Surround sound question. Where is my dts HD??

[mj79]

Ok so I have a pioneer. Vsx-819. And I played a br that usually decodes as just PCM. But now it's reading on the player as PCM + pl2x and it sounds weird. Almost attenuated in a way and the rear speakers don't have that full HD surround. Like it's in just a basic 5.1. My ps3 says it's decoded to dts HD 5.1 but it doesn't sound "full" and it seems like the rear surrounds only come on occasion.

Like I said it used to be amazing now I'm confused and believe I am missing alot of rear fill. Any ideas?

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by mj79

Ok so I have a pioneer. Vsx-819. And I played a br that usually decodes as just PCM. But now it's reading on the player as PCM + pl2x and it sounds weird. Almost attenuated in a way and the rear speakers don't have that full HD surround. Like it's in just a basic 5.1. My ps3 says it's decoded to dts HD 5.1 but it doesn't sound "full" and it seems like the rear surrounds only come on occasion.

Like I said it used to be amazing now I'm confused and believe I am missing alot of rear fill. Any ideas?

On my SC-05, any time I have DD+PLIIX, I am matrixing the original 5.1 audio into 7 channels. This may be why your rear surrounds sound "funny" as they are getting a reproduced sound from your AVR that is intended for the surrounds and being fed to the rear surrounds. It's not getting it's own discrete signal to that channel, the Pioneer is matrixing the original 5.1 intended for your surrounds and sending that to your rear surrounds. I believe you need to check your receiver and try to get rid of "+PLIIX" in its settings.

Of course, this is just an educated guess on my part.......

[un4gvn94538]

kinda sounds like you may have it set on another surround mode or listining mode that you dont want. check your manual and see if there is a direct mode or something similar

[mj79]

Yea I don't know what's up. It used to always just say PCM and it sounded great. Now I believe like sId above that it seems like it's feeding channels I don't have instead of putting the full surround to my 2 in back. It's weird cuz I changed nothing. This receiver is getting on my nerves now. This is the se ond time in a few weeks Its done this but in a different way

all my ps3 settings are right lpcm output and it's putting out HD but I have to figure out how to get the extra pl2x off here

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by mj79

Yea I don't know what's up. It used to always just say PCM and it sounded great. Now I believe like sId above that it seems like it's feeding channels I don't have instead of putting the full surround to my 2 in back. It's weird cuz I changed nothing. This receiver is getting on my nerves now. This is the se ond time in a few weeks Its done this but in a different way

all my ps3 settings are right lpcm output and it's putting out HD but I have to figure out how to get the extra pl2x off here

This is a listening mode and you can simply change them with your remote. If you accidentally hit the wrong button on the remote, it can easily change the listening mode on you......start changing them and see what changes you hear and what you like, you will probably find your way back to what you had. I pretty sure this has nothing to do with your PS3.....

[blujacket]

Press the Standard button on your remote.

[mj79]

Damn these things are sneaky. And I'm an idiot. But in my defense it is a lil tricky unless you read everything your receiver does. Isis 3 things and it sounds great now. So far

1). Surround back channel processing -- I had it on. Andis supossed to be off with 5.1 otherwise it uses the surround channels as the surround BACK channels such as in 6.1 or 7.1 which don't have as much depth obviously as your main surround left and right

2) Up mix function-- kind of goes with number one in the sense that when turned on it blends the surround with the surround back channels. Didn't need it with 5.1 so I turned it off

3) wasn't really an issue but I turned on the eq on the receiver. Seemed to brighten up the sound a lil bit and turned on the red mcacc light on. I thought that mcacc was for calibration ...


But all in all m happy. Still have some tweaking to do with the receiver but after I did #1 it started reading PCM without the pl2x. Which I'm assuming is for an added 7.1..??? Which this while thing is confusingme cuz my receiver is only 5.1.

So are all these other features basically just an"extended " 5.1 Instead of a true 7.1. Meaning the receiver with option #2 above turned on will just expand the surround left and right to the rear sbl and sbr just for a little depth?

[mj79]

Originally Posted by blujacket

Press the Standard button on your remote.

Contrary to some belief. .... I'm not that stupid lol

the standard is all the main surround settings ( neo 6 , pl2x etc) but when playing a blu Ray it should never read anything on the receiver other than PCM. Which #1 took care of

Man do I need a new sub. Wow. Seriously. This Polk psw 10 has not much more low end output or volume than my 6.5 " klipsch 2.1 I have on my computer.

Next step. Buy a db meter at radio shack for setting my channels. I think my towers need some more gain. What is it? Sit where you watch for surround and make all speakers hit 75db at your listening position?

I mighthave to crank everything up a bit but it's hard to tell just by ear.

