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Pioneer Elite VSX-42 Owner's Thread

post #1 of 30
11/28/12 at 8:17pm
Thread Starter 
Forgive me if I failed at searching, but I did not see this here. About 5 days ago I went to Best Buy looking for a new receiver to replace my still working Yamaha HTIB from 2000, and upgrade to a blueray player. After looking around for an hour and not knowing anything about home audio, I settled on the Pioneer Elite VSX-42 reciever and the Samsung E5900 blueray player. The Pioneer was listed at $450 but seemed to be on sale for $250. I took it home and set it up, but the front LED lights on the unit wouldn't turn on. I called up Pioneer and they told me to exchange the unit for a new one. I did this last night and just finished setting up the unit again. I have the Pioneer VSX-42 connected via HDMI to my Fios set tob box, HDBI to the blue ray player, HDMI to the Samsung UN55C6300 led tv, HDMI to the XBOX, and HDMI to my computer. I have a 5.1 speaker system that was part of the Yamaha HTIB set I bought back in 2000. I believe I have the speakers wired correctly but I do not hear any rear audio coming from the speakers on any tv programming. I ran the initial MCAAC test and definitely heard all the individual speakers. Does anyone else here currently have this unit and can tell me much about it? I found very few reviews on this unit. It seems to be very similiar to the Pioneer VSX-1022 K model that I looked at in Best Buy. i was told that the Elite line was better than the regular Pioneer line, but I really don't know what the differences are. I am certainly not an audiophile, and the only reason I upgraded my receiver was for HDMI plugs..... Was that a dumb idea ? . Did I make a good purchase? Thanks for any help that can be offered.
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post #2 of 30
12/6/12 at 1:30pm
Thread Starter 
Does anyone else have this unit ??
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post #3 of 30
12/13/12 at 9:29am
Thread Starter 
Guess it's not a popular model?
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post #4 of 30
12/13/12 at 9:51am
Thread Starter 
So what is the best wak to hook up my computer which has onboard audio via the motherboard to the vsx-42 ??
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post #5 of 30
12/13/12 at 5:21pm
If your mobo has HDMI out? or maybe the video card??
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post #6 of 30
12/13/12 at 10:39pm
Thread Starter 
The computer is connected with a hdmi plug from the video card to the receiver in the video hdmi slot. I get the picture from the computer on my tv but not any audio through the receiver. Thanks for the response so far.
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post #7 of 30
12/13/12 at 11:08pm
Sorry about that I hit the send key while typing on my phone. Many tv channels still are broadcast in stereo in my area. If you are watching hd channels you should be getting 5.1. Not every show is recorded in 5.1. Some blurays are 7.1. Try out a bluray with 7.1 and your rear speakers should come alive. Be careful if you rent from redbox not all rentals are 7.1 to save on costs. You can set the pioneer to expanded surround to simulate 5.1 and 7.1. There is another surround setting in the pioneer too. Remember that typically less than 10% of the audio comes from the rear speakers I have 3 pioneer receivers and one Yamaha. The elite series typically carry a 3 year warranty vs a one year. You have one of the best built entry level receivers on the market that should last for years. I have an old sc 35 that has been running four years about five hours a day versus an old onkyo that burned up in 14 months. Supposedly onkyo has fixed the heat issues but I will never go back. Good luck and maybe follow the thread for the vsx 1022.
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post #8 of 30
12/13/12 at 11:16pm
If connecting via motherboard you may have to go into the bios and change the audio to hd audio via hdmi Check out assassins paid blog on building a HTPC. It's money well spent. There are screen shots on how to set up the bios to carry audio over hdmi plus how to build a legitimate HTPC. You can find his free thread on AVS but I highly recommend paying for his blog.
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post #9 of 30
12/13/12 at 11:34pm
Here you go on pass through.
Not sure about the commerical sounds, but you definitely can pass through signals. You have to make sure the HDMI control menu is on.

Steps:
1. System Setup Menu, enter
2. HDMI Setup, enter
3. Select "Control Mode" and switch to on, press enter.
4. Select Standby Through and select the HDMI port that you want to pass through.

