The Sony STR-DA5300ES thread - Page 51

Also I received my advanced exchange this morning, priority overnight.

Gary

I just received my replacement unit as well. No green dot however, it's a higher serial #. Also noticed the front of the unit no longer has the sticker in the lower center that shows the features. Otherwise, the unit looks brand new.

Firmware much newer than my old unit:

153ES UCA V1.08 58B5
Video UCOM Ver. 1.07 (old was 1.05)
Faroudja Ver. 1.06 (old was 1.05)
GUI CGROM Ver. 1.03 (same as old)
DSP VCom Ver. 1.06 (old was 1.05)
DSP SFlash Ver. 1.02 (old was 1.01)
DSP PFlash Ver. 1.21 (old was 1.18)

I only had the chance to do some limited testing.

As for black crush, it appears it has been fixed. Not sure if it's 100% fixed without further testing.

The new, Advanced Exchange unit worked like a charm. No real troubles at all. Now that it's working as it should, I may just forget I have it (user transparency). And that is as it should be.

I'm going to leave it turned on to let it "burn-in".

I carefully unpacked the new unit such that repackaging the old unit was a snap. It's boxed and ready to go back tomorrow.

Sorry to hear of your trouble. SEND IT BACK 'TIL YOU GET "LUCKY!" And ask the CSR to confirm the serial number series, prior to shipment. I was surprised by the level of personalized attention that I got from the the Sony service center in California. Just go through the motions, and get another Advanced Exchange unit, since they're offering. Maybe even ask if they can ship from the California warehouse, since they sent me two 8807XXX-series amplifiers. Seems like they have plenty of up-to-date stock there. Once you finally have your updated STR-DA5300ES back, up and running, all this hassle will eventually become a distant memory, and then all you'll have to do is enjoy your system . . .


Just got home from work. Hope to have enough energy to hacksaw my Ikea wall bracket to fit my 3/16" sheet aluminum I just bought for use as an ultra-modern component shelf. I at least want to set the new unit on its shelf and turn the damned thing on! My Monoprice mega-cable order is being overnighted, and should arrive tomorrow morning, ready for this weekend's planned HT installation project.

BTW: Are solid-state amplifiers anything like tube amps? Does it damage the transformer to turn the amp "on" without an impedence load (i.e., with no speakers hooked up yet)? And, if this condition does cause ill-effects, does it only present a hazard to the electronics if the volume is turned up (i.e., there is an input signal present)?

got mine too albeit not at 10:30 but at 7pm. Anyways. weekend project

On my old unit, I had multiple HDMI problems: video / handshake / audio / menu display, etc. I can confirm that these are all resolved with the replacement I received yesterday. Also, on the question of the GUI overlaying HDMI: Still NO. I don't think this can / will happen: probably b/c no processing occurs, hardware and/or protection issues. I never connected component, so cannot speak to the black crush issue, but others are saying that has been corrected.

I haven't discovered a way to display the firmware information via the GUI (someone mentioned that this was possible). Can someone tell me (or point to the post with info on) how to display firmware version otherwise?
**never mind, found it here - If anyone finds a GUI way to display the firmware version information, please let us know

I don't think GUI over from HDMI to HDMI will ever become a feature. Component to HDMI has GUI overlay though.

Also, I can confirm that the full RGB color range is still not supported and probably never will be. So those with PS3's will still have to set their RGB settings to "Limited", and those with XBOX 360's will have to set their black reference levels to "Standard". This is unfortunate as FULL RGB looks better. You might ask how I know it looks better, well, I have had my XBOX 360 and PS3 connected directly to my TV w/ FULL RGB enabled. My TV is capable of displaying the full RGB color pallet however the receiver is not.

So it does seem as if using 'A.F.D Auto' will get you the right audio signals... but the screen does a terrible job of telling you what signal its actually playing. For example when I play Guitar Hero III on my Xbox 360, it shows up as Dolby Digital (and briefly flashes the 3/2.1 thing on the screen), but also shows "Dolby Pro Logic II"... the only indication that its using the real 5.1 audio is from the Blue bar on the front of the system.

With the newer firmwares are people seeing any differences in this? Any way to check exactly what the audio signal is coming in as, and going out to which speakers?

(oh, and my advanced exchange unit is also on the way... supposedly!)

I hate to ask... but I can't find a FAQ that summarizes the issues with the product.

I was in a similar thread over in TV land which I followed for MONTHS, but I just got here and I am feeling lost. Is there a good resource for newbs?

