Hello, Forum! Is This All Connected Correctly?

[Linksys2.4]

Hi, Everyone!

New member here who wanted to first convey greetings to the member base, and also ask some questions about my setup...

I am wondering if I have all this connected correctly; a Panasonic DMP-BD10A first-generation BD player is running HDMI OUT (only; no other connections coming from the player -- no digital coax, optical or analog) to an Onkyo '605's HDMI IN (port "1")...another HDMI cable is going from the Onkyo's HDMI OUT to a Sony SXRD display's HDMI IN (Video "6")...that's it, no other connections (aside from speaker cabling, of course).

Now, ALL audio AND video passed from the Panasonic is going over this one HDMI cable out of the player and into the Onkyo (for audio processing and video pass-through) -- that includes DVD AND BLU-RAY video (1080p video from BDs and upscaled 1080p DVD video) AND all digital audio formats, including DVD's Dolby Digital and DTS, plus decoded multichannel PCM for TrueHD soundtracks (the Panasonic does not bitstream TrueHD). Is this all connected right in order for ALL video and audio to pass from the Panasonic to my receiver, and then video off to the TV? All settings in the player are correct -- I have set the HDMI resolution output to AUTO, so my SXRD display sees 1080p from the player, and HDMI VIDEO and AUDIO are both "ON"...

But with this setup, will the video pass through the 605 without any clipping or degredation, being that it's not connected DIRECTLY to the display? Does anything need to be "set" inside the 605 aside from HDMI MONITOR: YES and IMMEDIATE DISPLAY: OFF in order to "tell it" to pass video straight out from its HDMI OUT?

And is it fine to allow ALL video and audio to pass over one HDMI cable from the BD player as I'm doing? Legacy Dolby Digital/DTS and the multichannel PCM of TrueHD signals can all pass over HDMI, correct, along with all the video from the BD and DVD as well?

I have more inquiries, but I think this will suffice for now...if anyone can assist with some insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[Hammie]

Originally Posted by Linksys2.4

Hi, Everyone!

New member here who wanted to first convey greetings to the member base, and also ask some questions about my setup...

I am wondering if I have all this connected correctly; a Panasonic DMP-BD10A first-generation BD player is running HDMI OUT (only; no other connections coming from the player -- no digital coax, optical or analog) to an Onkyo '605's HDMI IN (port "1")...another HDMI cable is going from the Onkyo's HDMI OUT to a Sony SXRD display's HDMI IN (Video "6")...that's it, no other connections (aside from speaker cabling, of course).

Now, ALL audio AND video passed from the Panasonic is going over this one HDMI cable out of the player and into the Onkyo (for audio processing and video pass-through) -- that includes DVD AND BLU-RAY video (1080p video from BDs and upscaled 1080p DVD video) AND all digital audio formats, including DVD's Dolby Digital and DTS, plus decoded multichannel PCM for TrueHD soundtracks (the Panasonic does not bitstream TrueHD). Is this all connected right in order for ALL video and audio to pass from the Panasonic to my receiver, and then video off to the TV? All settings in the player are correct -- I have set the HDMI resolution output to AUTO, so my SXRD display sees 1080p from the player, and HDMI VIDEO and AUDIO are both "ON"...

But with this setup, will the video pass through the 605 without any clipping or degredation, being that it's not connected DIRECTLY to the display? Does anything need to be "set" inside the 605 aside from HDMI MONITOR: YES and IMMEDIATE DISPLAY: OFF in order to "tell it" to pass video straight out from its HDMI OUT?

And is it fine to allow ALL video and audio to pass over one HDMI cable from the BD player as I'm doing? Legacy Dolby Digital/DTS and the multichannel PCM of TrueHD signals can all pass over HDMI, correct, along with all the video from the BD and DVD as well?

I have more inquiries, but I think this will suffice for now...if anyone can assist with some insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Not sure exactly about the Onkyo, but my Denon has a setting for i/p scaling. Options include: Off, A to H, A to H & H to H. What this is telling the receiver to do is to isgnore the video processing (Off), upscale all Analog connections (A to H), or upscale all signals (A to H & H to H).

