The "Official" Pioneer VSX-1020-K Owner's Thread - Page 135

Well first the 1020 is surprisingly cool. I have less than the recommended clearance (40 cm on top! that's almost 16 inches). I have a good 6-8" of clearance on top, and it's not in an enclosed space (doorless shelf in my cabinet). It's not running hot at all. I barely perceive heat coming out of it; nothing compared to my DVR or game consoles. I guess it could have even less clearance without heating up at all.

And second, maybe people put it in an enclosed space without much clearance. But statistically, people do that with all brands of receivers. If that unit is more prone to failure than others, that's bad, regardless of how they were placed.


Well at least there was no fuss with the warranty. If my 1020 is to fail, I hope it fails quick

What Denon model did you replace it with? How does it compare to the 1020?

^^^

my commentary was brand agnostic... we hear of dying hdmi boards for all cem's, and we see pictures of poor avrs stuffed into places where they shouldn't be...

Ah ok then. I don't know about other brands. If its a common failure mode in all brands then yeah maybe it's due to overheating. I think the worst would be to keep it in an enclosed shelf without ventilation.

Then again maybe the mean time between failures for those cheap HDMI chips is pretty short whatever the temperature. I guess if the warranty is 2 years, and an HDMI chip has a MTBF of 2 years and cost 5$ less than another with a MTBF of 3 years, they use the first one if the expected cost of returns is below 5$ x expected number of sales, and that's it.

Well I hope mine will keep working for a few more years because I don't have the budget for a new one.

They stated that it needed to be traded out with a receiver with comparable specs, but not sure why that mattered since they ended up giving me a gift card. I ended up getting the Denon 1912. I am not an audiophile by any means, but the audio is far superior on the Denon compared to the Pioneer I had. There was such a notable difference that even my wife commented on the quality of the audio before i even adjusted the settings. Maybe my receiver had been going out over a period of time and I might not have noticed the sound getting worse.

Searched the thread for an answer, but couldn't seem to find anything specific enough, so I apologize if this has already been discussed.

I have had a Pioneer VSX-1020 for a couple years now and it has done well. I have an HDMI cable that comes out HDMI 1 that is kind of my extra HDMI used for misc. devices that come and go like a video camera, friend's XBox or PS3, and more often than anything else our MacBook Pro. Not sure what happened but the MacBook Pro and the Pioneer no longer work together. I've troubleshot to find that it's not the cable, the input, the output, the tv, or the mini dv port to hdmi plug. Any ideas why this might be happening? Thanks.

Not sure what's going on but I'd like to know what exactly happens when you plug your MacBook Pro. Is that only the picture, only the audio, or both that are not working over HDMI?

A few other obvious questions:

- did you try another HDMI input? (in particular, HDMI 5 in front, which may be useful for misc. devices).

- what about other devices on that HDMI input (HDMI 1)? Are they all working all right?

- I guess the MacBook doesn't have HDMI out. Are you using a DVI (or DiplayPort) to HDMI adapter? Did you try another adapter?

- Did you make any configuration change recently? (E.g. adjustments in the Input Setup). I'm not saying it's your fault but there are a few subtleties in the 1020 in that regard.

Heney
Just as an FYI. My receiver started to act up when certain components would not work through the HDMI ports. The light in front of the receiver lights up when an hdmi source was plugged in. After a while the light would not light up until i disconnected the hdmi cord from the source (blu ray, laptop, etc...) I would leave it powered off for a day. Then the only HDMI ports that would work was 2-5. The process repeated itself until i was on the last hdmi input and then it would not work at all.

Thanks for the quick replies. Turns out the HDMI 1 input on the back is loose, same with the HDMI output actually, and it's giving me red digital noise on the screen if not 'wedged' properly. So I have tried to prop the cable in the same way to HDMI 1 and it seems to,semi-do the job. Loose connections. Pretty ridcululous that a receiver cannot last a couple of years, even without ever being moved around. But at least we've got the reason why it's not working.

I recently moved and am experiencing an issue when connecting my laptop as well as my roommates HTPC through HDMI. The pictures from these 2 sources don't get scaled correctly, so not only is the picture too 'big' for the TV, it is also off-center.

No matter what output I select on my laptop, the resolution always gets picked up by the receiver as 1856x1069, 60hz and nothing besides the 'Pure' setting in the upscaler will display an image, though the audio will continue to go through. I've tried every output setting available from my PC as well as a 'custom' one with 1080p specs and while some get the size of the picture more correct than others, the picture always comes in off-center.

