

HDMI5 on the replacement 608 is working great. I'm very happy with my 608, good upgrade to my old, trusty 605.

What brand and model are you TV, and your SkyHD box? It might be a handshake issue between the SkyHD box and your 608 and/or your TV. But, a couple things to try for troubleshooting:

* The SkyHD box on a different HDMI input than CBL/SAT
* A different HDMI cable between the SkyHD box and the 608.

Thursday - I need to connect a PC to the 608 to feed my PJ for a Presentation.

When I hook my Apple MacBook Pro via DVI to the PC port Cable I get no VIDEO.

When I hook a PC to the PC port - everything is OK.

I'm very surprised the MAC does not work. As a rule MACs are Good Citizens.

any you kind folks run a PS3 into your onkyo AVR? do you assign the 'game' HDMI input to the PS3? I did so, to HDMI4 specifically... so I get sound through HDMI. When I play a game, it says MULTICH on the AVR... when I put in a BluRay disc (movie) it says 'DIRECT' thought it would say 'DTS' or something.... and it seems like by subwoofer goes into power save mode... meaning it's not getting low frequency data. I've configured my PS3 to send audio via HDMI, not optical...obviously. oh, i can set my fronts to small. still no sub pumping. I can set the avr to double bass, still no sub pumping... once I use the onkyo remote and press 'Tuner' to the radio, my sub cames alive... go back to 'Game' it will go to sleep.

Fat or slim ps3?

fat.. 80gb ps3.

Just got my 608 open box from newegg. Have been reading through the thread. I was going to try the firmware update via optical, but am wondering if there is a revision list of improvements fixes anywhere??

Loving it so far it does a much better job with dialog and surround processing than my old HK AVR 225 though I love that receiver. Seems like the last yr HK made a really solid product.

I also had a problem hooking up my MacBook. In my case, I'm using a white 13" Intel MacBook and the Onkyo HT-RC260, but I think the setup will be exactly the same as with a Macbook Pro and a 608.

I'm not in front of it right now, but the basic steps of how I got it to work were:
- Plug the Macbook into the 608 via DVI/HDMI cable
- Go to Display Prefs on the Mac
- Change the output from 720p (seems to be what it auto-picks) to 1080i
- Change it back to 720p (my TV is 720p)
- Voila, no more black screen

Obviously, this is a pain to do every time you want to watch something. I am still experimenting, but it seems like I can get the Macbook to plug-and-play if I use SwitchResX and add a custom display mode - to create the display mode, I just copy what the settings are once I do the 720->1080->720 switch-a-roo. I'll try to remember to upload the exact steps (and maybe a SwitchResX file) I took when I get home.

Thanks for this great info. I did try all kinds of cable adapters - even DVI
to HDMI via HDMI Port #5 - none of them worked. I tried every resolution
in the MacBook Pro. I just downloaded SwitchResX - I'll give that a try
after work tonight.

It is clearly related to the 608 - the MacBook to the PJ is fine.

1. I am connecting my PC ( which serves as a HTPC) to the receiver using dvi to hdmi for video and digital coax cable for audio to coax input on the back of the receiver.. In the menu I assigned the sound to the coax input.
I get very low sound..even when i turn the rec to around 45..


I used to have an ONKYO HTIB earlier and it sounded perfect with the same setup.

2. Also I connected my ATT uverse cable thru HDMI input and the volume for this is also below standard.

The DVD's when played on a stand alone dvd player gets perfect sound thru the rec.I am amazed with the sound..

Any suggestions at where I might be going wrong.

Thanks in advance.

I'm Sorry russnelson - I tried everything including SwitchResX and Custom
Display setting, Etc.

I have a problem with my tx-sr608 and netflix movies...every time I want to watch a movies on netflix while streaming (dvd not affected) the video plays fine, but the audio starts stuttering on the first glimpse of audio and just keeps doing it...unwatchable. Everything else works just fine...even netflix movie trailers.

anyone have this issue, or might know what the heck is going on?

thanks

so i got two powered subwoofers already, if i got an audio splitter, can i push 3 subs? just out of curiosity

Drhankz - I'm attaching screen grabs for my SwitchResX settings. Note that in the "Current Resolutions" screen, the selected resolution is my custom one from the "Custom Resolutions" screen.

I don't know if this matters, but I also selected "Save Settings" and "Write System Settings" from the menu bar after configuring all this.