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by mj79

Damn these things are sneaky. And I'm an idiot. But in my defense it is a lil tricky unless you read everything your receiver does. Isis 3 things and it sounds great now. So far

1). Surround back channel processing -- I had it on. Andis supossed to be off with 5.1 otherwise it uses the surround channels as the surround BACK channels such as in 6.1 or 7.1 which don't have as much depth obviously as your main surround left and right

2) Up mix function-- kind of goes with number one in the sense that when turned on it blends the surround with the surround back channels. Didn't need it with 5.1 so I turned it off

3) wasn't really an issue but I turned on the eq on the receiver. Seemed to brighten up the sound a lil bit and turned on the red mcacc light on. I thought that mcacc was for calibration ...


But all in all m happy. Still have some tweaking to do with the receiver but after I did #1 it started reading PCM without the pl2x. Which I'm assuming is for an added 7.1..??? Which this while thing is confusingme cuz my receiver is only 5.1.

So are all these other features basically just an"extended " 5.1 Instead of a true 7.1. Meaning the receiver with option #2 above turned on will just expand the surround left and right to the rear sbl and sbr just for a little depth?

I wouldn't call yourself an idiot, as most of us have been there. Glad to see it working for you now. If the MCACC is on, then it is using a calaibration setting you did previosly to manage your audio now. This is not a bad thing, unless you have set-up your own manual settings before and those settings are the ones you want. IF you have no manual settings saved, then your OK.

You are correct, the receiver was matrixing the sound and sending the duplicated sound from the surround channels to the rear surrounds, and this is obviosuly not natural, so I'm sure it sounded "off."

By the way, my SC-05 also had my SB setting as defaulted to on, which is surround backs. So, if you don't have any rear surrounds, you need to click on the SB button and turn them to "off."

[mj79]

Originally Posted by forsberg21

I wouldn't call yourself an idiot, as most of us have been there. Glad to see it working for you now. If the MCACC is on, then it is using a calaibration setting you did previosly to manage your audio now. This is not a bad thing, unless you have set-up your own manual settings before and those settings are the ones you want. IF you have no manual settings saved, then your OK.

You are correct, the receiver was matrixing the sound and sending the duplicated sound from the surround channels to the rear surrounds, and this is obviosuly not natural, so I'm sure it sounded "off."

By the way, my SC-05 also had my SB setting as defaulted to on, which is surround backs. So, if you don't have any rear surrounds, you need to click on the SB button and turn them to "off."

One more thing. In the manual right next to the Surround back processing page is something else I think is probably on the same lines.

It's called the up mix function, and this is the description it gives in the manual

"the up mix function mixes the soundof the surround speakers with the surround back speakers so that the surround sound is heard from diagonally to the rear as it should be"

depending on the positions of the speakers and the sound source, in some cases it may not be possible to acheivegood results. In this case, turn this setting off. "


Well since I don't have rear surrounds for 7.1 I turned this feature off by turning off my receiver and then holding the power and preset up button on the receiver, and it popped up on the display "Upmixff"

ok good to go. Noooope. Continued watching transformers and therewas basically no sound and no center at all. Checked the receiver and it said it was playing in dolby pl2x not PCM anymore. I do t get it. If this setting is for 7.1 or "advanced 5.1" why does everything get messed up when I turn it off?

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by mj79

One more thing. In the manual right next to the Surround back processing page is something else I think is probably on the same lines.

It's called the up mix function, and this is the description it gives in the manual

"the up mix function mixes the soundof the surround speakers with the surround back speakers so that the surround sound is heard from diagonally to the rear as it should be"

depending on the positions of the speakers and the sound source, in some cases it may not be possible to acheivegood results. In this case, turn this setting off. "


Well since I don't have rear surrounds for 7.1 I turned this feature off by turning off my receiver and then holding the power and preset up button on the receiver, and it popped up on the display "Upmixff"

ok good to go. Noooope. Continued watching transformers and therewas basically no sound and no center at all. Checked the receiver and it said it was playing in dolby pl2x not PCM anymore. I do t get it. If this setting is for 7.1 or "advanced 5.1" why does everything get messed up when I turn it off?

After you make these changes, are you saving them to a setting? If not, it will be lost......

[mj79]

Originally Posted by forsberg21

After you make these changes, are you saving them to a setting? If not, it will be lost......

Ummmm. No?
What should be getting saved? The sb is staying off and as far as saving audio settings from the home menu ( speaker level , position etc ) it automaticly saves when. Exit

Unless I'm missing something. I just don't know how my surroundgot so goofy again after turnng off the up mix function

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by mj79

Ummmm. No?
What should be getting saved? The sb is staying off and as far as saving audio settings from the home menu ( speaker level , position etc ) it automaticly saves when. Exit

Unless I'm missing something. I just don't know how my surroundgot so goofy again after turnng off the up mix function

Don't you have 6 seperate settings that you can save?