This is the first time I've setup this receiver on this television, but I can't find any settings on the TV that allow you to scale, resize or shift the image. I'm also doubtful that the issue is the TV because when connected directly to its HDMI ports, the HTPC and my laptop both work.

I'm also lost because my 1020-K works perfectly with my PS3 and DVR.

I don't recall having this issue before moving, but I guess it is possible that we just never noticed.

Help!

What kind of video adapter is in the pc? Sometimes updating the driver improves things. I've had pcs running through my Pioneer and it is more finicky than my Yamaha.

Its just Intel integrated graphics on a newer i5. It doesn't have any issues when being connected directly to my bedroom tv (7 year old phillips lcd) or our newer living room tv (Vizio LED).

just got my receiver all setup and noticed that the picture quality looks a little different going through the receiver. I have comcast cable with the motorola DVR box, everything is connected through HDMI. TV is Sony nx720. When I first turned on my TV, the colors looked more vivid but a little pixelated at the same time. I reset my TV to factory settings and it was a little better.

My questions.

My video and audio parameter button on the remote does nothing when I press it on the remote. I have the Cable box connected to DVR HDMI input. Something wrong?

Does the receiver alter or improve the picture quality somehow?

Thanks!

I searched but couldn't find anything.

Yes, the receiver can alter picture quality in many ways. First, it can resample and upconvert lower resolutions; then it can also alter the aspect ratio, smooth out progressive video, reduce noise, adjust sharpnest, contrast, brightnes, and so on.

However those features are source-dependant, so they may or may not be available using different types of input. In fact most of them are only available for analog inputs. For digital inputs (such as with your DVR connected through HDMI), you can only adjust the preferred output resolution (RES) and aspect ratio (ASP) parameters. Changing the resolution can affect the quality of the picture.

Adjusting those parameters is done using the "VIDEO PARAMETER" button, but on the remote you have to press "RECEIVER" first. The first parameter is V.CONV, aka video conversion. If this parameter is set to OFF, then the video goes through the receiver unaffected, and there is no other parameter to adjust. If it's set to ON, then you can adjust the varios parameters listed at pages 70-71 in the manual.

My Tv(sharp aquos) has inputs: tv-input1-9, im getting cable from a digital tv tuner. Is it possible to have my picture and sound go through my reciever? Right now im using my TV's speakers because the tuners directly hooked up to the tv. Thanks in advance.

Hi All...I am having some difficulty with my Pioneer 1026 receiver
I have 2 ceiling speakers in the rear...2 front wide...2 klipsch rf 62's for my fronts and a klipsch center channel rc 52 and a klipsch subwoofer

My speakers are being powered. When I run the MCACC and manual setup the white noise is coming on for the corresponding levels at the corresponding speaker

My issue is I am always getting 5.1 surround while I have 7 powered speakers set up. The front wide speakers are not making any sound

When I run my BD by HDMI to the receiver it is not always the ProLogic II option when I use the standard button on the remote ...sometimes it is PCM sometimes the PrologicII option is available....

I have a boxee box and even when it is on and the Prologic II option is available the front surround speakers aren't working.

Cable box is giving me dolby digital - I understand most cable providers only broadcast in 5.1

All components connected with HDMI

Is there a problem with the HDMI cables? Individual components (althought I turned dolby on with all of them for audio output to make sure)...is it just some blu rays aren't 7.1?

Yes -- you should hook up your tuner to the receiver via one of the receiver's HDMI inputs, and then the receiver to the TV using the receiver's HDMI output and one of the TV's HDMI inputs. Then you have to select the tuner input on the receiver, and the receiver input on the TV. You should then probably turn the TV's sound volume to zero and use whatever speakers are connected to the receiver. The receiver will act as a switch for both video and audio, playing audio through its connected speakers and sending video to the TV.


Front wides are completely independent from the HDMI cables. The reason is that front wides are not channels that are recorded on 7.1 sources. In 7.1 sources, the surrounds are split between surround sides and surround backs.

The front wide (and front height) channels, if any, are actually made up from the content of the other channels, mainly the fronts and center. For example, if audio content is located to the extreme left (i.e. it is heard almost only on the left channel), then the content is sent on the left front wide instead of the left front. Depending on the mix between front and center channels, this allows a sound source to be located along a much wider stage. Front heights work similarly, but they get mostly content that are both present on the front channels (e.g. sound coming from all around the front stage, musical score), or in all channels simultaneously (ambient sounds).

