Official Yamaha YHT-S400 thread - Page 2

UPDATE: just realized something in my CASE !

HDMI 1: bluray player (for 5.1 tracks)
HDMI 2: sat box (stereo configuration), different settings

PROBLEM: the s400 does not memorize the 2 settings ??!! do i have to change everything each time i watch ???!!! i in the manual that i can save settings on each input differently

My S400 remembers different surround settings for HDMI, Optical, Analog, and FM. However, since I usually have HDMI 1 (U-verse box) and HDMI 2 (Blu-ray) set to "Movie", I haven't noticed whether it would remember different surround settings for each. NOTE: New owners or prospects should be aware that the subwoofer, surround, center, bass, and treble levels are the same across all inputs.

I use a Logitech Harmony 650 to control everything, and I keep the Surround mode button available on the first page of the LCD menu. I could just as easily keep the Stereo mode button there as well. I found that for a given input, if you are on a surround mode and then you press the Stereo mode button, the S400 remembers whether you were last on stereo or extended stereo. Likewise, when you return to surround mode, it will remember your last surround setting.

So you could use your S400 remote (or a universal) to pop between Surround and Stereo, but I agree that's a pain. The 3 HDMI inputs should be treated separately.

UPDATE: Confirmed last night that the S400 will remember different surround and stereo modes for the HDMI inputs. However, the various levels for sub, surround, center, bass and treble apply across all inputs. For me this is fine, as these settings seem to be driven more by the room size and shape, positioning of the system, and our overall listening preferences.

There are several S400 owners in the forums. I want to provide a spot for us to exchange information and for those interested in the S400 to ask questions before considering a purchase.

hi mate!
a thread has been created long ago...where owners have exchanged about the unit

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1341344

go there and revive it...that is all !

Is it possible to rename that? I did find that thread really valuable, but I wanted the name to help make clear the nature of the thread to someone who may be searching for other owners.

Here's my mini-review of the YHT-S400 (please move to official thread when one is identified).

At first, I did not like the sound from the unit because it was a bit muffled. However, after one week of use, the soundbar is performing better. I forgot speakers require time to break in.

The pros:
1. Sounds better with time. I'm hearing sounds I've never caught before, even in Stereo mode.
2. Being able to adjust the center channel, along with plenty of other controls on this 3.1 system.
3. The bass is deep and rich. I can feel the floor shake.
4. CEC works well. The unit even automatically switches input from HDMI to TV when I activate Netflix on my TV. DirecTV remote works on volume too.
5. The all-in-one receiver/subwoofer design for those concerned about clutter. The speaker bar is also very sleek.

The cons:
1. No ARC.
2. No onscreen display of volume on TV (would like a soundbar that can do this).

I'm still uncertain if the surround effect is good enough for me to keep the unit. I'm wondering if I should swap to a Sony CT-150 or Vizio VHT215 and save some money.

Thanks for the mini-review, hififi! My S400 is 9 months old, and I just edged up the Surround level from my original +1 setting. When the unit was new, anything higher made things sound kind of "phasey" (OK, I made up that word). But now, it has a much more natural feel and did improve the soundfield, especially on BD movies.

But you need to get what sounds best to your ears given your room layout, AV gear, and your preferences.

in order to rename the poste you will have to get in touch (PM) with the starter of the thread and ask
him

MTS..i too have been putting it on +1 for surround...now yours is at +2 i presume ? Mine is 5 months old

I had my S400 prior to buying a Blu-ray player. The S400 only decodes Dolby Digital and DTS, but it does handle multi-channel PCM. I therefore had to be very careful in selecting a player that would decode all the various audio formats, including high-def Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, and then pass multi-channel PCM across HDMI. (Note: Toslink optical connections are limited by bandwidth to just Dolby Digital and DTS.) The problem is that the decoding schemes used by players varies greatly depending on both make and model. Some will limit certain formats to 5.1 or even 2.0 PCM.

This information from page 30 of the S400's manual was instrumental in my selection, and I'm hoping that it may help those reading this thread. In the end, I found a Blu-ray that provides 5.1 PCM for all Dolby formats and transforms all DTS formats to 7.1 PCM.



FYI: From a video format, you don't have any worries -- the S400 will support a broad range of input signals and allow for 3D pass-through with the current firmware.