I believe mine is under the HDMI settings.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

Not sure exactly about the Onkyo, but my Denon has a setting for i/p scaling. Options include: Off, A to H, A to H & H to H. What this is telling the receiver to do is to isgnore the video processing (Off), upscale all Analog connections (A to H), or upscale all signals (A to H & H to H).

I believe mine is under the HDMI settings.

Thanks, Lou!

I don't believe my Onkyo has the option for HDMI PASSTHROUGH -- it just passes the signal untouched if it receives something through the HDMI IN to the OUT, but I just want to be sure...

[SlmShdy1]

It looks like you have it set up properly. All you need is to have the HDMI Monitor Out set to 'Yes'. If you want your analog components upscaled to 720p, there's a secret process you have to go through in order to set it. As long as you're only using that Blu-ray player, though, you should be fine.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

It looks like you have it set up properly. All you need is to have the HDMI Monitor Out set to 'Yes'. If you want your analog components upscaled to 720p, there's a secret process you have to go through in order to set it. As long as you're only using that Blu-ray player, though, you should be fine.

Thank you very much for the response, Shady!

First, let me say I like your gallery of pics -- I too live in an apartment, and it's VERY hard to work a system around all the compromises of a living room. My gear is on a Bell'O open-shelved component stand as well, but I have wire-tied all the groups of wires as they're going into the channel hiders on the side...doesn't really conceal ALL of the wires, as these manufacturers claim, but you can't see them from looking at the rack head-on.

At any rate, thanks for your input about my setup -- I do have the HDMI MONITOR set to "YES" but is this in any way responsible for telling the receiver just to pass HDMI video through?

Are you sure there are no other settings I need to make in order for the receiver to send the video from my BD player straight through to the Onkyo's HDMI OUT? I am not making ANY analog connections -- just HDMI.

[SlmShdy1]

Nope, no more settings. The HDMI port automatically passes the video through untouched. There are no extra options that you need to change for video. Audio, however, is a different story.

Thanks for the kudos on the gallery, by the way. Always helps to hear positive reviews.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

Nope, no more settings. The HDMI port automatically passes the video through untouched. There are no extra options that you need to change for video. Audio, however, is a different story.

Thanks for the kudos on the gallery, by the way. Always helps to hear positive reviews.

Thanks for the reply...

I have all HDMI assignments made, so what else would there be for audio, as you suggest?

My only HDMI port being used is HDMI 1, so under the receiver's setup, the HDMI connection menu is correct at "DVD" input, "HDMI 1"...I am also feeding the receiver digital audio over HDMI from the Panasonic player, so the DIGITAL INPUT menu in the Onkyo I have set to "DVD -- HDMI1"...would this be correct?

[Lord_Stewie]

Welcome to the Forum.

The setups looks in place.

[SlmShdy1]

Yeah, that sounds right to me. For audio, you'll probably want to run Audyssey with the mic that came included. After that, there are always crossover settings you can mess with.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by shadblz

Welcome to the Forum.

The setups looks in place.

Thank you for the welcome, 'blz!

Thanks for the assurance that the gear is up to snuff...

Are you connected in a similar way?

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

Yeah, that sounds right to me. For audio, you'll probably want to run Audyssey with the mic that came included. After that, there are always crossover settings you can mess with.

Thanks.

Interesting thing is, between me and my installer, we ran Audyssey a few times and couldn't get a suitable reading for my room and speakers; the system pegged the speakers totally wrong as being full range (they're bookshelves on stands) and some other mistakes -- we ended up calibrating by taste, ear and an SPL meter.

Many say don't trust an automatic calibration system in receivers or processors, and to tune by SPL or trained ear, as these systems aren't reliable; even Onkyo says in their manuals that sometimes the auto setup won't yield satsifactory results, in which case you must do a manual setup.

