The "Official" Pioneer Elite SC-61/-63 Owners Forum - Page 8

is the TV connected to the receiver with HDMI? OSD/GUI only works over HDMI.

next, when you select home menu on the remote, can you see it on the TV? if not, then the OSD may be turned off in the setup menu.

from the TV or the front panel, go into the home menu, select system setup. under system setup, select other setup, then select on-screen display setup, and make sure it's turned on or set to a language.

Yes, yes, and for OSD it is set to English...there is no option to turn on.

The GUI shows up...but when adjusting the volume that does not show up on my TV...Sony 55HX850.

Any other ideas?

I don't see volume on my SC-61 with original firmware either. OSD is enabled and I see the menu fine.

Seeing volume on screen would be nice.

^^
hmm, I have the SC-68 so was basing my comments on what it & the SC-67 does, thinking it would also be included in these models because there's nothing I can see in the manual to say otherwise.

but it's looking likely that I'm wrong on this one, guys. sorry about the confusion unless someone can think of another reason.

also, in the SC-68 having the video converter on or off doesn't effect the OSD. one last thing, you could try turning it off but I think it's unlikely to make a difference for you.

this pioneer sc 61 is impossible to do software update.. When I do thru internet (hard wire)... it gives me ERROR 7 after going up to 5% and then stalling..
if I do USB... I get file errors..

Also, pioneer does everything for windows system.. and I have MacBook.. kinda disappointed.

Check over in the 1222-K thread (just about the same receiver minus a few minor features).

I believe with the current update you need to unzip all of the files from Pioneer (I want to say there are 6 or 7?) and make sure they are at the root of the USB key. No folders, etc. I also read a suggestion to make sure the USB key is formatted as FAT file system, but Im not sure how that works in Mac-land.

Quite right. I think Pioneer screwed the pooch on this one. The USB drive requirement is very sensitive. I've seen one gentleman have success Should make a poll. You and me no happiness to one success. I've hosed my NICard apparently trying to get this to update. I went into the SC-61 by 192.168.0.9 and found the update section there. Something bad happened and I lost the cards IP address. Installing the AVNavigator is an option if you install Win7 on your Mac. I did this and it runs fine. Still don't see the rceiver though since the card has no IP.
Good luck. Maybe you should take it to a service center...

^^
I had no problems updating the SC-68 with all 4 FW updates to date. there are others who successfully updated. but I do agree that the make or size of the USB drive shouldn't make a difference but it seems some have no success with a brand and get it to work with another. kind of strange.

but as far as being overly sensitive to files, IMO, no.

common sense indicates that you don't leave the zip file on the drive, just put the unzipped files only so the receiver only sees & can respond to those. and the instructions say it needs to be formatted as FAT, preferably FAT32. do these 2 things & you'll have a better chance of success, IMO. it won't work formatted as NT or linux, or anything else. the directions are quite clear that it has to be FAT. what's difficult about that? why shortcut the process and not format it? why take a chance & put the zip file on the drive?

it's not as bleak as you make it seem that only 1 person out of 3 in your thread had it work, when there are Pioneer threads on every model and every one has had a Pandora update, where there are posters who had no problems as well as some who did.

this doesn't mean that Pioneer is absolved from improving the USB update process so it's not dependent on which brand memory is used.

network updates - once again, if you & the other poster are referring to the Pandora, HTC, & latest gapless apple updates, the directions again are very clear...they are not available as networked updates. so it's not surprising it failed. Pioneer is very clear that all of them were to be USB only. why expect them to be over done over the internet when they said not?

just maybe they didn't want them done over the net to avoid problems with people trying to do them with wifi, dropped connections, slow speeds. unfortunately some owners need saving from themselves, when they refuse to do things in a reliable, foolproof way using a hard wired LAN. so they make it USB only so they don't get people with bricked receivers.

and for the record, I have updated numerous players, BD & HD-DVD, and both my Pioneer receivers and never had one fail. the one Pio AVR is pre-user FW updates. So by the book, it should have been taken to an auth shop. but I had access to the files & the process and many of us SC-09TX owners assumed the risk & updated ours on our own. that process needed RS-232, a flash drive, a CDR, access to the service menu and a special installation utility from Pioneer. not one person who tried these updates had a problem once they knew how to do it, not one had an update failure, and not one bricked their receiver.

so we can agree to disagree that somehow any of these Pioneer updates are flawed. I don't believe it because I've been doing them for several years & not once had a problem...I also follow directions to the letter, am very cautious and don't use Wifi for updating anything, including my players.
Edited by ss9001 - 2/1/13 at 5:43pm

It doesn't show up on my tv either !!