The content sent to the wides or heights are generated via software when corresponding modes are enabled -- I think those are PLIIx and PLIIz, respectiveley. You shoud read the manual carefully in the section where the standard surround modes are explained. Alas I don't have wides or heights, so I don't think I'll be able to help more. But I'm pretty sure you have to specifically tell the receiver to use the wide or heigths.

So it appears in the standard options I have to choose the wide surround (either movie or music) to take advantage of the 7.1 using the front wide channels. If I choose the prologic II option it only allows 5.1 (as I don't have surround back's).

Will using the Wide Surround and the fronts cause me to sacrifice sound quality compared to PLIIx and Surround Backs?

If It will sacrifice quality should I rewire my front wides to be the surrounds and the ceiling speakers to act as surround backs (they are above and behind the couch)...this should allow me to use the PLIIx and get 7.1 channels working wouldn't it?

Sorry about the questions...I'm new to all of this!

I think you're right -- those options are there only if you have wides connected to the receiver, and you have to specifically enable them. The wide (and height) content is provided by the ProLogic IIx (or IIz) software but independantly of traditional ProLogic. (Traditional ProLogic is 4-channel audio hidden into stereo channels). Hence the confusion -- you can be decoding a ProLogic source without having any content sent to the wides.


No problem -- the surround sound formats are in fact quite convoluted / complicated due to history, technical developments and limitations, etc.

So in the days where everything was analog, ProLogic was used to encode a center and back channel into the standard left/right channels, albeit with some cross-talk. There are still stereo sources out there (e.g. some TV shows) with encoded ProLogic content. With ProLogic, the receiver sends the same content to the surrounds to create a "back" channel.

Now most TV shows are id DolbyDigital, which has 6 discrete channels (front left, center and right, and left + right surrounds, and the LFE channel). DTS 5.1 is also popular. On blu-rays you can hear two newer formats, DTS-MA (for MasterAudio) and Dolby TrueHD, which are losslessly compressed (i.e. as FLAC, whereas DolbyDigital is compressed much like MP3s) multi-channel formats. A few movies have 7.1 channels, which split the surrounds into surround sides and surround backs. On top of that you have processors that can generate wides and heights from those 6 or 8 channels, but which are not tracks that are specifically recorded.

That does not mean they are of lower quality. Wides and heights can definetely add a new dimension to a soundtrack. Wides create an extended front stage, giving the impression of space. Heights are often used to create front-wall-blast effects.

There is one sacrifice to make though with the Pioneer 1020. It has only 7 amplifiers, even though you can hook up 9 speakers (+ subwoofer). So if you have *both* surround backs *and* wides or heights, you'll have to chose which one are used -- if you enable the wides, the surround backs will be disabled.

Choosing wether to use a third pair of speakers either as wides, heigths or surround backs is a matter of taste (and also of practicalities -- not everyone can put speakers behind their listening position or have a second pair on the front). If it's easy for you to move your speakers around, you can try it and decide for yourself. But ultimately, remember that when you're adding speakers on top of a 5.1 configuration, you'll begin to hit diminishing returns in terms of "wow factor". Many people find that wides or heights are actually used much more often than surround backs. On the other hand, newer 7.1 content have dedicated surround back tracks. Same thing with video games: they often generate 7.1 content with surround back channels.

If you're anxious about missing channels or content, there are much more expensive receivers out there that can allow playing wides, heights and surround backs simultaneously

I use mine as heights primarily because I have a 106" projector screen, so it helps balance things out. Also my room is not very wide or long, so I can't have speakers behind or wide. Most bd releases are still 5.1, so rears would be silent most of the time.

The 7 amp limitation is the same with my Yamaha. I don't understand why they won't let you toggle the b speakers on without having to do another setup...

The other thing I think is important are large speakers all around, starting with the sub. If the aesthetics committee can be convinced, larger speakers will make a big difference in action movies. Spend most of your money on a good sub and you will not be disappointed.

So Basically If I leave speakers as is for front wides and the receiver displays surround wide movie instead of PLII Movie it should still give me good quality sound from all the speakers? i.e. when sound from above it should still come through from by ceiling speakers and sound from far extreme horizontally will still sound that way...
I won;t lose anything by having surround wide movie selected?

Or I guess the question is if I turn my front wides into surround and my ceiling speakers as Surround backs to allow for the PLII to be selected while watching movies,boxee,xbox,etc.....will I gain anything with current audio of blu rays, cable, etc.?? Will I get more of that surround effect when sound is coming from different directions on the screen (like walking above,etc.)

