Official Pioneer SC-68/67 Thread - Page 29

I told the cs guy that it made no sense at all that low-res files wouldn't play. He put me on hold while he went and talked to someone else, and came back with the absolute that I had to install Jriver software and enable the USBDAC in it's settings. I said that was hard to understand, and that I thought that if my computer would play the file - I should be able to listen to it over USB if installed correctly. I brought up some of the other players that would support high resolution files just so he'd have the info. I knew it made no sense, but it was clear that I was not going to get any other advice.

It is tough to do the install on my HTPC input if I have the Pioneer on the USB input. I think I might run a 25 foot USB from my desktop and have it be the my Stereo center, and my HTPC be more of a visual HDMI party music center. It has BX8a speakers, and they are not kind to most files I've listened to anyways. I thought the stereo music from the laptop was very full and rich over USB (other than the pops and cracks that showed up on every song at times )-: I felt the Bass was very good compared with my Denon, I would absolutely always select DPLII or Neo6 sound over stereo on my 4308, but the stereo sound on the Pioneer 68 filled the large room and even the rest of the house with no problem. I kept telling family -"And this is only stereo - isn't it amazing!" I always felt that my old Pioneer 49 was great at creating a big enveloping sound that wasn't harsh or fatiguing, and the 68 seems to have similar qualities and power, despite being half the weight. I'm hoping it won't heat up the room in the summer as well.

I feel the MCACC did a great job of setting up the speaker levels as well, and it also straight out told me to turn my 15inch200w sub level down to about 30%. I enjoy the little help scripts that the Pioneer gives at the bottom of most every screen - they are very handy! I watched "Trouble With The Curve" on blu-ray, and everything sounded very smooth and natural, with the dialogue perfectly blended in yet clear at low volumes. I was concerned about leaving behind the upgraded Audyssey on my Denon, but I don't really see any reason to worry.

The problem is I think I really have to get the CD to autorun, clicking on the setup file just wouldn't work for me on the HTPC or the netbook. I will try copying the cd to the hard drive tonight and see if it will install properly then.

I don't recall that I did anything special to get the usb dac driver installed. I am using Win7 however and bbear, ss9001 use Win XP. A lot of the following have been mentioned before, but just for the benefit of someone else, and based on my experience and my memory:
1. do the following on the actual PC you will be using to connect to sc-68 (via USB cable, not HDMI).
2. run usb dac driver installation from the navigator cd
3. connect your PC with the a USB cable to the BACK of the sc-68 (not the one in the front). It doesn't matter how you connect any other cables.
4. select USB DAC on sc-68
5. your PC should detect sc-68 automatically and then start to activate the usb dac device automatically
6. once the device is ready for use, you should see Pioneer Audio Device (can't remember exactly) showing up in the Windows Playback device list. You can check this by right click on the speaker icon on the lower right corner and select Playback
7. On Win 7, everytime you have the PC connected to SC-68 and turn on USB DAC, Windows would automatically switch playback to sc-68 for you. If not, follow step 6 above to manually select it.
8. Once your windows playback is set to sc-68, WHATEVER music you play, WHATEVER software you use to play, will sound out from sc-68. It has nothing to do with WMP or jRiver, foobar or what not, or how you connect your HDMI cable, etc. It has also nothing to do low-res or high-res files at all - just about anything you can play on your PC. (bitrate from 16 to 32 bit, freq. from 44.1 to 192kHz).

Regarding sound quality, it has to do with the software you use on Windows. All the music files you can play on your PC are already digitalized (such as mp3, flac, or wav). The D to A conversion will happen on sc-68. The goal (for what we can do) is to pipe those digital bits to sc-68 usb dac without any change (aka. bit-perfect) or delay.

Depends on the software that you use to play your music, there is something called Audio Output Mode which you may or may not be able to change. WMP and iTune do not allow you to change it while more advanced players such as jRiver (not free), foobar, audacity and winamp do allow you to select the mode you want.

If you can select Audio Output Mode, select based the following priority in order:
1) on Windows Vista, Windows 7, or newer, use WASAPI exclusive (this is not available on XP)
2) on Windows XP, if your software provides a ASIO driver, use ASIO. If not, download ASIO4ALL and try it. ASIO is very much hardware dependent. I have tried it with jRiver on Win7 and it works fine. I believe bbear tried ASIO4ALL with foobar on XP and also worked.
3) Otherwise, use Kernel Streaming if it works.
4) If none of the above are possible, use DirectSound or WaveOut. Neither of these provide hardware direct output.
The top 3 bypass Windows kernel mixer and therefore not only avoid delay but also avoid Windows making changes to the bits. There should be an audible difference in sound quality when you have switched from 4 to any one in 1 to 3 above.

You also don't want to make any sound effects, EQ or audo volume leveling adjustments on you player software. Some software have some of those features turned on by default. Again, the goal is to send the sound bits unaltered to sc-68, so turn them all off. You can make those adjustments on sc-68 if needed.

