Cave sound "mode" comes and goes with Pioneer VSX-820

Hello guys,

Just registered in the forum, because I need some advise on some "X-file" I am having in my receiver. I am really newbie to amps, receivers and this kind of stuff, some I really hope you can help me out

The model is Pioneer VSX-820. When playing digital content in standard mode, the sound goes to some kind of echo. With no intervention from me, this comes and goes with no pattern. If I set mode to stereo, does not happen. It does not happen either for RCA inputs.

Better than this explanation, please watch following video I just recorded. When the problem arises, I turn into stereo, then again standard, and then just do nothing...as you can hear, the echo comes and goes. The camera of course did not take the sound very well, but at 1:17 the change is quite clear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6DxFuxZs1w

I bought the gear just 1,5 years ago, and never happened before. And no matter which file I pick to watch, happens with almost anything. Actually, this was happening for other input (a DVD+hard disc player) that was connected by optical cable. Thought it was problem with the player, and changed to RCA audio connection, problem was gone. Now, as you can see, happening with Asus player (which is connected via HDMI cable)

If you pay attention to the video, when it seems to be working fine, there are actually some microcuts (I might be paranoid, but I think they are there, and whats more, they happen periodically).

I am feeling very frustated about this, hope you guys can give some advise

Thanks very much in advanced

Guys, let me give you more details about this:

- This problem came to my attention when playing content coming from a mediacenter, Asus OPlay HD2

- Asus is configured as audio output 'Raw HDMI'

- The situation is even worse: if you see my youtube video in first post, the sounds comes and goes, now, it barely sounds at all

- I changed HDMI input port in pioneer, tried all of them, problem remains the same

- I am using same HDMI to cable to swap between the Asus and a Play3. The first one does not work I just told you, but the Play3 sounds nicely, as expected

- Well....it seems to be a problem with Asus OPlay...but I directly connected this one to TV, bypassing the Pioneer...the result is perfect hearing (obviously, **** quality), but no cave sound, no 'clicks', no disruptions....total normal audition, best poor TV speakers can


I am really sorry to be bothering you, but I dont really know what else to do. This is a problem for me: I made a great investment summing Asus, Pioneer and speakers, and now....I cant use them!!

Thanks very much guys for your attention and assistance!

Believe me DDigitalGuy05 , I pressed all God dammits buttons on that remote, and the problem is still there

If you look at the very final seconds on my video, you will see amplifier display with its configuration

Thanks for answering anyway!!!

New update on this guys:

I reseted Pioneer receiver to factory defaults, and now is playing better (yesterday there was no sound at all for this particular channel), with longer interval between errors, but I guess it is just a matter of time to be malfunctioning as it was yesterday

As I said, gear was working fine until last days, when it started to show these errors, until yesterday, which stopped working for this input

One more detail: checking manual today I saw that receiver needs to have at least 40 cm above it to avoid heating, and it is something I did not observe (I put into closed furniture with hardly 4-5 cm above receiver). As the receiver is working fine with other inputs (PS3, RCA audio players, ...) I guess this is not root cause of problem, what do you think?

New tests I did today, to see if they can help you to help me :-)

- I connected Asus mediacentre to Pioneer amplifier either with HDMI, optical and coaxial. Result for these three connections was the same misfunction you can see in the first post video

- According to wikipedia, PS3 cannot output raw, so it always codifies to dolby, DTS or PCM. This means tha hearing PS3 correctly does not neccesary means that Pioneer amplifier is working fine (if I understands correctly, as the signal comes codified instead of raw, Pioneer does nothing with it)
Actually, pioneer behaves differently. When playing content from Asus, the amplifier "detects" the codec and reports it in its dispaly (DTS, Dolby....) as the Pioneer is set in Auto Direct. Being in this same configuration, when playing PS3 blu-rays, the Pioneer gear does not say anything about the codec it is display, it seems is just outputting signal as it comes

- I did an additional test with a recorder-DVD-player (configured as Bitstream for either dolby, DTS and MPEG) I do own as well, playing some content from its internal hard drive that was recorded from a signal coming from scart, and results were:
· When connected to Pioneer via HDMI cable, sound is OK in all speakers, no strange misfunctions
· When connected with optical cable, you can barely hear content 4-5 seconds before it completely goes mute (no comes and goes, but just no sound at all)

Again, when play content from this last device, Pioneer display does not inform at all of codec from the input (same behaviour in that as when playing PS3)

This problem with the optical/DVDrecorder started a few days ago. I did not worry very much then: connected the recorder to Pioneer using a very good quality RCA cable (red and white for both channels) and since then, I can perfectly hear anything coming from that device

But now, I think this is telling me that problem is in the Pionner amplifier

What do you think guys? Does this make things clearer or more messy?

Thanks very much for your help again!

Guys,

Come back with this issue. I took the receiver to Pioneer official support service, told me they tested and everything was fine, no problems at all

To me, it feels like they did not test a raw sound input coming in, to check who Pioneer receiving is coding it. I want to think they are professional, but as there are some contractual issues involved (gear is less than two years old, Pioneer gives guarantee for one year, second one is on the vendor....) and they just kick the problem out

It sounds to me a very big coincidence that both my mediacenter and my DVDrecorder got screwed at the same time, I was completely unable to get both working through HDMI inputs

Anyway, problem is not over at all, so now I will try to get some other mediacenter from somebody else, and test the Pioneer again

From this test, I have two possible results:

a) my multimedia center is screwed and now I have to claim for this to be repaired / sustituied (again, getting the invoice, claim for guarantee....)

or, even worse,

b) the Pioneer is screwed, and now I need to show these guys from support that I did the test with two mediacenter and the receiver is still misworking


Summing up, I am either worried and very pissed off

What you guys think about the whole thing?