Has anyone tested the new 822/1022 models?

Well I'm trying to figure out what is your speaker configuration... Which speakers are ceiling ones? Are those front heights? I'm not sure if it's possible to simultaneously use front heights *and* front wides with the 1020. It may be that you have to chose one or the other but I'm not sure about that.

If your ceiling speakers are surrounds (i.e. typically located close to the listening position, towards the sides and rear), then yes, you will still be able to hear them at the same time as the front wides.

The only exception would be if they are surround *back* speakers in a 7.1 configuration in which you already have surround side speakers, in which case selecting the wide mode will disable the surround backs.

In any case, chosing one configuration over another is not a question of quality but more a question of personal taste. If you're listening to 7.1 soundtracks on blu-rays though, you'll need surround back speakers, or else you will lose part of the surround mix. This is not much of a problem though: if you only have one pair of surrounds in a 5.1 configuration, then surround backs are mixed in with the surround side track and sent to your surround speakers. Thus all channels will effectively be played.

In fact this is true whatever your speaker setup. E.g. if you run a 3.1 setup with fronts, sub and a center channel, the surround channels will be mixed into the front channels. Everything is still played, so you're not losing anything. The channel is simply not coming from the optimal location in that particular case.

So the short answer is: you're ok

Does anyone know the internal temperature of the 1020k? I'm trying to reconfigure my devices in my rack to be the coolest. I have two DVRs running at around 130, which is too hot, and they are on a shelf above my 1020.

I'm having a horrible time with HDMI if I leave my HTPC on and switch inputs say to XBOX or Tivo.

The error is "You have disabled a display that supports audio playback."

For awhile, I would get crashes and odd errors. The newest version of ATI Catalyst, 12.4 , at least provides a decent error message with no crashes but doesn't really solve my problem.

Is the issue my GA-MA785GMT-UD2H motherboard or is it my Pioneer VSX-1020? Someone suggested changing HDMI to THROUGH as then the HTPC will detect the TV but that does not seem to be the case with this model/brand

Id's say this is entirely due to your HTPC and not to the Pio. By switching to another input, the HTPC simply sees that a display is disconnected. It was also configured so that sound was output through the HDMI port via the video card (and not through the HTPC speakers via the sound card), hence the warning.

On my laptop, this is done gracefully -- i.e. when the HDMI link is dead, the laptop display comes back to life and sound is handled back to the onboard sound card without any warning.

That being said, I don't know if there's a fix or not in your case. But I doubt that you can do anything on the Pio side.

What version of Windows are you using. I have and HTPC and a PC running through the 1020, HTPC with XP and PC with Win 7. XP uses an older driver (I think about 10.4) and the PC I'm still using 11.11 and have never gotten that error with either of them.

This is Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit. I did order a standalone video/hdmi card- the silent 5450. Currently this is using built-in video/audio on the Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H. Neutro - how about if you turn off the tv & receiver for a few hours then return? That's MUCH more likely to generate an error for me - and if I turned this device into a DVR it would be a showstopper, as opposed to just being mildly annoying (restarting before watching a DVD/BluRay)

Well my hardware is completly different. It's a Lenovo laptop with a discrete AMD video card. In my experience it works better when the laptop is open, the receiver and TV already at the correct input, and then the HDMI cable is plugged in. If I plug the HDMI cable when the input is not set yet, or if I boot or wake the laptop while the HDMI cable is plugged in, sometimes I have to manually hit Windows-D to switch the display to the TV, but I don't recall seeing any error or crash.

Do you have a second display or is your Pio/TV the only display for this HTPC?

It seems that your problem is that your HTPC doesn't know what to do with sound once the display is disconnected, which is rather odd.

Apart from the error message, is there something that doesn't work? I mean, once you get back to the HTPC input, it doesn't work until you restart the HTPC? What about disconnecting / re-connecting the HDMI cable? I know it's only mildly less annoying than restarting the HTPC but it may provide a troubleshooting clue.

I'm curious if you'll have the same problem when you put in a discrete card. A lot of the onboard video ports have been known to be flaky. I have the 5450 in my HTPC and there's no switching problem. If nothing else, you might try running optical for the audio and see if that solves the problem.

But remember, if you run audio through optical and video through HDMI, only the HDMI1 input can do that on the Pio1020 if I remember correctly.