The "Official" Pioneer Elite SC-61/-63 Owners Forum - Page 13

I'm going to ask you a question -
out of the ones you see in attached rear panel diagram, which one do you think?



I'm not trying to be a smart-butt...I'm trying to get you to think...hint - there's only 1 input on the rear panel that has both input & output jacks for playback & recording.

in actuality, if all you want is connect the VCR to inputs, any of them will do equally but there is one set that is set aside for both playback & recording.
Edited by ss9001 - 3/12/13 at 3:26am

I will try to be very basic. The theory of all this is that low frequencies can not be localized by the human body simply because the phase shift between both ears is too small, so below 120Hz it is impossible to know the source direction of the pressure wave. This is why Dolby decided that everything in all the channels, under 80Hz, is best to have go to single source in order to avoid standing wave effects in the room and to optimize the perceived power vs. supplied power. This is good for movies, games, sports or even concerts recorded in any of the Dolby multichannel formats. In this case the bass will go to the LFE channel no matter what and the xover freq is fixed by the standard.

The problem comes when you want to play an analog source or a stereo source with full spectrum signal. In this case we have to rely on the crossover circuitry of the speakers or the one inside the receiver. It depends on the response of your speakers but nowadays receivers do the calibration across the whole spectrum and the result ensures the best response taking into account the response of the speakers and the room.

In case you leave the whole spectrum to big channel speakers, then you are relying the filtering on the speaker internal xover circuit. You can do this by setting the speakers to LARGE.

What happens when you try to set speakers to large and also use the subwoofer? under this configuration you are just trying to use all the bass power in order to sum all the power. Well, the xover circuit inside the speakers adds some phase shift and it will just cancel the power coming from other speaker, and it is not the same for the whole frequency range. It is really a nightmare and there is no way to do it right even with state of the art technology. The easiest way is having a single bass signal going to 1 or more identical subwoofers. Only this way you ensure that the power is going to be in sync across the full bass spectrum and that it always be additive and never destructive. Nonetheless with more than one source you will always have standing wave effects if your room is too large. This is the reason why Dolby decided that having a fixed xover frequency is the only way to ensure the signal response.

IMHO, the best results should be obtained by setting the xover to 80-120HZ(try 100-120 in your case) in the receiver for all the channels and to the max in the back of the subwoofer. Then run full auto Advanced MCACC setting all the speakers to 'small' and sub to 'yes' and after that just tune it to your best preference. We all know that perceived fidelity is not the same than the objective fidelity and the final configuration should be the best of our ears and not for our spectrum analyzers.

Regards

JohnnyTV82 figured it out! What is DVR/BDR In/Out?

congratulations!

DVR.BDR is labeled that way for the analog inputs from a Digital Video Recorder or Blu-ray Video Recorder. A DVR could be a cable box recorder or DVD recorder with or without built-in hard disc recording. DVD disc recorders used to be big maybe 7-8 yrs ago but only a handful of companies make them anymore for the consumer market.

here's a detailed description of DVR from wikipedia:

"A digital video recorder (DVR), sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder (PVR), is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes (STB) with direct to disk recording facility, portable media players (PMP) with recording, recorders (PMR) as camcorders that record onto Secure Digital memory cards and software for personal computers which enables video capture and playback to and from a hard disk drive."

BDR's for recording onto Blu-raydisc media are rare in the US market but more popular in Japan.

as you discovered, DVR jacks are interchangeable with VCR's in use although receivers don't come with VCR labeled jacks anymore I guess the companies are assuming most have ditched them by now, but I still have mine, too, even tho I haven't used it in 2+ years

Although I'm an Android fanboy, my wife has an iPhone (we're a mixed marriage!) which I used to test out the Airplay feature. Initially, I was having issues with the iPhone 4S seeing the receiver. The little Airplay symbol was not visible in her Music (iTunes) app. After I loaded Fing, a network diagnostic tool, I was able to get her phone to detect the receiver. I'm not sure that I did anything other than loading the Fing app, which is free BTW. My iTunes on a Windows based PC worked fine from the get-go, as does Windows Media Player. With WMP, you need to add the Pioneer receiver as a Digital Media Renderer device.