Viola, there you go! The upconverter will still convert the video signals, too.
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post #10 of 30
12/14/12 at 10:12am
Thread Starter 
You are a wealth of information, thank you. I will surely have more questions.....
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post #11 of 30
12/20/12 at 9:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisc31759 View Post

Sorry about that I hit the send key while typing on my phone. Many tv channels still are broadcast in stereo in my area. If you are watching hd channels you should be getting 5.1. Not every show is recorded in 5.1. Some blurays are 7.1. Try out a bluray with 7.1 and your rear speakers should come alive. Be careful if you rent from redbox not all rentals are 7.1 to save on costs. You can set the pioneer to expanded surround to simulate 5.1 and 7.1. There is another surround setting in the pioneer too. Remember that typically less than 10% of the audio comes from the rear speakers I have 3 pioneer receivers and one Yamaha. The elite series typically carry a 3 year warranty vs a one year. You have one of the best built entry level receivers on the market that should last for years. I have an old sc 35 that has been running four years about five hours a day versus an old onkyo that burned up in 14 months. Supposedly onkyo has fixed the heat issues but I will never go back. Good luck and maybe follow the thread for the vsx 1022.

You are right about the dvds and rear audio vs tv. I put a few blu ray dvds in and the rear audio is definitely there. On sporting events on tv it is practically non existent.
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post #12 of 30
12/20/12 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
I am still having an issue with getting the audio from the computer to work through the receiver and speakers. darn it.

Would running the optical cable from the computer's motherboard to the receiver solve the audio problem?
Edited by nyrmetros - 12/20/12 at 11:33pm
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post #13 of 30
12/20/12 at 11:32pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/StaticFiles/Manuals/Home/VSX-42_OperatingInstructions070312.pdf

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post #14 of 30
12/25/12 at 11:02pm
Sorry I've been out of town for a few days. Running audio over optical works fine. You would just need to change the audio settings on the receiver to optical from hdmi or auto. Maybe delete the audio drivers on your pc and redownload them from your motherboards website. There is a glitch somewhere.

In addition check out the settings on your cable box to make sure surround sound is selected. This might be the reason you are only getting stereo for tv. When 5.1 is available the receiver should display "Dolby digital" or something similar. Good luck and don't give up.
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post #15 of 30
12/27/12 at 1:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisc31759 View Post

Sorry I've been out of town for a few days. Running audio over optical works fine. You would just need to change the audio settings on the receiver to optical from hdmi or auto. Maybe delete the audio drivers on your pc and redownload them from your motherboards website. There is a glitch somewhere.
In addition check out the settings on your cable box to make sure surround sound is selected. This might be the reason you are only getting stereo for tv. When 5.1 is available the receiver should display "Dolby digital" or something similar. Good luck and don't give up.

So while I was playing with some setting I "accidentally" got the PC audio working with the tv video on, but I was unable to get the PC video to work with the PC audio. I was unable to replicate this at all, and now I am back to step 1. lol. I am going to try this again tomorrow and hopefully I will have better results....
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post #16 of 30
1/4/13 at 9:05am
Thread Starter 
I still have not had any luck getting this set up. I am currently running an optical cable from my EVGA 780i motherboard to the receiver, and aHDMI cable from the PNY 260 video card to the "video" HDMI port on the receiver. I just re-installed the Realtek audio drivers and I still can not get any audio to work through the receiver. What computer or receiver settings are I screwing up??
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post #17 of 30
1/6/13 at 1:40pm
Hi all!
Just got home with one of these from Best Buy a few minutes ago and I'm having a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help me with. I've got my PlayStation 3 and Comcast Motorola HD-DVR running into the receiver via HDMI cables using the HDMI pass-through. I then have the HDMI out on this receiver running into a Samsung sound bar that has HDMI pass-through capabilities and then from there the HDMI cable runs into the HDMI input on my LED TV. The PS3 works fine this way (after I figured out how to get the receiver to output sound to the sound bar instead of trying to use speakers that I haven't purchased/connected yet), but when I switch the input over to the HD-DVR on the receiver I get audio but no video. I've tried connecting the HDMI cable that worked on the PS3 to the HD-DVR, but same issue, so I don't think it's the HDMI cable. Any help would be much appreciated!!!!!!!!!!
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post #18 of 30
1/8/13 at 4:20pm
Thread Starter 
I hope some one can offer some suggestions for you. I am still struggling to figure out why I need both a HDMI cable and a spdif cable running from my fios cable box to my receiver in order to get the audio working. When I unplug the spdif cable I do not get any audio from the tv, only video. In addition, I still can not get audio to work coming from the computer, just the video. Argh.....
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post #19 of 30
1/16/13 at 9:22am
Thread Starter 
So I think I figured out the situation, and I might be an idiot. The PNY 260 video card that I am using does not have native HDMI, but DVI-D.... I am using a converter dongle to connect from DVI-D to HDMI. I just found out that DVI-D does not have audio, just video. This is why the computer showed the VSX-42 connection but no audio was coming up..... lol
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post #20 of 30
2/7/13 at 1:17pm
I'm looking for an audio processor that has a preout which can output a line level controllable mix of channels to my preamp. At the same time, I'd like to use the center channel speaker output (so not send the center channel or subwoofer to the preamp). I'm under the impression after looking at the manual that I can't do this with the VSX-42, but if I'm wrong, please tell me how.
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post #21 of 30
2/14/13 at 10:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcnblues View Post

