Sony STR-DA5200ES Owner's Thread - Page 45

This was discussed earlier in the thread. I emailed Sony and Sony confirmed that the 5200ES does NOT pass 1080p/24, only 1080p/60.

Hello all. I have recently acquired a 5200ES and have it hooked up to my Toshiba A30 via HDMI outputting to my Samsung LNT4661F via HDMI and it works flawlessly. However, when I hook up my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD cable box to the 5200ES via HDMI, the signal, both audio and video, constantly cuts in and out. The 8300HD is set to output a 1080i signal. If I hook the 8300HD up via component cable to the 5200ES while still outputting to the Samsung via HDMI, it works fine. Has anyone else seen this problem? I have searched this thread and found only a couple of references to a Scientific Atlanta box, but no references to this exact problem. I would like to stick to HDMI so I can eliminate a lot of the cable clutter. Any advice? Thanks for your time.

Is there a way to map a button on the Second Zone remote to the Phono output? I've run an older iPod to the Phono input using an RCA cable as I've discovered the digital outputs won't work on the second zone. Any suggestions? (and yes I know I won't get optimum sound this way but it seems to be the best solution).

Thanks

Hey everyone. I'm having a curious problem with my 5200ES which I cannot solve. For some reason when I bring up the GUI, everything is frozen. The arrow keys do not allow me to navigate. Thus, its a real pain configuring this guy when the GUI doesn't work properly. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Let me know if any of you know the solution.

EDIT: I figured out that the GUI only crashed/froze when I switched to the DVD input. I have no idea why, but everything works fine as long as I don't switch to DVD. If I do switch to DVD, the only way to reactivate the GUI, is to select the tuner input. Somehow this sets everything right. Even though I found a work-around, I'll probably get rid of this thing.

Thanks,

Chad

Hi Chad,
While I have not had your exact problem, my 5200 sometimes misbehaves in strange ways after switching inputs (e.g., video occasionally won't sync after a switch to HDMI). Cycling the manual power button usually gets its behavior back in line for days to weeks. Now I am in the habit of cycling the manual power switch every few days. Good luck, David

David,

Thanks for the reply. Cycling the power has not helped, however switching to the FM tuner immediately fixes the problem and unlocks the GUI until I switch back to the DVD input.

Anyone know the 4 digit code to program the Comcast remote to control the volume on 5200es?

Sorry not to get back but have been busy with a few other issues. I have a second HDTV set up with a Yamaha 3800. I now have set up streaming audio from my Vista media center to the 3800, check that thread if you are interested. But the fun news is that the PS3, which has wireless, when attached to the 5200ES gives you, yes, streaming audio. Works like a charm and it picks up my media server. I was an early adopter of the PS3 back in 2006 I guess. I really like it for SACDs and the streaming audio (I have 600 CDs on the server).

Too bad they do not do a firmware update on the 5200ES but I do not miss whatever they have on the 5300ES as there seems to be some other issues with that machine. This one has been rock solid in my set-up. I have two zones running and a SONY Bravia TV as well as various computer connections not to mention Yellow Dog Linux....

We, good luck to everyone with the 5200ES.

PS Cheers and send a private e-mail if anyone has questions as I mostly follow the Yamaha 3800 forum... they do firmware updates on that... and it is a nice machine but not quite in the same category as this SONY. They do have a very active set of hackers working on it.

PPS Both set-up have Vienna Acoustics speakers (SONY has 5 and Yamaha 2). I have stayed away from Denon as they have blown out a friend's Vienna Acoustics..... dangerous world that of 4 ohm....

It pretty much sucks that you can't route audio from the digital inputs to zone2 or zone3, only analog audio is working.

^^^If you do some checking you'll find that many (most??) AVRs are like this.

Well, it's pretty bad then if that is the case, something that would be solvable if they put some effort into it.

Just hooked up the 5200 and have a 7.1 setup. I would like to know what sound field everyone likes to use. I started with the Cinema studio ex B, but the surrounds are very unclear that way. Looking for suggestions for the best decoding of BD and HD-DVD sources.
Thanks

How are you sending the audio to the receiver? From HD DVD and Blu-ray sources it might be advantageous to have the player decode the soundtrack (if its in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD) since the 5200 cannot decode the new codecs. When you do the decoding in the player, the 5200ES cannot apply any post-processing to the PCM signal. This means it cannot matrix 5.1 sources to 7.1.

All HDMI, so what would you use AFD?