Actually, I settled on +3 for the Surround Level. I kinda like the "wow" factor of +4 for movies like Iron Man, but it's overkill for most other sources.

Has anyone had any hands on with the Sony Ht-ct550 vs the s400. I am looking at both models and having a hard time making a decision. They are both around the same in price.

You might start here. Davyo has demo'd a number of soundbars at home and is generally regarded as a soundbar guru (or addict, as there's not much difference). He has high praise for the Sony CT-150 and CT-350 (discontinued), but as of this writing, I don't think he has tried out a CT-550.

It's going to be nearly impossible to choose in the store. If you don't mind making a couple trips to the store (or online) and at least 1 return, the best bet is to try each in your home. The surround effect is pretty subtle on the S400, whereas the Sony's are a bit more pronounced. Both the S400 and CT-550 (if it holds up to its 150 and 350 brethren) are potentially good choices, and both offer HDMI, optical, and analog inputs along with an FM tuner.

Good luck, and let us know what you ultimately pick and why!

I just checked Sony's site, and you'll want to be sure that whichever unit you prefer has the right number and type of inputs. Both have 3 HDMI in/1 out, but the CT-550 has 2 optical in (vs. 1 for the S400) and a coax in (no coax on S400). Also, the CT-550 decodes high-def, lossless audio formats. With the S400, you will need to have your components decode these formats and send multi-channel PCM.

Thanks for the info! I'm leaning towards the Sony, but the Yamaha looks very sleek with the sub and receiver combined. They both look like quality units. I'll let you know which way I go.

Thanks Again!

By the way, Fry's has the YHT-S400 for $299 as of 10/15/11.

And I thought $360 was a good sale back in January at hhgregg.

I ended up getting the Definitive technology mythos ssa-42. One problem I had with going with an active solution was already having a great onkyo receiver that would be rendered useless. I Also have a infinity sub so that led me to looking at some passive soundbars and the mythos ssa -42 and 50 seem to get rave reviews across the board. I picked one up on amazon for $440 new and shipped.

Didn't realize you had an AV receiver and sub already: The Definitive mythos looks like a great match. So how does it sound??

It won't be delivered until Tuesday or Wed. I'll report back when I get it set up.

Hi, I have a problem with the picture quality on my S400. The moment I connected my external devices to it (PS3 and tv-decoder) via HDMI I noticed that the picture quality on the TV where drastically reduced. Its like the refresh rate are much lower now, colors are bleeding and details in the picture are blurred.

As an example I played Battlefield 3 on the PS3 last night for a few hours and today my eyes are dry and in real pain.

Have anyone else experienced degraded picture quality through the S400?

I have standard HDMI cables by the way..

Odd! I have a U-verse DVR and a Panasonic Blu-ray connected to my S400, and the picture quality on each is fantastic. My DVR is configured to send 1080/60i and my Blu-ray sends 1080/60p and 1080/24p, depending on the content.

Did you connect the HDMI cable from the S400 to your TV into a different HDMI port on the TV than what you used previously for your PS3 or set-top box? If so, perhaps the video settings on that port need to be adjusted.

>1. Sounds better with time. I'm hearing sounds I've never caught before, even in Stereo mode.

How long does it usually take to break in these speakers? I've been trying them for about 4-5 hours now. The sound is still very flat compared to my TV (Sharp Aquos) speakers and the soft voice is bugging me to death! I've tried most of the suggested settings without any luck.

I think I'll give it the weekend before returning it.

I take it back. The sound is excellent. The source of the problem is my set-top box. The piece of crap Motorola cable tuner output is completely flat when it's not set to stereo. The sounds are crispy and clear out of the xbox, ps3, and xtreamer.

welcome cfoo to the club....at first i too was quite dissapointed with the unit...having tought it was gonna be a real damn fantastic experience...
it was not
but after a few weeks i got used to the "balance" and depth of the sound; voices are boosted and sounds when tranformers robots fight are BIG...
now i enjoy the unit quite much even if i would have loves the option to add 5.1 rear speakers (like in the new s401).....

TSand75 no one else has problems regarding picture, as the unit does not do anything aside from letting the signal pass by. Either:
- your cable sucks

- your ps3 configuration has rebooted back to 480/576p (it happened to me twice dunno why, before the yamaha)

- your output is defective, in that case it is the yamaha...