I'm looking for an audio processor that has a preout which can output a line level controllable mix of channels to my preamp. At the same time, I'd like to use the center channel speaker output (so not send the center channel or subwoofer to the preamp). I'm under the impression after looking at the manual that I can't do this with the VSX-42, but if I'm wrong, please tell me how.

Forgive me, but what is preout and preamp? I am new to this technology it seems.
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post #22 of 30
2/15/13 at 7:52pm
A preout makes it possible to connect a separate power amp to the receiver. The VSX-42 does not have this.
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post #23 of 30
4/9/13 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 
Is that necessary for a novice user? What are some good speakers and subwoofer to connect to this unit? I am currently using the speakers and subwoofer from an old Yamaha HTIB system. Any suggestions?

And as for this Pioneer unit, has anyone else purchased it recently?
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post #24 of 30
4/11/13 at 9:32am
Thread Starter 
It seems that the VSX-42 is no longer listed on the Pioneer webpage......

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/AV-Receivers/Elite+Receivers

Is this receiver "finished" already ??
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post #25 of 30
4/16/13 at 2:22pm
Thread Starter 
So what would be some decent but not overpriced speakers and subwoofer to pair with this unit? I am currently using a 10 year old Yamaha HTIB 5.1 setup.

Any thoughts on the Energy cb-5 bookshelf speakers? Subwoofer? My budget ideally would be no more than $600 for a 5.1 system.
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post #26 of 30
4/25/13 at 4:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nyrmetros View Post

So what would be some decent but not overpriced speakers and subwoofer to pair with this unit? I am currently using a 10 year old Yamaha HTIB 5.1 setup.

Any thoughts on the Energy cb-5 bookshelf speakers? Subwoofer? My budget ideally would be no more than $600 for a 5.1 system.
Hey how's it going? You're not alone, I just picked up my second vsx 42 on clearance from best buy last night. It definitely is an awesome receiver when properly set up. It is a little complicated for most people as they had 5 open box returns at my local best buy.

As far as small low priced high quality speakers, I'm using polk audio tsi100's for the front and back. The csi10 polk audio center and a mtx 12inch sub for my first set up. In my second setup I'm using the pioneer sp b22 for my front and back, and the pioneer c 22 center with another mtx 12 inch sub. As far as speakers go these are both low priced sets with good quality sound. I don't think they sell the subs anymore as I bought them back in 08. Out of these two sets the polk audio's have better sound quality in my opinion, but both sets sound great and you can't go wrong with either one.
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post #27 of 30
4/28/13 at 7:33am
Thread Starter 
The VSX-42 is currently $380 at my local Best Buy, yet it was on sale for $250 in December. Weird. lol. I was looking at some Energy and Def Tech speakers and subwoofer, but certainly open to other options..
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post #28 of 30
4/28/13 at 4:40pm
Yeah, it was $329 on clearance plus 10% off for open box and $110 off in reward zone cash, so I ended up getting it for $186 actually $203 after tax. Those are good speakers you are looking into as well. I would go to best buy or fry's electronics and listen to the different speakers in person and pick which ones sound best. How are you enjoying your system so far? What kind of tv do you have hooked up to?
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post #29 of 30
4/29/13 at 8:52am
Thread Starter 
I don't have a Frys near me, and my local Magnolia Best Buy store mostly has Energy and DefTech speakers and subwoofers in my price range. I am not an audiophile so I clearly have no idea which is the best bang for my buck.... I mostly just go with reviews online......
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post #30 of 30
5/25/13 at 12:01am
Thread Starter 
The tv is a Samsung un55c6300.... Bluray is a Samsung e5900....


So how do I plug my android phone into the receiver?
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