Ok crazy weird!!! I just disconnected everything to put in a tv stand and now I can actually see the volume on the screen. I'm using my remote that came with my cable box which I had programmed to the receiver as well in the past. Before when I put the remote on tv mode, it would just show the tv volume setting which didn't affect anything. But now when I'm on the tv mode, it does turn up the volume on the receiver and it shows a blue bar that is different than what my tv used to display. Only small issue is that the volume control is really slow going up or down compared to when just controlling the receiver. Unfortunately I don't know how this will help any of you guys other than to say that you should try cutting the power to everything after making any setting changes.

Anyways, the wife's happy so I'm happy!!!!

^^
congratulations!

one thing that could be related is if you have HDMI Control turned on & sync mode on. that links the TV & receiver in such a way that one controls the other. could be that has something to do with it or not

but in the end, it works for you. can you see the surround mode on your display or just the volume?

It only shows the volume but that's fine with me. I always leave it on auto surround anyways.

That's great for you on the SC-68 but this is for SC-61 receivers. Perhaps they're architecture is identical but an assumption that may not be valid.
And your assumption that I can't follow instructions is dumbing me down. Pioneer engineer told me how to format the USB stick and to keep it small. Not over 2GB and that means an older model. Sounds pretty twitchy to me. Anyway it's bricked now and on it's way to a service center.

PS as comparison my Sony TV handled the changeover transparently. How can this be so far out of Pioneers control?

I just got my SC-61 today. My set up is as follows -
1. Center Speaker: Polk CS1
2. Front Speakers: Polk Monitor 60
3. Surround Back Speakers: Polk RM 8
4. Subwoofer: Polk 505

PS3 as DVD player.

Here are couple of my questions -
1. Subwoofer effect is almost non-existent. My speakers are set up SMALL and SW is PLUS.
2. Don't see DTS-HD MSTR option while playing Netflix moving via my PS3. Only see L & R on the display panel, instead of seeing all the other speakers listed.
3. What does 12v Trigger really give. If that's the only difference and doesn't have a much of a use for me, I might go with SC-1222-K.
4. How can I see receiver volume on my TV?

Appreciate your help.

Thanks.

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I guess I'll start here.

To start off, I have an SC-61 I bough last year, and I absolutely love it!!!

I just bought the Dark Knight Trilogy Box Set, that was just released on Blu-ray.

The frst 2 movies (are supposed to) play in Dolby True HD, and the 3rd movie in DTS HD-Master.

I of course have bought and played lots of BD's on my Oppo BDP-93, and all get automatically decoded to DTS HD Master..

However, when I play either of the first 2 movies, it plays in regular Dolby Digital.. I thought this might sound like a Receiver issue, but I thought I'd check here.

My receiver is a Pioneer Elite SC-61, and I know it decodes DTHD..

Oddly too, the first 2 Batman movies either skip or don't have a main menu. When I put the BD in the player, it starts playing the movie right away.. I'm stating this because I thought I may have to manually change the audio settings in the BD Menu... but it doesn't even pull up.. if there is one.

Can anyone help? The SC-61 does decode in DTHD correct? I mean it decodes DTSHDM..
Edited by Ejs71 - 2/3/13 at 5:27am

I have a sc-61 which was working fine with two zones set up. Now I have no output from zone 1 and when I try to access the menu I get a 'phones in' message and menu is not accessible. When I plug in head phones I get output through them. Pioneer told me to try plugging in phones and unplug, it this did not work reset factory defaults, I have done both and it is still locked up. If anyone has seen this or can help I appreciate it. Thanks

^^
you could try the Speakers button on the remote. on the remote, hit Receiver, then hit the Speaker button to cycle thru the choices, make sure that OFF is not the one selected. make sure it's set to A or the one corresponding to the speaker configuration you have. see pg 67 in your manual.

if speakers are not Off, then maybe an internal relay is stuck or phone jack contacts are touching in a way that fools the receiver that phones are still connected. you might also try unplugging the receiver for several minutes so that if there's a relay in the circuit, it releases & also jiggling the plug, slightly pushing it in & out, or side to side then pull it out again, unplug the receiver and try again.

I can't think of anything else to try if you already did the reset. it may need a trip to auth shop then

Hi Ejs71, if I remember correctly both Batman Begins and Dark Knight defaults to Dolby Digital 5.1 instead of Dolby TrueHD. Both movie require to manually select TrueHD under "Language" in BD Menu.

