The "Official" Pioneer VSX-1020-K Owner's Thread - Page 43

Can't telnet into it. Webpage on the 1020 is just a page with 48 fields (24 for station names, 24 for station URLS) and 24 update buttons to update the internet radio settings.

Thanks...that did the trick.

Hello I recently purchased this unit and am enjoying learning about all the features. I am somewhat of a noob when it comes to HT receivers and was wondering if someone can answer a couple of questions.

1) How does the "Effect" setting impact ALC mode or Avd. Surround - I have ALC set on all my inputs with Effect set to 90. When selecting "Standard" or "Auto Surround", the volume is increased dramatically.

2) right now I have a 2.1 speaker setup and planning on buying new fronts and a center to get the 5.1 surround experience. Is the receiver down-mixing the sound to the speakers automatically or do I need to specifically select the appropriate surround modes and settings? I ran the MCACC calibration and the sound is quite good but am trying to learn about all the functionality this receiver offers.

3) Can someone please explain the different Surround Modes (Auto/ALC/Direct, Stereo, Standard, Adv. Surround)? I know that Adv. Surround is providing EQ for different types of audio but not sure how to mix and match these modes to get the best sound from the inputs.

Thanks

Thanks, I was trying to find out the difference with the 1120, which is not released in Europe yet.

I have a 5 channel large amp that I would like to use in conjunction with this unit. Can I use the 1020 as a pre/pro only?

no. there are no pre-outs...

I believe ALC is Auto Level Control. I'll have to look at the manual (or you could?) when I get home. I'm still not sure on all the auto surround mode, going to have to look at this at some point too.

Since my PS3 bitstreams, the surround is taken care of automatically. From my HTPC I can't tell. I'm considering getting a bitstreaming chipset to resolve this. I never know if I have the receiver on the right setting for my HTPC.

The higher the effect parameter is, the more compressed the sound in ALC mode is, i.e. the smaller the difference between loud and quiet. I keep mine at 90, but I only use that mode at night time. It's not a mode you would want to set and forget.

Auto is the most usable mode. One exception is when you are listening to stereo music - I'd suggest to switch to stereo. I can hear a relay click, so something happens that makes the sound more pure (hopefully not only in my imagination), otherwise why would there be stereo mode? The other exception is when you are listening to a two-channel TV station - you may find that the Standard modes sound better because they make use of the surround speakers. I keep my TV/SAT input at Dolby ProLogicII Movie and that mode takes effect when the source signal is two-channel, otherwise it uses automatically the native multichannel mode.
The Advanced modes are useless to me - marketing gimmicks - except for EXT.STEREO which can be used to listen to music from all speakers. The effect parameter at 50% makes the power even between all of them.
I don't use Pure Direct, because my room needs correction and that's what the EQ is for. I don't use Direct because I think the tone control is disabled and I want it for music listening.
That's how things are with the VSX-1019 I have. I guess they must be similar in 1020.

Gunsmoker,

Thanks for the reply. Good Stuff. Right now I just have the 2.1 Speaker setup so I'm wondering if Stereo makes more sense than Auto Surround when listening to multi-channel source. For ipod and net radio I'm using the ALC mode with a high effect since the volume for these inputs are much greater than my other listening sources.

Wally

I posted this in the Plasma Display thread also.

I have had my new Panny TCP65VT25 Plasma for alittle over a month now. Periodically when I change channels I get a double or triple image on the screen. It is like the TV is in 3D mode but the picture is clear(not 3D(blurred) and the images are side by side. I normally can correct the problem by changing to another channel and back again and it clears up but this concerns me. I am afraid that one of these times it is going to get stuck in this double or triple image screen.

Has anyone else experienced this? I do not know if this is a problem with the TV or is it my new Pioneer VSX 1020 AVR? I have the HDMI going thru the AVR.

Thanks for anybody's feedback on this.

^^^

option 3 (and the most likely one)... it's the source....

Is anyone using height or wide speakers with hd audio codecs? I was never able to get my rear surrounds to work with DTS HD, so I'm wary of adding the height channels only to find that I can't use the HD codecs with it.

