[ilbarbaro]

We are redoing our family room (which is open connected to our kitchen table area and kitchen like one big rectangle with opening for a hallway and our dining room). I'm struggling with deciding between sound bar (e.g. Mythos SSA-50)vs 5.1 speakers (possibly Paradigm Mill, high WAF vs medium WAF.


Then I wondered .. is my current receiver going to be able to do a decent enough job:

http://usa.yamaha.com/en/products/au..._u/?mode=model


Note that I plan to have the TV and Bluray audio connected directly via optical cable. Bluray would plug directly into TV. So basically, the Receiver just needs to handle the audio.


Can this receiver even handle enough codecs to make it worth keeping?


Thank you in advance.

 

[schan1269]

You won't miss any codecs for BD since you bought a receiver with multi-channel inputs, so


buy a BD player with multi-channel outputs.

 

[Roger Dressler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ilbarbaro /forum/post/20840380


Can this receiver even handle enough codecs to make it worth keeping?

Yes. It will play DTS and DD which is available from most DVDs and BDs. It will not decode the higher rez lossless audio, but that's no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

 

[undecided]

Quote:

Originally Posted by schan1269 You won't miss any codecs for BD since you bought a receiver with multi-channel inputs, so buy a BD player with multi-channel outputs.

Having done this with another 7 year old Yamaha receiver it works (with a proviso see below) but you loose bass management (how much bass goes to your sub woofer vs other speakers) and ability to use receiver audio processing when using multi-channel audio.


Make sure your receiver or Blu-Ray player at a minimum allows you to adjust the sub woofer volume when using multi channel audio - as I say if it can do this it works. Otherwise your sub-woofer volume will be much lower than the other channels.

 

[ilbarbaro]

Thanks, guys.


Is there a particular feature(s) I should look for also in a new subwoofer then?


When you say it loses bass management, do you mean it doesn't know when to make the small "boom" and the big "boom" in a movie sound different (ie. softer/louder)?


Is it an acceptable workaround to be able to manually adjust subwoofer volume (e.g. right before you start the movie)?


It would seem such Bluray players are hard to find.

 

[Roger Dressler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ilbarbaro /forum/post/20843356


Is there a particular feature(s) I should look for also in a new subwoofer then?

No.

Quote:
When you say it loses bass management, do you mean it doesn't know when to make the small "boom" and the big "boom" in a movie sound different (ie. softer/louder)?

If your BD player has bass management, you will not lose it. The Oppo's are so equipped, for example.


But you also have the option of feeding the Yamaha with the S/PDIF digital signals, which allows you to use all the DSP features of the Yamaha, not just bass management. Tone, EQ, surround processing, etc. If you are satisfied with the Yamaha running from DVDs, it will only sound same or better from BD even with the same connection.

 

[BIslander]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ilbarbaro /forum/post/0


When you say it loses bass management, do you mean it doesn't know when to make the small "boom" and the big "boom" in a movie sound different (ie. softer/louder)?

Bass management happens while the audio is still digital. Since the player is converting it to analog before sending it to the AVR, the receiver cannot do BM, the player has to instead. And most players have that capability.

Quote:
Is it an acceptable workaround to be able to manually adjust subwoofer volume (e.g. right before you start the movie)?

You can do that, I suppose. But it shouldn't be necessary. You should be able to calibrate your system to handle both digital and analog without needing to adjust the sub depending on the source being played.

Quote:
It would seem such Bluray players are hard to find.

Yes, MCH analog players are not common. It's much simpler to use an optical connection and the audio quality will be great that way.

 

[schan1269]

MCH analog output BD players USED TO BE more prevalent than they are now.


If you don't need 3D, buy a used one...

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-...3805209&sr=1-4 (you can find them for less on Ebay, and this is hardly the "only one")


This one is probably overkill, but this one will never be "worthless"...
http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDP-51...3805304&sr=1-6

 

[undecided]



Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander /forum/post/20844172


Bass management happens while the audio is still digital. Since the player is converting it to analog before sending it to the AVR, the receiver cannot do BM, the player has to instead. And most players have that capability.

My LG BD390 didn't so be careful.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander /forum/post/20844172



You can do that, I suppose. But it shouldn't be necessary. You should be able to calibrate your system to handle both digital and analog without needing to adjust the sub depending on the source being played.

.

IF the receiver allows separate volume adjustment by channel on the analog multi-channel inputs. Again be careful most do - but not all

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIslander /forum/post/20844172



Yes, MCH analog players are not common. It's much simpler to use an optical connection and the audio quality will be great that way.

I went back and forth on this. For casual listening I used optical and it sounded great - but for the best experience I would use the multi-channel audio and it did sound better.


That said I just updated to a new receiver with HDMI inputs (to get 5.1 Netflix from a ROKU XS) so I no longer need to make a choice and can decode the latest audio codecs in the receiver.


For some further reading see here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748147

 

[ilbarbaro]

Folks,


So at this point, it looks like I'm going to go with a Samsung LED LCD UNxxD7000, Samsung Bluray player, and the ATT Uverse set top box.


If I'm going to try to stick it out with my current old receiver, is it better to run an Optical cable DIRECTLY from the Bluray Player and the Set Top Box to the receiver OR is better to just run one optical cable from the TV's optical out?

 

[Roger Dressler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ilbarbaro /forum/post/20908522


Folks,


So at this point, it looks like I'm going to go with a Samsung LED LCD UNxxD7000, Samsung Bluray player, and the ATT Uverse set top box.


If I'm going to try to stick it out with my current old receiver, is it better to run an Optical cable DIRECTLY from the Bluray Player and the Set Top Box to the receiver OR is better to just run one optical cable from the TV's optical out?

The former. The TV will not pass you all the signals your AVR wants, like DTS 5.1 from discs.

 

[ilbarbaro]

Thanks, Roger.