I have a 2 week old pioneer elite sc 65 that was bought new from a authorised dealer, due to unforseen tax situation, I will sell at a very good price, if interested pm me, I live in maryland 21220, thanks

hi i have the sc61 and i was wondering if i can have this speaker setup work. front right and left center surround left and right and surround back speakers plus a powered subwoofer. can i get all the speakers to work at on time.

^^
absolutely! that one is very doable. it's a normal 7.1 surround setup and several of your speaker configurations will do that, there's even one for a zone 2/B speakers

I decided to upgrade the firmware on my SC-61 today see what all the hoopla is about since the 49r's are getting crushed. I don't need any of the bug fixes but just wanted to run through the process.

I found the only 2GB flash drive I had, some cheesy giveaway with my companies branding of unknown origins. The first go around was a failure after downloading and extracting the files to the drive with nothing else on it, formatted as FAT. I took it back and formatted it as FAT32 and extracted the files back to it and went ugh the update progress again. This time it recognized the file and estimated 17 minute completion time. I'm not sure how much time went by, but when it got to 100% it said update failed. Ok. Strangely, after doing this the receiver seemed locked up but I did have A/V and I changed the volume and saw the change on the TV, however the volume doesn't match the Pioneer reading so it is worthless. It goes progressively higher numerically with volume increases. I don't think it has anything to do with the update,I think my messing with the HDMI settings the other day took effect after turning off/turning on as I hadn't used it since then. I wasn't able to confirm it actually updated so I started the upgrade again and it now estimated 10 minutes, but ultimately failed again.

The documentation from Pioneer should state that it needs to be FAT32 formatted, and obviously it needs to easily accept larger size flash drives since 2GB or smaller relics are getting increasingly rare. It should also,you know, work. Strange.

I know my post most orobably won't help but:

1. You can force any USB drive size to be formatted to FAT32 for firmware update and when done, you can just reformat it to NTFS. I use a 32GB drive and never had a problem.

2. The latest FW update from Pioneer doesn't seem to work via USB. I never tried updating SC61/63 but have done many SC68 and the latest firmware update ALWAYS FAIL to be install when I try using a USB key. All 2 dozen or so SC68 can only be FW updated successfully via network. I don't know why.

David,

Per Pioneer themselves this upgrade to the SC-61 can ONLY be done via USB thumb drive.

Oh, I see. Have you tried downloading the file from pioneerelectronics.ca instead? Sometimes they have a different source-file. Maybe (just maybe) the US file is corrupt to begin with. I've had experienced Pioneer BD player corrupt file from the US so I had to download it from UK (and vice versa).

It might be worth a shot for those that need the update for the bug fixes but my update journey stops here since I don't need them right now. At this point I agree with others, this update on the SC-61 is severely flawed.

Thanks Steve. Unfortunately, none of this worked, i apreciate the response though. I had another conversation with Pioneer tech support, they think it is a service issue. The reciever is 35 day old, going to try to return it for another. Thanks again.

I'm not familiar with formatting USB drives. If it's not too much to ask, what is the process?

All you need to do is right click on the thumb drive icon and select format. Under that menu there will be format as: fat 16, fat32, ntfs. Just choose fat32 and then clIck format. This way your drive will be forced to be formatted in fat32.

Hello all! I Just replaced an inexpensive pioneer 820 with the SC-63. Pretty simple system 5.1 (4.1) SYSTEM. ATT uverse for cable and oppo 103 for discs. I am having a major problem with sound dropping with my cable. With my old setup, I ran my ATT box hdmi right to my display and ran the optical to my receiver for audio purposes. That way I could always just use the TV without the receiver if need be. Now I decided to run the ATT hdmi to the receiver, then on to tv to take advantage of the better video precessing of the new Pioneer(fantastic BTW). BUT, on many channels the audio gets spotty and drops(misses) every ten seconds or so with some material. Some channels are much more affected. I thought maybe it was a problem with the hdmi feed so I went back to my other method and ran hdmi to the tv and optical from the cable box to the receiver for just sound and it still has the same issue, audio through optical feed was spotty. It is not the ATT box since the same hdmi audio feed that was spotty with the receiver, is just fine when run to the TV. Audio is perfect. Any ideas? Some channels that were bad yesterday are fine today, but others are affected. Seems no premium channels have yet been effected(HBO, showtime, etc)
I am lost on this one.