So just some more info for the thread... Sony got me my new unit NEXT DAY from my request... I was stunned to see it show up today. The black crush issues are totally gone, and ive also noticed that in 'GUI MODE' for the menu, it now shows the reconfigured title (AppleTV instead of HDMI2, for example) when you switch inputs. It did not do this with my old software.

A53ES UCA V1.08 58B5 -> 1.08 58B5
VIDEO UCOM 1.05 -> 1.07
FAROUDJA 1.05 -> 1.06
GUI CGROM 1.03 -> 1.03
DSP UCOM 1.05 -> 1.06
DSP SFLASH 1.01 -> 1.02
DSP PFLASH 1.18 -> 1.21

All good to hear, guys! Keep the updates coming! Still at work (leaving soon). Will try to hook up everything tonight to test my new 88079XX-series STR-DA5300ES! Really excited to get everything up and running.

[sometime later . . . ]

Woo hoo! I'm home, and no one stole my Monoprice mega-cable order from the front porch! I have HDMI cables up the butt, now! Got six 1.5' HDMI cables, two 3' HDMI cables, and one 25' in-wall HDMI cable (that's almost $400 in HDMI cable, had I bought retail!). Plus, I ordered all kinds of other stuff from Monoprice, all at those famous Monoprice, low, low prices: S-video, component, VGA-to-RGB, a VGA splitter/amplifier, 250' of 12-gauge, in-wall speaker wire, etc. Gonna go cut that aluminum bracket now . . .


I also read that elsewhere here. Now THAT would've annoyed me to no end. That's great that it's fixed! Thanks for your detailed post and version number report!

Hey Guys,

I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on picking up a 5300ES. I've followed this thread and made sure my local high-end shop had the proper serial numbers in stock before making a purchase. However, I have one question for all you 5300ES owners...

I've compared the 5300ES to other receivers (Denon, Pioneer, Yamaha, etc.) in the same price range and was wondering, for those that did the research, what made you choose the 5300ES over the other receivers?

I know the 6 HDMI inputs are a huge plus for some, but is there anything else that you rated so much higher on the 5300ES than the other receivers that you chose the Sony?

I'm still delicately balancing on that fence between this model and another brand, but I've been a loyal Sony receiver customer for about 15 years; just need a little more convincing this time around.

Appreciate your thoughts...

I think you're doing it wrong.

I'm intentionally changing the subject here. Perhaps someone can help me out with a question.

None of my media are playing anything out of the center channel speakers. Is something special needed to activate the center channel? Right now I have the subwoofer, right and left channels working. The center channel is connected but not functioning.

Is it a DVD player setting, BluRay player setting or an AVR setting that needs to change? Could it be the DVD's and BD's don't have center channel info on them?

I haven't connected the side or rear channels yet but I do have the speakers for a full 7.1 system.

Please, help out this newbie.

Got my Advanced Exchange unit today. Took about a week and a half. I'm in San Jose.


Big Lag, to test that all your speakers are hooked up correctly, play the test tones through the receiver to see if sound comes out of all of them. If you get sound out of the center channel when playing the receiver's test tones, then maybe you are only getting 2-channel audio out of your devices. What cable types are you using with what devices, and how do you have those devices set up? Also, do you have surround speakers for 5.1?

That also happened to me when I received one of the very first units that came out. Someone mentioned I was doing something wrong and since I didn't have the old unit to verify, I couldn't argue. At least someone else had the same problem to prove I wasn't the only one.

The 2nd unit I received in December didn't do that and of course, the 3rd unit I just received a few days ago seems l like the most "bug free" unit yet.

It was definitely a bug with the early firmware... I spent some time reading up on it in the manual and I could easily reproduce it by switching back and forth from GUI mode.

PS, now that this thing is all updated ... its easily the best receiver I've ever used for a home-theater type setup. It might not sound as good as my Denon for music (I can hear a noticeable difference), but its features (both video and audio) are just perfect for the home theater setups that people have today with tons of components...

Oh yeah, and the Component -> HDMI conversion now is beautiful ... just amazing, really.

I'm just up from you in Redwood City, and mine came overnight... strange!

After getting my Adv Exch unit yesterday and setting it up, calibrating speaker levels again, I noticed that there is an easy way to have multiple speaker level settings. I noticed that I can use different "position" settings (1-3) for different configurations. Mainly I was looking for a way to have different calibration levels, as I get 3-4dB higher bass out of my Denon 2910 DVD player than my PS3 or A35 (using Avia SD DVD). In the Display menu (on the receiver), under the Auto Calibration menu, you can change "Position" between 1-3. You can change all of the settings from speaker size, distance, and calibration levels. You can even rename these positions, from Pos. X to something like "MAIN" or "DVD." Exactly what I wanted.