I kept the S400 soundbar as it was ideal for the bedroom. One other plus I noticed is that music sounds wonderful on this system. My remaining gripe is that the S400 does not support ARC. So now, I'm looking carefully at its successor, the S401.

Hello fellow s400 & s401 users! I was planning on getting a surround system and looking for something minimal. Searching around I went to hhgregg and the salesman showed me the s400. He said it was a good quality soundbar for my price range. Did some research and found this forum.

This thread really help in my decision and this saturday Im recieving my s401!
Im gonna try to hook up rear speakers and maybe some tests with left and rights as well. Cant wait to see what this Air Surround Xtreme is all about. Hope Im not disappointed.

One thing I will like add is that I spent years in the car audio field and with all the vibrations in trunks it never hurt any of the circuits and car wiring. Sooo the sub and reciever combo might not as bad as some people thinks.

I will get with some test on Sunday.

Laters

Congratulations, and let us know how it goes!

I'm envious, since your S401 adds a few things my S400 is lacking: USB port, on-board decoding of HD audio, and the ability to put the receiver/sub vertically or horizontally. Of those, I'd really love to have the USB port. And the on-board decoding for HD audio would have opened up my Blu-ray options, since I had to be careful to find a player which would output PCM without reducing the number of channels or re-encoding to simple DD or DTS.

Hey peoples!

Got my YHT-S401 and its hooked up! Can't see how people are complaining about it. I can say that I never owned a full surround sound system but it sounds excellent to me.

I do believe its all about settings and speaker placement.
What I did was, first found the best sounding place for my sub by putting it in my regular sitting position and walked around the room. The spot that sounded the fullest with bass is where I put it. The bass is soo full!

As far as my settings, what I did was watched a few scenes of Iron Man 2 over and over again and made adjustments. Now at first the sound didnt blow me away. Then I went to PS3 audio settings and reset them. After that it was running all the dolby and dts attributes. Then I watch the scene when Vanko was walking on the side of the racetrack (before walking on to it). And the cars sounded like it was going to one side of the room to the other (in scene they didnt show the cars). I was like Woah! lol The rest of that whole racetrack scene was fresh!

Another scene that good to judge the capabilities was the end scene when IronMan and WarMachine was by the little stream and the Hammer Drones landed. They landed at different areas of the screen and you can really hear a difference.

Now with all that said I do have the 401 so I do have the rear speakers hooked up so I know that can make a difference as well. The opening scene is good for that, when Iron Man jumps from the plane and lands at the expo.
The crowd applause is surrounding me! All my settings for the 401 were calibrated from those three scenes of the movie. I even find movements going upwards and downwards are very noticable to the ears.

Here a few things that I did that seem a little different from other peoples settings by reviews and posts that I read.

1. I have my left and right channels at 4-5 and my center at 0.
2. I dont use the univolume unless Im watching regular tv which very rare.
3. I dont the enhancer unless using a mp3 player.
4. I do use extended stereo and clear voice(this seems to bring mid freq up)
5. My soundbar is at ear level

One thing I want to do is find a blu ray with 7.1 surround and see the results.
Overall Im completely satisfied.

One more thing.. watch the "Titty Twister" scene in "Dusk To Dawn" during the Salma Hayek performance. Actually start watching it when all the music stops and the Cheech character is making the announcements. Whoever did the sound placement for that is very good. The use of the rear speakers are remarkable!! That was when I fell love with my 401! Any questions feel free to ask. Laterz

I bought my S400 in January and had it hooked up and working well with a DVR and Blu-Ray feeding into a Panasonic Viera. We moved over the weekend to a location currently without cable. I hooked up an antenna to the Viera, and it gets great over-the-air reception. But I can't figure out how to reconnect the TV and the Yamaha to get sound from the S400.

I tried using an ARC-capable HDMI cable from the Viera HDMI1/Arc port to the S400 HDMI1 port and the HDMI out port, with no sound at all. When I disconnect the TV from the S400, I get sound from the TV speakers. Can/should I try using a toslink cable to go from the Digital Audio Out on the TV to the S400? Or do I need to change a setting on the S400 to get it to recognize sound from the TV? Any suggestions are welcome - thanks.