[Hammie]

Originally Posted by Linksys2.4

Thanks.

Interesting thing is, between me and my installer, we ran Audyssey a few times and couldn't get a suitable reading for my room and speakers; the system pegged the speakers totally wrong as being full range (they're bookshelves on stands) and some other mistakes -- we ended up calibrating by taste, ear and an SPL meter.

Many say don't trust an automatic calibration system in receivers or processors, and to tune by SPL or trained ear, as these systems aren't reliable; even Onkyo says in their manuals that sometimes the auto setup won't yield satsifactory results, in which case you must do a manual setup.

Personally, I use Audyssey for only the distance calculation because I go in after wards and change the speakers to small and then run an SPL meter to tweak them just right.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

Personally, I use Audyssey for only the distance calculation because I go in after wards and change the speakers to small and then run an SPL meter to tweak them just right.

Hello Lou,

I can understand your approach totally -- I too have been thinking about just letting Audyssey do its thing for distance and MAYBE channel level calculations and the manually changing the speaker settings for 80Hz rolloff and such, but instead of doing all that (because the system actually pegged most of those settings just "wrong") I simply manually adjusted everything.

Would rolling off ALL speakers in a bookshelf style system like I have at 80Hz be safe and OK to do? In other words, in my 605's setup for speakers, I have the Front, Center and Surrounds all set to "80Hz" with the subwoofer set to "Yes"...would this be alright for bookshelves all around and a Polk CSi30 center? My "LPF of LFE" I have left at "120Hz"...

[Hammie]

Links,

I think you'll be fine with that approach. As you migrate to larger speakers (and you know you will ), You will want to play around with the different frequency settings and see how they play with each other. You will want to pay close attention to the +-3db setting and then set your receivers speaker setting to the closest setting higher than the one listed there. For example, my +-3db setting is 35Hz, so I have my fronts set to 40Hz since that is the closest. My surrounds +-3db is 55Hz, so I have them set to 60Hz. My LFE is set to 90 Hz. I feel this give me a very uniform sounding low end environment.

The R20's actually say they support down to 60Hz. You may want to play with it and see if you hear any significant difference. My only concern is if you set it at 60Hz and that is the lower end max on those speakers, will you hurt them at all. If your Onkyo can do 70Hz, you can try that next. In the end, 80Hz is a very good starting point.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

Links,

I think you'll be fine with that approach. As you migrate to larger speakers (and you know you will ), You will want to play around with the different frequency settings and see how they play with each other. You will want to pay close attention to the +-3db setting and then set your receivers speaker setting to the closest setting higher than the one listed there. For example, my +-3db setting is 35Hz, so I have my fronts set to 40Hz since that is the closest. My surrounds +-3db is 55Hz, so I have them set to 60Hz. My LFE is set to 90 Hz. I feel this give me a very uniform sounding low end environment.

The R20's actually say they support down to 60Hz. You may want to play with it and see if you hear any significant difference. My only concern is if you set it at 60Hz and that is the lower end max on those speakers, will you hurt them at all. If your Onkyo can do 70Hz, you can try that next. In the end, 80Hz is a very good starting point.

Yes, my next set of speakers will be nice floor standers!

I settled on 80 because that's the THX recommended point of rolloff into a sub; it can't hurt my R20s, R15s and CSi30, can it?

[Hammie]

Originally Posted by Linksys2.4

Yes, my next set of speakers will be nice floor standers!

I settled on 80 because that's the THX recommended point of rolloff into a sub; it can't hurt my R20s, R15s and CSi30, can it?

No, not at all. You won't hurt them because you are not stressing them lower than they can support. You should be very happy with the 80 Hz setting.

[Linksys2.4]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

No, not at all. You won't hurt them because you are not stressing them lower than they can support. You should be very happy with the 80 Hz setting.

Can you explain the "ups and downs" of the frequencies? In other words, if the setting is made to a "higher" frequency, such as, say, 100Hz, does this mean that more or less of the information is kept or passed to a sub?