Hope this helps! I know nothing about MAC.
Edited by soniky - 1/17/13 at 11:12am

If your OS is windows 7 and have admin rights, you should try installing by right clicking on the executable and selecting "Run as Administrator".

FYI: If you do not have admin rights, OS does not allow registry changes.

When you have internet radio working, that means sc-68 is on the network without problem. I remember I changed from DHCP to a fixed IP for SC-68 since DHCP IP may change and I don't want to do a discovery when it changes. However, this should not prevent it from working on the first time. Other than that, may need to check your PC firewall if it blocks sc-68 from connecting. You may try disabling the firewall or any real-time antivirus scanning to see if it makes a difference. Some firewall also has trusted/untrusted protection if it sees a unknow device on the network. I think the media server authentication is optional (at least that's what I saw on jRiver. It won't be in the play unless it is enabled.)

Excellent, clear instructions.

Only things I would add is that I also had to do the following:

Copy the file structure from the CD to computer hard drive and run setup from there.
Use Internet Explorer (setup procedure would not work all the way through when using Chrome, but I did not try Firefox)

Don't know why I had to do these steps and others have not, maybe it is an XP compatibility thing. I have however read of others having the same issues with installing AVNav and the USB-DAC driver, so if all else fails, then it does no harm to try.

No realtime firewall installed and built in XP firewall is disabled.

The receiver should have connected to the Synology 1511+ Diiskstation. All users/everyone have permission to connect to in from any PC connected to my network. I also think it's DNLA certerfied. I have to check to make sure.

Is there any specific windows account that needs to be listed on the permissions / security tab for folder/drive that the music files are located in on the PC for the receiver to connect

I am confused if you want sc-68 to connect direclty to your NAS or PC. In either case, you need a DLNA server software running on the NAS or the PC as media server for sc-68 to connect to. There is no special Windows account involved. I did a quick check on 1511+ specs and I don't see DLNA mentioned. Maybe that's the problem. On PC, you can use WMP, jRiver, Foobar or something that can run as a DLNA media server.

If 1511+ doesn't support DLNA, there may be an alternative. It is to use PC as the media server and share your music folders on 1511+ to the PC. Once sc-68 is connected to your media server running on your PC, it then can access all those folders. I use jRiver on my laptop as my media server at home and it has access to another PC's shared folders where I have all my music files and it works as I described. (yes, sc-68 talks to the laptop and the laptop talks to the pc all on the same network.)

BTW, I am not sure if all the media server software work the same or not. With jRiver, I have the option to select songs/folders from sc-68 (this for sure should work for all of them). Or, I can select songs/playlists on my laptop and tell jRiver to play to sc-68 (this I am not sure because I don't use the other ones). I can start the music playing from either end. Actually, I have jRIver running on all my PCs at home downstairs and upstairs. So, technically, I can play songs to sc-68 from any one of those PCs as long as sc-68 is on media server mode. (just one at a time LOL). I've not tried playing videos yet, but it should work as it is part of the DLNA standard. Although I'd imagine there maybe a gap if the network is not fast enough.

Thank YOU! I have been benefiting from you and the others on this thread a lot. Actually, a supporting thread like this has added to my purchasing decision and I also get to enjoy it more.

bbear, thanks!
Wonder how you like what you hear from usb dac now or do you prefer to use the optic connection?

The 1511+ has DLNA but needed to be enabled. Once I did that I was able to connect to the 1511+

Then to the PC. On one with Windows XP I went into media player and and configured sharing. It shows the SC-67 in the box and has a green check next to it. Under settings and customize default is checked.

I then went into monitor folders and added a folder location with music files after it finished I clicked ok on media player. Turned off the SC-68 then on and clicked media server input and it keeps saying "please wait"

I tried a second PC with Windows XP and had same result. I then tried a laptop with XP on it and did same procedure as above and it worked. It popped up on the SC-67 pretty quick.

I tried several more times with above 2 PC's with same procedure and cannot get it to work

Must be a setting on those 2 PCs thats different from the laptop

Any ideas

At the moment I listen to my FLAC music files using a Mapleshade adapter, fed into the COAX1 input of the SC-68. I prefer the sound of the Mapleshade, the Mapleshade is able to preserve detail which just gets lost when using the USB-DAC.

Installing ASIO4ALL and selecting the USB-DAC in the ASIO4ALL setup has helped but still the Mapleshade adapter sounds better.

Pioneer have been given all my test results and their quality team in Japan are investigating. My hope is that this is a driver issue and not some fundamental limitation of the USB-DAC itself.

Over the weekend I plan on borrowing my sons Windows7 laptop to see if the sound is any better running through WASAPI. I will post my results to this thread. I will also post here when I hear back from the QA team in Japan.

Anybody experiencing issues with audio over HDMI with the SC-68? I am having trouble getting audio and video to work simultaneously over HDMI on a Mac.