Thanks,

Greg

I suspect you need to enable Dolby PLx to get the rear surrounds, and Dolby PLz for height/wide. I think those are toggled using the ADV SURR button (lower right) on the remote.

Hey, just noticed you are from Rochester, my old home town. The rest of my family still lives there. Nice place, I just hope the local economy improves...GO RHINOS!!!

I am using VSX 1020 with PS3 as the BD player. I have a 30 feet 22 AWG shielded HDMI cable between VSX1020 and projector. When I connect the cable directly between PS3 and projector, my 1080 p signals go thru fine and the picture is perfect. If I connect VSX1020 between the PS3 and the projector, the 1080p signal is noisy. Is VSX1020 changing the strength of the signal and if so, how can I solve this problem.
Thanks a lot in advance for any response.
Karun

^^^

- what length run from avr to projector?

- have you swapped cables?

- help us out a bit by defining what "noisy" means to you.

Thanks, Chris, for fast response.
Basically I used the same 30 feet cable (which I was using between PS3 and projector) between 1020 and projector and I connected PS3 to VSX1020 using a 3 feet long HDMI cable.
By "noisy" I mean that the picture on the screen has white/color sparkles which were not seen when the PS3 was directly connected to projector.
Next, I changed the HDMI output of PS3 to 1080i and the picture became clearer (no sparkles) but it not 1080p anymore. I think vsx1020 is having issues with 1080p signal.
Karun

and yes, I have changed cables and 1080p is always the problem. No issues with 1080i.

Here it is again for clarity:

setup 1 (no VSX1020)
PS3 --- (30 ft cable) ----- Projector (1080 p - no issues)

setup 2 (with VSX 1020)
PS3 -- (3 feet cable) -- VSX1020 --- (30 ft cable) -- Projector
(1080p - sparkles in picture)
(1080i - no sparkles in picture)

If I cannot fix this issue, I will have to start finding out about the Amazon return policy. I like the 1020 though but I need 30 feet cable between avr and projector.

Hi karun, maybe try and disable Deep Color Support on the PS3.

I picked up a 1020 to replace my Onkyo 606 due to Total Garbage HDMI handshake issues, but I'm noticing a couple weird things.

1. I've got it turning on with my Harmony One, and it seems to turn on for like five seconds then turn right back off. I've only done it a couple times so far, but it's a little bizarre! I can turn it on fine if I hit the "powertoggle" command, and the harmony says it's using the dedicated on and off commands, so maybe swapping to powertoggle for that would help? [Edit] I actually figured this one out, I heard people talking about maybe their TV linking tech interfering with the receiver but I had no idea Panasonic TVs could talk to Pioneer receivers, I figured it was a brand-specific thing. So yea, Vierra Link off solved that issue. Problem 2 still persists though!

2. I've been watching two-channel video sources via my PS3, TV shows and the like, and with the Pro Logic II Movie setting it's pushing ALL of the audio through my center channel. The Onkyo did things logically, tried to put dialog in the middle, kept stereo in the sides, etc. But now it's basically turning 2-ch into mono. If I swap to my cable box, the Pro Logic II Movie setting actually works fine, using all of the speakers as it's supposed to. Why do you suppose the PS3 wouldn't be cooperating? Both it and the cable box are hooked via HDMI. Maybe the BD slot on the back of the Receiver, which I'm using for the PS3, has some kind of funky setting where it assumes inputs are multichannel or something?

Any ideas?

Hi Karum,

Have you tried any of the regular HDMI Connections 1 to 4.
I notice that the BD input seems to be setup a little different.
Just a thought, HDMI 1 is the most versatile HDMI Input.
If you check out Page 41 of the OP Manual, you will see that BD is only BD,
You will also see that HDMI 1 is the only HDMI Input that can have a Digital Audio Optic input.

Also PS3 connections and questions about them, are peppered throughout this entire thread!
Connections to make both to the 1020 and settings to be made on the PS3 itself.
Read through them and hopefully they will touch on your problem.

