Panasonic BD 55, audio setup question.

[acritzer]

I need some specific help with my Panny 55. I need to know if there are any issues with having the HDMI sound on (connected to the TV) and also using multi-channel analog output (for lossless sound to receiver).

Does one or the other interfere in anyway with the lossless decoding? Usually I use the lossless audio, but it's nice to have the option if we're watching a cheapy DVD for just TV sound.

[BIslander]

The manual warns that leaving HDMI audio on may lead to unexpected results from the other audio outputs. It doesn't cause any problems on my system where I use analog and coax outputs to my receiver along with an HDMI output to my TV. I suspect there may be specific equipment combinations where the HDMI handshake triggers a stereo downmix for other outputs.

[acritzer]

You're just the guy I was hoping would respond. Any way to determine if it triggers a down-mix?

[BIslander]

Originally Posted by acritzer

Any way to determine if it triggers a down-mix?

Downmix means a reduction in the number of channels. You'd get stereo instead of 5.1, which is easy to spot.

Downconverting is another matter. If the player substitutes a lossy track for the lossless one, there's no way know for sure since the Panasonic player doesn't report that information. But, I can't imagine why the HDMI handshake with a TV, a two channel device, would tell the player to use a lossy track instead of a lossless one for decoding. The TV doesn't care about the audio resolution, just that it wants a stereo PCM output.

So, if you select a lossless track on the disc, have secondary audio set to off, and get multichannel over analog, I think you can be confident that it's from the lossless source.

[acritzer]

Thanks again. You're info is alway very helpful. Irecently upgraded tvs and the hdmi comes into play now so I wanted to double check the settings.