I just went through this same issue with a friend of mine turned out that the apple out to HDMI converter he had only transmitted video for some apparent reason we had to buy another that specifically said it transmitted both video and audio, also go into the audio settings in the laptop and make sure the audio is set to HDMI. try that for now!

I had to take a time out from the SC-68 due to illness, but was able to get the USB-DAC installed on my HTPC tonight, at least sort of. I upgraded to IE 9, and then I disabled my ATI HDMI and Realtek devices, and then clicked on the USB exe file. I had to leave it on the blue screen on the USB input for the whole process and blindly hit return on my keyboard for around 10 minutes, and I finally heard windows sounds come over the Speakers. However, even though System Restore shows that I installed the Pioneer audio device, it doesn't show up in my list of audio devices. However, as long as I leave the other devices disabled, it is playing my FLAC files over USB.

I'll probably stick with HDMI for most listening, as it simply sounds great, and I hate giving up the graphic displays from PC software, as well as multichannel with subwoofer. I still don't quite understand why I can't pick HDMI Video from the PC input to be displayed while the Pioneer is on the USB input for audio, my Denon 4308 let me mix and match video and audio inputs, but I'm sure it's a basic concept that I don't understand.

I am thrilled that the Pioneer seems to communicate better with my PC, which is now able to play back all my HTPC blu-rays through My Movies at 23hz rather than 24. I didn't even have the option before, so everything plays smoothly now - a great added bonus I didn't even expect!

I got my SC68 delivered yesterday. I got a great price from an authorized dealer and UPS shipping got it here quickly.

I had a Denon 5803 before and I'm VERY happy with how the Pioneer sounds.

I'm having a strange problem and I'm hoping I could get some guidance.....

My TV is a 70" Sony Grand Wega without HDMI ports, but the connection from the SC68 to the TV with a HDMI to DVI cable worked fine.

I have my cable box connected to the SC68 via HDMI. But the SC68 won't produce any sound from the cable box.

I made sure the Cable box was sending audio by connecting the HDMI cable to a 32" TV I had.
I made sure the port on the SC68 was good by connecting my OPPO to the port.
I made sure the cable was good by swapping the OPPO cable.

I also tried using the Coax as well as optical cable.

No matter what I do the SC68 didn't decode any sound.

Then, with the TV off, I turned on the SC68 and there was sound from the cable box. I could change channels, etc, and I got sound.

But.... If I turn on the TV sound wil stay on for a while sometimes. If I change channels, the sound goes away.

I can replicate this almost at will.

Any thoughts? I tried just about all I can think of for troubleshooting.....

Jack
Edited by JackVette - 1/19/13 at 12:12pm

[quote name="moooog" url="/t/1422205/official-pioneer-sc-68-67-thread/840#post_22849652" I still don't quite understand why I can't pick HDMI Video from the PC input to be displayed while the Pioneer is on the USB input for audio, my Denon 4308 let me mix and match video and audio inputs, but I'm sure it's a basic concept that I don't understand.
![/quote]

Congratulations on getting the USB-DAC to work!

I also cannot see a reason why Pioneer would prevent video when the USB-DAC is selected. Really though, the SC-68 ought to be able to handle these configurations.

I found an issue with not being able to have a particular setup, but in my case the SC-68 screen says that it is supported - but it just doesn't work!

I have a workaround in the form of an external HDMI switch which I already had laying around. It was from Monoprice, was very affordable and works great. It can be controlled by IR, so I have programmed my Harmony One remote to select the right HDMI port.

It is crazy though that I have to use an external HDMI switch around something like the SC-68 which has so any HDMI inputs and supposedly very configurable.

In case anyone is interested, here was my original setup:

Mapleshade adapter (plugged into USB port of my computer) connected to the COAX1 input of SC-68. Video from my computer outputting over DVI to HDMI cable
HDMI cable from computer plugged into DVD input of SC-68
DVD input of SC-68 set up to receive video over HDMI
DVD input of SC-68 set up to receive audio over COAX1

Result: Video - OK, Audio - NO AUDIO

If I Change the video for DVD input to 'Component' the Audio from the computer comes through ok (but there is no video displayed on my TV obviously)

Pioneer have been notified of this problem and I wait for a fix. In the meantime I continue to use my external HDMI switch.

Yes. Control is totally off underthe HDMI setup.

Thank you for trying to help....

I played with standby (which was working fine) and also with the Amp setting. No luck.

Please don't think too hard now.... I worked around it by changing the wiring for now.

I'm hoping the problem is the cable box. I will swap it out next weekend and see if that fixes it.

I quickly tried a different cable box and it kinda worked okay. Not fully, but I'm hoping its the ancient comcast box I have.

I do love this pioneer unit. Sounds great. Some quirks that annoy me right now, but I'll get by....

Thank you very much

Guys,
Just got my Pioneer LX-86 last night. Is there a way to adjust the individual crossover of each speaker?

Thanks