There should probably be a Simple and Concise setup procedure, so that everyone with a PS3,
can easily connect to a 1020 and just enjoy the outcome and not feel frustrated.
If I was Pioneer and read this thread, I would make sure that there was a PS3 connection procedure on their Site,
for ALL of their existing units and placed into future Operators Manuals for their new equipment.
There have been probably more PS3 questions in this thread than any other.

I do not have a PS3 (yet) so good luck.

Bud

I ran my 1020 to 0 volume and had no issues on my speakers however my ears began to hurt.

get an hdmi signal booster. afraid you might find the same issue with other receivers.

Hey,

I have connected a Samsung BD-C6900 3d blu ray player to my vsx-1020-k, and im having an issue with the pioneer showing the decoding as "stereo", even though the blu ray player is capable of transmitting truehd soundtracks. Why is this so? I have tried both PCM and bitstream outputs on the player.

Not so. I have a digital optical input assigned to HDMI 2.

I'm thinking about buying the 1020 but there is one showstopper item that I would like to avoid finding out after I buy the unit.

Most of the time I would like to use my Directv HR24 DVR with audio through the TV speakers when the 1020 is in standby. There are times I would like to have the audio come through the 1020 and the connected speakers (with it on of course).

I've been skimming this thread and there are questions about standby pass through but the answers/resolutions do not seem to be clear.

Does anyone know definitively whether this particular setup will work?

To follow up on this problem, it seems like maybe a TINY bit of sound is getting to the front-side speakers when I'm running Pro Logic II Movie, but the mode itself isn't necessarily to blame.

First off, it wasn't the BD HDMI that was to blame, it performs this way on all inputs. Secondly, it works fine if I put in a 2-channel DVD, this is only for content played either on the hard drive or via the network. Finally, music from the hard drive or network is fine, this is only for 2-channel video.

Whether I switch off every single audio output except for the required 2-channel ones on the PS3 or not, this problem persists. If I switch to stereo output on the receiver, or go from Pro Logic Movie to Pro Logic Music, both front sides are indeed used, but it's almost exclusively mono sound being sent to each of them. I have a video that begins with distinct audio being rapidly played in the left and right channels, before ending up in the middle, and this particular scene is actually barely audible, regardless of the listening mode on the PS3 or the receiver. The notes are almost totally muted, then when the signal is back to the center, it sounds fine.

So it seems like left and right channel data is just... not being sent correctly. I was very surprised to find out that even in stereo mode I still had this issue. If a 2-channel video source on the hard drive or network tries to play audio in one of those channels specifically, it will be nearly muted. I'd be worried there's something mechanically wrong with the receiver... except that everything works fine on every device and input except for this specific case.

I'm talking about this moreso in this thread than in a PS3 one because this all worked fine on my Onkyo (and even the old pioneer I had before that). I can only imagine there's something weird about how the 1020 is receiving a stereo signal here.

Anyone else having issues with the VSX-1020K dropping off their home network (wired) after about 15 mins from power on??

I love my 1020, but I am having a little problem, and wonder if anyone else has seen it. The receiver sometimes locks up (can't change input or volume, or any other function for that matter) when the HDMI doesn't handshake with my Comcast RNG200 HD DVR properly. I have to hold the power button on the receiver in for 10 seconds or so to get it to power off, then when I power it on switch inputs quickly to get it 'unstuck' before it will handshake again. I've tried using HDMI 1 and HDMI 4, hasn't made a difference. Anyone else seen this? I really just want to blame the crappy DVR...

Hi Greg,
You said,
That is very Strange....
I just went to "System Setup" and then to "Input Setup" and at
HDMI 2, 3, and 4 the "Digital In" selection is Grayed out.
HDMI 1 lets me choose Opt 1 or 2 and Coax 1 or 2.
When you go to a HDMI Input other than # 1, I suspect that you need to use Signal Select on the Remote, each time?

On page 41 of the Operators Manual "Input Setup" the diagram shows a Black Dot at HDMI 1 for Digital.
if it was all of the HDMI Inputs I would have expected to see the little Black Dot on each HDMI Input.
Or am I reading this section wrong, or that it deals with the actual "Input Setup" ONLY and not the "Signal Select" with the remote.

Thanks,
Bud
PS. I have not tried to plug my Toslink cable into Opt 2.