Finally, I believe you can just copy the text below (after the ---copy following---), then in the Custom-resolutions setup, select "Paste resolution from..." from the little gear-menu in the bottom-left corner.

---copy following---
PowerStrip timing parameters:
1280x720=1280,110,40,200,720,5,5,20,73350,7

Generic timing details for 1280x720:
HFP=110 HSW=40 HBP=200 kHz=45 VFP=5 VSW=5 VBP=20 Hz=60

VESA detailed timing details:
PClk=73350.00 H.Active=1280 H.Blank=350 H.Offset=94 HSW=40 V.Active=720 V.Blank=30 V.Offset=5 VSW=5

# XFree86 modeline parameters:
Modeline "1280x720" 73.350 1280 1390 1430 1630 720 725 730 750 -hsync -vsync

I love your pictures - you are a GEEK like me

I'll double check my settings - but all the numbers look like the
numbers I tried also.

I think the one difference is you are NOT using a MacBook Pro.

I'll give it another try Thursday night. Thanks for your troubles.

One other thing you can try, which worked sporadically for me - shut down the MBP, plug in the DVI/HDMI cable, and boot with it connected. For some reason, the Mac behaved differently when the display was present at boot-up.

I tried that also - Thanks Fellow MAC Geek

yes no maybe?

Hopefully you guys don't mind helping me out with something.

I'm just working on a review of the HT-RC260 for my website and I had a couple of questions about the TX-SR608.

Are you able to assign one of the HDMI inputs to 'PC' or does it only point to the VGA port?

Can you confirm that AUX can only be used with the front inputs and not changed?

Thanks
TrueG

You should be able to split each output and connect up 4 subwoofers.

Finally pull the trigger and bought 608, replacing my Denon 1905. I've just gone through the audessey speaker setup (Front: Aurum Cantus LEISURE 2 SV MKⅡ, Center: Aurum Cantus LEISURE 2 SV-C Center Channel, Sub: BIC America Formula F-12 Subwoofer; Surround: Dayton B652). Playing bluray movie is fine, but when I watch TV, I think the surround is too loud with background sounds. And since there is so many "listening mode" listed, what's the best mode for bluray, TV, Music, etc.?
Any tip is gratefully appreciated.

David

I figured it out...If you do not disable the HSMGR from the startup programs through the msconfig, then you will have problems with the audio on any silverlight application...including netflix movies. So, if you have a dedicated audio card on your home theater pc...you need to disable the HSMGR on startup items list by typing msconfig in your start button search and disabling the HSMGR on startup.

No more problems with audio on netflix, or any other silverlight application.

Hope this helps anyone out there.

Yes, you can assign one of the HDMI to PC, and it's one of the reason I bought TX-SR608. Not sure about your second question though

David

I have a similar question to one of the last posts. What is the point of having each HDMI input predefined? What I mean is, HDMI1 is automatically named BD/DVD, HDMI2 is VCR/DVR, etc...I'm new to receivers that have this many features and options. Why aren't these just 1-6 and you enter them through the custom input option? Is this why I'm possibly having trouble with Watch Instantly on my 360? The way I setup my inputs is I hooked up my most used device to 1 and my least to 5. Is this incorrect?

just plug the inputs in as you like, and reassign them in the setup window, first option I believe.

if you have a dvi-hdmi on one of those, you'll have to go to audio and make sure the optical or coaxial are assigned to the appropriate assignment.

I just did a factory reset on my 608 to bring everything back to the default settings and now my PC will not produce sound from the digital coax. I have my PC connected by HDMI to PC/HDMI5 and Digital COAX to COAX1. The setup settings I have are: 1.2 HDMI Input: PC-->HDMI5. 1.4 Digital Audio Input: PC-->COAX1. I get a picture with no sound. From my PC (Windows 7), control panel/Sound, RCA digital output is setup as the default playback device and if I set the HDMI digital output as the default device I get sound through the 608. I wouldn't have a problem with the HDMI audio except that it is only output in stereo and not digital from my PC. If I remove the HDMI connection from the PC to the 608 sound will now play from the COAX connection. So it looks like I have a conflict with the HDMI audio and the COAX... Does anyone have any ideas how I can resolve this? I'm guessing there's a setting that I'm missing in the 608 setup menu. Like I said, this was working just fine before I did the factory reset and I didn't make any changes on the PC either.

I appreciate your help. Thanks!

Hi buffgeoff, try selecting PC/HDMI-5 Input and then press Home on remote. Go to Audio and under Audio Select set it to Coax.