Official Pioneer VSX-521k owners thread - Page 3

^^^

i beg to differ, and in the only published bias-controlled test that i've seen, the test results bear that out...

additionally, people fail to abx compressed music sources vs. their uncompressed counterparts on a regular basis once the bitrate exceeds 192k... which is not directly analogous, however, it adds weight to the "difference is subtle"...

sorry... that dog ain't hunting... show me a bias controlled test that shows what you say, and then the dog can hunt...

I bought my Pioner VSX-521-K in May 2011. When playing from the cable box/PVR, it has periodic video blackouts lasting 2-3 seconds. The blackouts happen at random intervals of 5-15 minutes. The sound continues to play with a black tv screen, and the picture eventually returns. This only happens when playing from the cable box, and does not happen while playing a DVD.

Is anyone else having this problem?

The blackouts can start almost immediately after powering on, so, I don't think that it is a heat related issue.

Overall, the unit sounds good. However, this blackout issue is annoying and seems to happen at critical sports moments.

Help please.

^^^

cable boxes/pvr's are notorious for not playing nice with hdmi through a repeater (i.e. the avr)... it's not unique to this avr...

i don't believe the 521 will convert component to hdmi, correct? if it does, the "workaround" is to connect via component/spdif to the avr...

if not, try swapping out cable boxes... ones of the same exact model have been known to work where a previous one hasn't before...

also, try hooking up the cable box to the "last" hdmi port... "we" have found on many pioneer avrs that the "last" hdmi port sometimes works better with cable boxes....

Yes, I have the same issue, and it is extremely annoying. It happens both on my Cable Box and Playstation. It randomly occurs. A full power-off of the TV and receiver is the only thing that fixes it. That, unfortunately, takes about 15- 20 seconds, which means in critical scenes, I am unable to see what is going on.

On the Playstation, it happens as you describe (flashes and blackouts) and on the Cable Box, it comes in the form of snow on the TV after changing a channel - in other words, the cable box changes channels, and if the new channel has a different resolution, and the TV/receiver don't catch on, then I get snow. I have to do a full power-off and on to fix this.

Very annoying. "Workarounds", as people have said, include connecting directly to the TV, but this defeats the whole purpose of having a switching receiver. Its supposed to cut down on the amount of I/O ports you use. What BS.

I am partly wondering if it is cabling, but the cables aren't that cheap that I'm using. One is a Phillips, the other, a Rocketfish, and one other no-name.

^^^

nope... you don't have the "same" issue...

swap cables/ports going from the avr to the tv... see what happens...

"price of cable" has no relevance...

I called pioneer tonight and was not happy with their "help". i have a wd tv live plus, phillips dvd player, and dtv hd box. anytime i switch to the wd tv live plus i get an extremly blurry screen and have to turn off the receiver and back on (or change inputs). it is happening now with the dvd player off and on. if the dvd player is fully on there is no issue.

well this sucks because i have a harmony remote and i dont want to turn on each item individually or hook up hdmi directly since what is the point of a new receiver then?

also, pioneer said it was a hdcp handshake issue and they havent heard of any issues (i guess they didnt read this thread) and suggested since it was only a few weeks old to return it to best buy.

Not true... Cheap cables can work intermittently. Its not like the old days where poor cables could result in interference, but rather, in HDMI's case, if a cable is really poor quality and the signal isn't travelling the length of the wire because the wire might be, for instances, too thin, then some level of signal drop-out is tolerated. People say, with HDMI cables, "It either works or it doesn't." - but that's only "kind-of" true. Especially if a significant amount of bandwidth is being sent over the cable, thin wires may not be able to handle it.

It explains why the dropouts happen during high action scenes more than they do on still pictures.

At some point, if it gets so bad that the signal is too weak, then a handshake would have to happen again, and that is what the problem is here.

^^^

ummm... you have a misunderstanding of how things work...

"still pictures" don't carry any "less information" than "action scenes" when sent at the same resolution/frame rate...

please educate yourself before you tell me i'm wrong...

i could go on, but i won't...

Let me be clear: I am not, I repeat- NOT promoting $100 Monster HDMI cables here. That is a crock and we all know it. What I am saying is: It doesn't matter if your cable is $1 or $100, it still has to be of good enough quality to transmit the information steadily.

Poorer quality HDMI cables can EASILY handshake, but the information actually transmitted over and HDMI cable is just like any information transmitted over other serial links - its subject to errors! However, like any serial protocol, HDMI has error correction. But if you have a poor quality cable - for example thin wiring inside it, or the cable is being subject to interference, you will get errors. The HDMI error correction will try to correct it, but this increases the likelihood of dropouts. If you have a cable rated for 1080p, but it is poor quality, you will be pushing the limits of that cable. If the cable's wiring transmits a weak signal, and its also trying to do error correction, and then its too weak to transmit error correction AND the bandwidth for audio/video, voila...dropouts.

I'm new to this forum and found it as a result of searching for new audio equipment to power my more modern electronics.

I'm probably a bit older than many of you here and have old school amps, pre-amps, turntables, etc. But it no longer serves my purposes so I am selling it all especially given that my audiophile hearing is pretty much toast.

I also have an older home theater system but no HDMI ports so the capabilities of my DVD player, HD flat panel, and Roku box, all with HDMI, are lost on my current setup.

Having read about all the problems people are having with signal loss, picture blackouts, etc. I am becoming skeptical of buying this 521 unit.

I had intended to purchase the 521, hook up my current 5.1 speakers to it, a 25 disk CD player (via RCA cables), my Roku to an HDMI port, the DVD player to another HDMI port and then connect the 521 to the TV via the HDMI out-port.