I use AFD almost all the time. For the occasional two channel source, I use Pro-Logic II movie or music.

Comcast code for the 5200, anyone?

Hello. I've had my 5200es for about 10 months now. Just recently, It feels like the AMP isn't as 'loud' as when I first got it. I thought I might have been going crazy until my wife asked me about it as well. For example, playing a movie at 0db used to be extremely loud, usually about -5 to -7db was a good volume for all. However now, I'm at +5-10db to get where I felt the equivalent volume setting.

Additionally, even now when I try autocalibrating, it doesn't come in loud enough for the microphone to pick it up by that's probably a whole other story.

ANYONE experience or think they experience this same phenomenon? I'm at a loss...

I appreciate any thougths...

BTW, as of tonight I did a full 'memory clear' of the system and that didn't seem to help...


Regards,
Brad

I've had mine for about 18 Months & I know exactly what you mean. I have just accepted it as is. I am a total Sony fanboy(tm) & I am very upset with this 5200ES. For the price I feel it does not have the polish that it should have (Can you tell I'm bitter about the whole not being able to rename HDMI inputs too )

Amazing! Thanks for sharing. I'm glad someone else can validate. The funny thing is I get no errors, no signs, no nothing that anything is wrong. I'm really bummed about this. Although it still has good power, it clearly isn't as strong. It's extremely odd behavior. I am also a Sony fan. Previously owned a sony 333es from way back. Absolutely rock solid unit. I've been a big fan of this version especially with the on screen menus. The renaming of the HDMI is a low priority nit for me as no receiver is perfect. However, the power loss befuddles me and has taken some of my love away for the unit...

Anyone with ideas on how to fix or can relate...I would love to hear from you also...

I noticed this the other day on mine and figured I was going crazy or comparing two inputs that weren't comparable. Since the unit is electronic, I figured it was impossible for it to happen. They're not using tubes, are they ?
I'll start paying more attention to this. Anyone else?

Wow, that's a bit of a mystery. I haven't experienced it, but I'll pay more attention in the future.

Hmm, I seem to have a disturbing problem here. I just moved my 5200ES to my new condo, and hooked it up to new speakers (Mirage Nanosats plus a separate Mirage Omnisat V2 center channel speaker and Mirage S8 Powered Subwoofer, if it makes a difference.)

Anyway, I hooked everything up for the first time, and at least at first listen, all speakers are working properly (putting out sound, anyway.) Then I tried the auto calibration, which had worked well at my old place.

This time, though, it did the "Bee-dee-dee, bee-dee-doop" sound... and apparently got something it didn't like, but there were no explicit "error" messages. It just gave me options of Retry or Exit. When I "retry," the receiver shuts off!

Any idea what might be going on here? Did I screw up somewhere with the speakers and create a horrible situation of some sort?

Edit to add: When it does this, the display on the unit itself flashes a cryptic one word, "PROTECTOR", before shutting off.

Check you speaker connections. Or better yet, just hook up the center, run auto cal. If everything is good, then add Left Front & so on. I bet you have either a driver in one of your speakers that has "shorted" or some polarity or some problem with the cables themselves.

Sure enough, on further investigation, I discovered that the leads for some of the wires were touching. I'm a novice when it comes to this sort of thing but... dat's bad, ain't it?

After making some adjustments there, everything seems fine, and the auto calibration ran properly.

I did get a mysterious "out of phase" (or something like that) message about the right rear speaker, which is minor by comparison... but anybody know what's up with that?

It's not THAT bad, that's why it has "protector" =). Anyway, if it's an out of phase error, it might be that the positive and negative wires are reversed. Make sure they're in the right order.

It means you have the polarity wrong (the red & black spade connectors on the back). Just "frog 'em" (switch them with each other) on that channel.

I was going to triple check everything today, but oddly enough, doing the Auto Calibration again, nothing abnormal showed up, so maybe it was just a one-time glitch?

I would triple check everything anyway. I've run the auto calibration countless times and I've never seen a polarity error, even as a one time glitch.

I bought a 5200ES when they first came out. Initially it worked flawlessly (with the well documented short comings) but later it started to take minutes for the AMPS to warm up and turn on. Now it takes 20 minutes sometimes (depending on how long it's been off) and may hum during that time. I've also experienced the lower volume even when it does finally kick on. I'm going to try and get it repaired in a few weeks.

When it hums do you recognize the tune? Sorry, couldn't help myself.