You can also change Positions/Eqs, etc. using the Tools/Options button on the remote when the GUI is set to SCREEN (TV) output. However I noticed that this only works when using an input besides HDMI 1-6. For example, I have HDMI 5 hooked to my Denon upconverting player. I also mapped BD/DVD to HDMI 5 and also use an optical cable from the player for the audio on the BD/DVD input. I can get the on-screen Options/Tools menu to come up when using the BD/DVD (HDMI 5 + Optical) input, but not when using the actual HDMI 5 input. I think the Display brings up the on-screen display on HDMI 1-6 fine, but for some reason you can't bring up the Pos/eq/soundfield menu on-screen when using HDMI 1-6. Just the inputs above that. Could be a bug. But I found the above way to change "Positions" (Auto Cal receiver-display menu) after I found this on-screen menu and bug.

The Sony doesn't do any video processing of HDMI signals ... it just passes them directly to the TV. Because of this, it can't display an overlay when you're using an HDMI source. Period. No volume display, no overlayed menu, etc.

Will there be a new ES Line this year?Wondering if they will have the GUI interface work over 1080 Hdmi.

You just figured that out? Did you use auto-cal with your first unit?


I use a universal remote so I'm not very familiar with what's on the one supplied with the 5300. It looks like going into the auto-cal menu is the only way to change the position setting using the GUI, as you've found out. I used the auto-cal, but haven't fine tuned for each source so I just have one seating position in there.

Sound quality was actually my last consideration. I didn't want to take the time or expense to demo any of these units at a high-end, brick-and-mortar store, just to turn around and buy my chosen unit off of Ebay at a deep-discount. I mainly chose the Sony for the following reasons:

Sony STR-DA5300ES Key Features:

• Number of HDMI inputs (6).
• Number of composite and S-video inputs and outputs.
• Faroujda upconversion of composite and S-video source material.
• Superior GUI.
• Built-in integration with other Sony products.
• Overall cosmetics.

Many argue that Denon, Onkyo, and Pioneer Elite receivers sound better, but I was willing to trade that in exchange for the benefits listed above. Plus, purchasing my STR-DA5300ES from a discount e-tailer saved me quite a bit off of retail, so I'm pretty darned happy with the cost-benefit ratio I achieved. Stand-alone, broadcast-quality upconverters run $1,000s-$10,000s (Faroujda, Miranda, Snell & Wilcox, etc.). To me, with all its video processing capability, the STR-DA5300ES is a videophile's dream AVR.


Well, I just cashed in some gift cards at Fry's (and, returned all my unopened, over-priced HDMI cables), and bought the new, Sony standard-def, DVP-NS77H DVD player (upconverts to 1080p via HDMI). Waiting to buy a PS3, when the model-refreshed, 120GB PS3s, hit store shelves (edit: a quick Google search reveals that, they're apparently not yet shipping). But, I'm still wondering if I should upconvert standard-def DVDs in the NS77H player, or in the STR-DA5300ES . . .

[Meanwhile, back at the HT installation site . . . ]

Whew! Finally got the 25' in-wall HDMI cable in to my Sharp, wall-mounted, 65" LCD panel on the other side of the bedroom. One Rotozip, a Sawzall, and a hand-chisel did the trick. This is taking me forever. Gonna try to turn my third STR-DA5300ES (three's a charm, right?) on for the very first time now, feeding it an already-1080p upconverted, standard-def signal from my new Sony DVP-NS77H player . . .

Still no speakers hooked up yet (plus, Monoprice sent me the wrong subwoofer cables).

This isn't overlay. When I use DVD/BD input, which takes video from HDMI 5 and audio from optical, I can bring up the Options/Tools on-screen (it covers up the whole screen) and change the position, eq, soundfield from there. However if I go to the actual HDMI 5 input instead, it won't show that on-screen menu.

Nope. I set everything up manually. Had seen "Position" before but wasn't really sure what it was for. Even looking through the manual last night, looking for more information, it didn't say much about it that I could find.



I'm glad I found it. For some reason, my PS3 bass is 4 dB off using Avia compared to HD DVD player, Xbox 360, and Denon upconv DVD players I also tried it with. So I turned on HDMI SW +10 and lowered the level by 6dB from the other inputs, using the 2nd "Position." I'm also glad the receiver saves the HDMI SW Auto/+10/0 setting per input.