Airplay worked fine since the beginning. No problem using Airplay from the 2 iPad and 2 iPod touch at home and even from my Samsung phone. You only need to be sure that your phone is using the wifi of your home instead of the GSM interface. No problem even when having multiple Airplay servers and hosts in the same home network since I also have an Apple TV attached to the same router and I never had any issue.

Regards

Thanks, okibcn. What app are you using to connect to Airplay using your Samsung phone? I've tried iMediaShare and it works, but I'm not crazy about its interface. It would be nice to find a solution that works inside the Galaxy III's Media Hub. I could add a bluetooth adapter, but that's no fun.

Regards.

I use AppleTV AirPlay Media Player. It is not nice but it works from Android and plays anything to any Airplay device.

Regards

Does anyone know why when I run a bluray that is DTS formatted, I can not get the receiver to play DTS. It just displays in PCM OR STEREO ETC... Thanks for the help!

Do you have your Blu-ray player set to bitstream?

I will have to check my bluray player , that is where I would check? Not the receiver ?

Also, not sure about this one. I changed my speaker layout tosay I have complete surround speakers, but in actuality I have 2 fronts, a center and a sub. Went back to watching (Skyfall) and it then let choose all the settings ie. Dolby, DTS,etc. So my questions are is this the way I have to leave my speaker settings? And does it "take away" power from just having it set for just my fronts,center, and sub? Personally, when I play it on EXT.STEREO it sounds great. Can or will I ever achieve true DTS with my set up? Thanks

The receiver accepts almost all digital standards. The problem is always the output format of the player. I always have to manually configure the software when testing new players in my HTPC or laptop. Same thing happens with PS3, Xbox, blu-rays, etc.

Regards

With your setup you will not hear what goes to the surrounds in any surround mode thus you will never have full DTS until you get a couple of surround speakers. Now you can listen only 3.1 instead of the full 5.1. Each channel has the DTS signal quality but not the whole set. You will gain a lot more than a full DTS experience with 2 more side surround speakers.

Regards

Thank you "Okibcn" for all your info. I did see how I can change it on my Bluray player. As for my receiver I will just play with it to find the best listening setting for each movie, DTS or stereo etc..for my 3.1 setup.

Is it worth the investment to get a pair of B&W CCM663 ceiling speakers? So, to be more exact with set up, couch is 13.5 feet away from TV ( far wall) sitting on a large stand with the CM 5's sitting on the sides of the TV. the center is in the stand. My ceiling is 9 feet high. I am worried about those ceiling speakers "drowning" out my CM 5's. In other words, it just sounding weird because of the set up. What I have now is fine, but like everyone else I am always trying to Find the best set up for the room I have. So, just wondering if installing the speakers would give me that "surround" feeling. Thanks for all your help

You definitely have the same issues that I dealt with. Anyways my house was prewired with the front and rear connections in ceiling and the center connection was half way down the wall where the tv would be. The wife didn't want intrusive speakers so I was going to do all in ceilings except for the center. Then I was talked out of in ceilings when I was listening to demo's because I was told they would never sound very good. However I had no choice but to use in ceilings in the rear. So I ended up with front bookshelfs and center placed right near my tv (fronts had to be near tv due to the recessed tv spot and room layout) and I had in ceilings in the rear above my couch which was backed against the wall. The ceiling is 9ft as well and the tv is about 14ft away like your setup too. I aimed the in ceilings backwards to bounce the sound off the wall and overall it was great for providing surround sound. However it was noticeably different having the rears above my head and the fronts positioned at ear level. And the main problem with my fronts is that they were right beside the tv and therefore not dispersing left and right sound wide enough especially compared to the rear speakers which are 10+ ft apart. I wasn't happy and did more research and listened to more demos. Then I came across the Martin Logan EM-IC's and was amazed at how great they sounded at a demo using the SC-61 with the ML Motion 8 center positioned down below. I ended up with this setup using Helos10 in ceilings for the rears. In short, it sounds freakin amazing!!

So, use in ceilings in the rear if that is your only choice for rear speakers. You need rear speakers any way you can get them to make your system come alive.

If using in ceiling rears and you want the overall sound stage to sound balanced, then you might want to consider in ceiling fronts.

If you use in ceilings fronts, don't skimp on quality. Be prepared to spend no less than $4-500 per speaker. The EM-IC's I got actually sound way better than the Motion 4's I had.

