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Confusion regarding different sound modes

post #1 of 9
1/25/13 at 10:57am
Thread Starter 
I have a BD-550 connected to a HTR-4065. I was watching 3:10 to Yuma last night. The audio was set to the 7.1 PCM mix(the default). My understanding is that this is the base audio with no sound processing.

My understanding is that Straight mode on the receiver plays the PCM track exactly as it's presented. However, whenever I use, only three speakers are active. I have to turn on a sound mode in order to get full 5.1. If I use Direct, only my L/R speakers work.

How do the different modes work and which one should I use? Do I need a different one for blu-rays, netflix, etc?

Thanks.
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post #2 of 9
1/26/13 at 1:21am
How is your player connected to your receiver?
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post #3 of 9
1/26/13 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

How is your player connected to your receiver?

All of my stuff is connected via HDMI to the receiver and then I have one HDMI cable going to the tv for video.
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post #4 of 9
1/26/13 at 1:48pm
Your symptoms suggest the player is sending stereo, not multichannel. Is the audio output priority set to HDMI? And is the HDMI PCM output set to stereo or multichannel? (I don't recall the exact settings and terms used on the Sony 550. Haven't looked at that manual in awhile. But, they're something like that.)

Stereo output can sometimes happen, regardless of the player output settings, because of the HDMI audio handshake with the TV. TVs are 2 channel devices and the set may be telling the player to send stereo. Receivers often have a setting to disable the HDMI audio output, which would solve that problem. Or, as a test, you can simply unplug the HDMI connection to the TV and see if you start getting multichannel audio.
Edited by BIslander - 1/26/13 at 1:54pm
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post #5 of 9
1/27/13 at 6:53am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

Your symptoms suggest the player is sending stereo, not multichannel. Is the audio output priority set to HDMI? And is the HDMI PCM output set to stereo or multichannel?

Not sure what you mean. I'll look in the menus and check.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

(I don't recall the exact settings and terms used on the Sony 550. Haven't looked at that manual in awhile. But, they're something like that.)

It's an LG, actually.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

Stereo output can sometimes happen, regardless of the player output settings, because of the HDMI audio handshake with the TV. TVs are 2 channel devices and the set may be telling the player to send stereo. Receivers often have a setting to disable the HDMI audio output, which would solve that problem. Or, as a test, you can simply unplug the HDMI connection to the TV and see if you start getting multichannel audio.

I'll take a look. I don't believe it's outputting sound to the TV though. And this happens with my Roku and Apple TV as well.

EDIT: Okay, the BD player was set to PCM Stereo. I changed it to Primary Pass Thru and now I'm getting all speakers on Straight and Direct(need to look up the difference on those two).

However, the Roku only has two settings for audio. Stereo and 5.1. I have it set to 5.1 but Straight and Direct don't give me all of the speakers.
Edited by Bai Shen - 1/27/13 at 7:15am
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post #6 of 9
1/27/13 at 8:33am
Glad you are good on the BD player. (Sony has a BDP-S550. Sorry about the confusion.)

Most content on streaming boxes is only stereo. The 5.1 setting on those boxes means they don't downmix 5.1. But, they still pass stereo sources as stereo. So, find a program that is listed as having 5.1 audio.

Direct on an AVR usually means bypassing room correction and many other processing tools. I'd recommend against using that setting.
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post #7 of 9
1/27/13 at 1:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

Glad you are good on the BD player. (Sony has a BDP-S550. Sorry about the confusion.)

No worries. Blurays sound much better now that I'm not sending just a stereo signal. smile.gif
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

Most content on streaming boxes is only stereo. The 5.1 setting on those boxes means they don't downmix 5.1. But, they still pass stereo sources as stereo. So, find a program that is listed as having 5.1 audio.

Yeah, that turned out to be the case. It only lit up as 5.1 during the program, not the menus.
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Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

Direct on an AVR usually means bypassing room correction and many other processing tools. I'd recommend against using that setting.

What all room corrections are done? Does that mean that the distance and level settings are ignored during Direct?
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post #8 of 9
1/27/13 at 5:57pm
The manual should explain which processing is done/not done in Direct mode. It likely does bass management and distance adjustments, but not much else. However, with some receivers, Direct bypasses everything.
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post #9 of 9
1/28/13 at 6:48am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander View Post

The manual should explain which processing is done/not done in Direct mode. It likely does bass management and distance adjustments, but not much else. However, with some receivers, Direct bypasses everything.

Gotcha. I'll take another look. I read it when I first hooked it up, but haven't checked since.
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