Sony STR-DA5300ES 88079XX-series initial report:

• Sony DVP-NS77H SD DVD player —> HDMI —> STR-DA5300ES —> HDMI —> Sharp LC-65D54U LCD

[1080p upconversion performed in-player]

HDMI pass-through works as advertised. As previously reported, there is no GUI menu overlay over HDMI sources. The SD DVD of "New World" [2.35:1] looks excellent. However, the 1999 issue of "Aliens" [1.85:1] special edition SD DVD looks horrible, for whatever reason (exaggerated film grain and excessive chroma noise). There are several, more-recent edition, SD DVD versions of this title with, I presume, much-improved encoding quality. Intend to buy the BluRay version of this title anyway.

• Sony DVP-NS77H SD DVD player —> Y/Pb/Pr —> STR-DA5300ES —> HDMI —> Sharp LC-65D54U LCD

[1080p upconversion performed in AVR]

Analog component-SD output looks great, and is virtually indistinguishable from its HDMI picture. I need to A/B the two sources more carefully (made more difficult because of the 15-second reboot cycle), because the picture from "New World" looks very contrasty—but in a very good, high-dynamic range way. At this point, I can't see any black crush issue via the component source-to-HDMI transcode. GUI is overlayed over source.

• Sony DVP-NS77H SD DVD player —> S-video —> STR-DA5300ES —> HDMI —> Sharp LC-65D54U LCD

[1080p upconversion performed in AVR]

S-video looks surprisingly good. I mean, it looks great! Although it does appear to exhibit a slightly raised black level. Pedastal appears to be about 10 IRE above "normal" to my eyes. Just found this in the player's quick-menu: "BLACK LEVEL 'ON'" and "BLACK LEVEL (COMPONENT OUT) 'OFF'"—this must be the culprit. Changed setting in menu—no black crush, or black stretch, issue via S-video. GUI is overlayed over source.

• Sony DVP-NS77H SD DVD player —> composite video —> STR-DA5300ES —> HDMI —> Sharp LC-65D54U LCD

[1080p upconversion performed in AVR]

TBD

• User-Defined Source Display

Yes, I can also confirm that the user-defined "source names" appear both in the on-screen GUI menu, and on the dot matrix, front-panel display, on the unit itself. You need to cycle through the "display" button on the remote for it to display the user-defined source name (it also cycles through to show the "default" name).

[Slightly off-topic . . . ]

• Notes on pre-200X, standard-definition, DVD encoding quality:

Okay, I tested more standard-definition DVDs in my new upconverting Sony player. A great number of my pre-200X encoded, SD DVDs look horrible. Extreme amounts of chroma noise, even with sharpness dialed to zero on the display. Very-recently released SD DVDs look much, much improved. These conditions apply no matter which unit is doing the upconversion (the player or the AVR), and the noise level in the image neither improves nor worsens, no matter which of the player's available outputs are used (S-video, Y/Pb/Pr, or HDMI). Actually, I have one more test—I need to compare the player and AVR's upconversion, with my display's unpconversion.

But, wait, there's more . . . I just played my "2001" SD DVD (the special boxed edition released by Warner Home Video in 2001), and it looks great, upconverted by the player. Then I played the CGI movie, "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," also released in 2001, from Sony Pictures. Being an all-CGI movie, I thought this would look great, but it looks like crap! The same excessive noise/artifacting as the 1999 "Aliens" DVD.

I'm FINALLY able to respond to your post. I have serial number 88079XX, and there is only a slight delay of <1 second before the volume continuously increases. The delay is perhaps 0.25-0.33 seconds. The delay feels appropriately, "short," and is totally the way I'm used to Sony receivers responding.

I received my Advanced Exchange unit Friday. It worked fine yesterday. Today there is no audio.

I am totally pissed off!

I'm going to get rid of this piece of junk! Does anyone want to buy a brand new 5300ES?



I was online chatting with SONY tech support for 1 1/2 hours and got no help from them at all. I was the one who finally figured out how to fix the problem, not them. In that full amount of time I got two suggestions from them - check the speaker wires and be sure the input is set correctly. What a crock!

Don't junk it just yet,I would do a manual reset and go from there.I would be willing to bet you did something wrong.

What was the problem?

[Meanwhile, back at the HT site . . . ]

Woo hoo! All four components (STR-DA5300ES, 1080p DVD player, XBOX360 Elite, Motorola STB/DVR), now sitting on four, "floating" 3/16" sheets of aluminum, jutting out of the wall. Now, just re-routed the RG-6 from the cable company—almost got the cable box connected! Still no speakers . . .

Okay, the 1080i HDMI output of Motorola STB works great through the STR-DA5300ES! I didn't even know it could output 1080i. So far, I'm still all-HDMI into the AVR and no issues.