The in ceiling rears do not need to be the best of the best since they are just for surround but they must be timbre matched/same mfr.

Keep the center at TV level and trust the SC-61.

And remember, Lebron James is a beast!!!

Thanks for the info PickleJuice !

Des anyone know or have the same problem as me ? I keep losing connection to my receiver (sc61) to my iPad app and I don't know why ??!! It usually when I try running my DVD player off of my iPad app it seems like. I tried deleting the app and reinstalling it with no success so the last time it did this I had to unplug the router and plug it back in but wanted some other info from the experts first !!

^^
try exiting the app & re-launching it. I've found that usually makes it re-connect. this happens sometimes to me with the iphone app. I have no idea why. at first I thought I needed to reboot the router but nearly 100% of the time, for me, re-launching the app makes it connect again.

+1 on this. I have to say it's been happening more now than it used to on my s3, which can be a pain sometimes, but a couple tries usually fixes it. I noticed I could not get a connection when my wife's phone was connected to the app. I had to close the app on her phone, before it would connect on mine. Same problem happened in the opposite order. Not sure why I can't have two devices connected at the same time

I am in the process of integrating my new SC-61 into my system and have run into a problem I can't figure out. my system is a simple set-up so I must be having an organic servo malfunction. My system is: Samsung 8000 series TV, Pioneer SC-61, Comcast cable receiver, Octava 4X8 Matrix, HSU front, center side, rear, Sub.
I went via HDMI from the Comcast output to one of the HDMI Octava inputs. I sent an Octava HDMI output to the SC-61 Sat HDMI input. I hooked an Octava output to the TV. With this configuration I can use the TV speakers or my speakers driven by the SC-61.
Everything works great EXCEPT for most commercials and some channels (local network) - no sound. when the commercial is over the sound comes back on. On some local network stations I get sound and on some I don't. I changed out the Comcast receiver with no change. I bypassed the Octava system and went directly from the Comcast to the SC-61 and still the same problem. I have gone from AMP off to on with no change. I have gone through the auto surround to direct settings with no change. Can someone help? Thanks

Just hooked up my new SC-65 and this was the tip i needed to get the update through. Thanks

I have a galaxy S3 and I downloaded the Airplay app for android...how do I get it to find my receiver so I can stream my music over it?

I am having a problem figuring out how to get my TV (a Vizio e701-a3) to properly communicate with my new Pioneer Elite SC-63 receiver. I have it hooked up to the receiver via HDMI and my TV is ARC compatible. I have set the receiver to ARC "ON" and I am using the correct HDMI output on the TV for ARC...still no sound.

Also, I notice that whenever I turn on my TV, the receiver turns on as well...that's great, but it defaults to "TV" rather than "SAT" which is what I'd prefer. That way, when I turn the TV on the receiver will transmit signal from the cable box, rather than waiting for audio from the TV, which as I noted above, isn't working via ARC.

hello,

im considering upgrading to this from my 822, which i am not overly impressed with. one feature that my 822 doesnt have that i wanted to make sure the 61 has before i purchase is the ability to display what codec is being received. ie, if i start playback of a DD True HD stream from a BR, my 822 briefly scrolls TRUE HD across the screen, but the only way to get it to display it again is to change inputs and then change back. while it might sound trivial to some, it makes me INSANE!!!!

can any 61 owners confirm i can just toggle through some display setting to show what sort of sound is being fed to the receiver? this was a standard feature on every Onkyo ive ever owned!

the 61 will always tell you the current sound and it stays there. it even switches when the sound does. example of this is when watching a Blu-ray sometimes previews are in stereo. the 61 will display stereo and when sound changes to dd true, it will change on the receiver and stay there until there is another change

this is exactly what i wanted to hear. truth be told, i thought with "only" ~$2500 in speakers connected to it, i only needed a $300 receiver. lesson learned. i hate this thing. i need to get the 61 asap

or check the sc-1222k. Same receiver except for 12v trigger, 2 year warranty instead of 1, and the “ elite" name. you can get it for about half the price. kinda kickin myself for not getting that one. I put to much importance into the 12v trigger, which I probably won't need. if you still want the sc61, shop around and have best buy match, that's what I did.

It does indeed display Dolby True HD and DTS - HD Master Audio if that is the actual data stream. There is also a "Status" bottom on the remote to indicate the audio codec.
_Mike