I DO NOT have cable or satellite TV nor TV via antenna. I do not watch TV. But I do watch DVDs and streaming programming from Netflix.

Is there any reason to think I will have problems with my setup? I don't have ipods, ipads, bluetooth, etc. are the probabilities of my having success with this unit higher?

Three more questions: 1. Given how some folks complained about not seeing some HDMI ports do the DVD player and Roku need to be hooked up to specific HDMI ports or can I just plug them in any one (other than the one that goes to the TV!)

2. There was quite a string of comments about OSD (I assume that's on-screen display.) Since I still do not own the 521 doesn't the manual tell you to hook up an RCA cable to the receiver in order to see what's displayed? Seems stupid for it not to.

3. re: 720 vs. 1080 resolutions and the handshake business causing pictures to disappear or lag significantly: how do I rig both the units I want to hook up so that they are both set to 1080? Or have I completely misunderstood the thread?

Thanks!

I've connected my blu-ray player via HDMI to my Pioneer VSX-521-K. Blu-Ray disks play great, but I only get audio when playing a DVD on the Blu-Ray - no video. What gives?

Disregard what you may have read here. I've been told I was wrong. HDMI should carry both audio AND video.

VSX-521K
PS3
Samsung PN50B650

I'm getting conflicting answers from "official help" so here goes:

Connecting all 3 via HDMI cables get picture but no sound. Followed manual: PS3 to receiver; receiver to TV. What am I doing wrong? Or do I need to get another receiver because the issue is the TV?

Thanks for the help!

You have to make sure you have selected the right sound source using "signal select". The unit has the option to have analog sound sources along with a digital feed. Also check to make sure you set the PS3 to a compatible audio signal output if that doesn't work.

I'm using both the PN50B650 and VSX-521-K with zero issues so your problem is nothing to do with an incompatibility between the tv and receiver.

I just bought a nice setup, a Samsung UN55D6000 LED TV, plus a Samsung blueray player, all of it combined with a Pioneer VSX-521-k receiver.

The Pioneer receiver seems to be adding some noise to the HDMI signal coming from the blueray player. When I connect the blueray directly to the TV it's fine, but when I run the signal through the receiver then on to the TV and get these little black dots all over the screen. The dots move around at random, although they seem to gravitate to the outlines of characters or objects.

I really want to resolve this issue, it pisses me off to no end that I've spent the better part of week setting up and wiring this system, and its still not working as advertised.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Since the Pioneer receiver doesn't do any image enhancements and only passes the signal through it is unlikely the receiver is at fault. It is possible you might have a bad HDMI cable. Have you tried a different HDMI cable going from the receiver to the TV?

I agree. I don't think it's possible that image issues could be the fault of the receiver, since the image simply passes as-is.

Well I just swapped out the Pioneer receiver for a Sony, and the issue is gone. Prior to that, I checked all the cabling and tried all the different connection permutations, and I isolated the issue as being localized in the receiver.

I could play DVDs without issue when connected directly to the TV, but the moment I put that Pioneer receiver in the mix, the black dots would reappear.

I'm starting to think this model is crap handling HDMI. I loved Pioneer before this but I don't know if I will get another one. I should have returned it when I first started seeing these problems, when I still could.

Then it is entirely possible the unit you bought happens to be defective. Take it back to the store you bought it at for an exchange.

To anyone interested in one of these, Amazon has them for about 60 bucks off retail today.

Wish I would have waited a couple weeks.

Probably won't last long though.

This receiver doesn't offer the equivalence of Audyssey's Dynamic EQ via MCACC does it? I looked in the manual and couldn't find any reference to adjusting the EQ based on volume levels. Plus, can the display be completely dimmed?

Thanks!

I don't believe there's a dynamic EQ function.

The display can be dimmed in 4 steps from bright to off with only a small dim light to indicate that it's powered up, with a button on the front or the remote.

Your reply helped a lot as I was able to narrow the problem to a bad hdmi cable and then the receiver itself. Must be a lot of defective ones out there; once I returned it for a new one everything was a-ok.

Glad to hear it

My brother just bought this for $198 on Amazon. I know a lot more about HT than he does, and I told him to go ahead and get it. After reading thru some of this thread, I'm a little concerned about the HDMI passthru. I'm hoping it will be as simple as my much more expensive Denon 3311, but not sure. Will he simply be able to run HDMI cables from his BD player, and cable box, and then run one to the TV display?

Yes, it is that simple. What was it about this thread that led you to believe otherwise?

Recently picked up this receiver and I'm having trouble getting my Blu-Ray HDMI to pass through to the TV.

Components:

Directv HD Satellite/DVR
Samsung BD-D6500 Blu-Ray
Pioneer VSX-521-K Receiver
Samsung 6500 Plasma TV

Setup - Satellite & Blu-Ray > Pioneer Receiver > TV (all by HDMI)

My Satellite/DVR video runs through fine, but with the Blu-Ray I don't get any picture or sound. However, the TV seems to recognize that there is a signal.

Have tried different cables and inputs without any change in results, and have verified that the receiver inputs work by switching the satellite over to them. Plugging the Blu-Ray directly into the TV works as well.

Does anyone know if there is a compatibility issue between the Pioneer and Samsung Blu-ray? Or is there a configuration issue I may be missing? I've tried several different settings with the BD-Wise (Blu-Ray) and OSD HDMI Setup (receiver) settings with no change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are a number of comments on the first page that allude to issues with HDMI, and I've read of complaints elsewhere as well. But I'm glad to hear that it's a non issue for you and hopefully most others. He's not as adept with HT troubleshooting and he lives an hour away. He tends to get frustrated easily as well