Settings for Decoding TrueHD

[Juan M.]

My apologies if this has been addressed before. I just don't seem to be able to find the answer.
How can I set the Sony S350 to NOT decode the TrueHD signal and pass it as bitstream? I've tried all the player menu settings to no avail. It is connected via HDMI.
I have an Onkyo TX-SR806 receiver with TrueHD decoding capabilities and it sees the signal from a DVD with TrueHD sound as "Multichannel PCM 5.1".
Thanks,
Juan

[J.Cornelius]

Change the BD Audio setting on the 350 from Mix to Direct, then the AVR will decode via bitstream.

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by J.Cornelius

Change the BD Audio setting on the 350 from Mix to Direct, then the AVR will decode via bitstream.

Changing the setting to Direct also tells the player to bitstream DTS-HD MA to the receiver via HDMI.

You answered correctly of course since Juan was only asking about DD TrueHD.

It's too bad that the default setting is Mix. The video/audio settings for this player are a jungle for newbies. I would think most people buying this player would want the ability to decode both DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in the receiver right out of the box.

[jshannon]

Originally Posted by J.Cornelius

Change the BD Audio setting on the 350 from Mix to Direct, then the AVR will decode via bitstream.

It is the same for a Panny BD35 and a Denon AVR2807?

[BIslander]

Originally Posted by jshannon

It is the same for a Panny BD35 and a Denon AVR2807?

No. The 2807 doesn't have HD decoders. So, you have to set the Dolby and DTS outputs to PCM in order get player decoding. If you set them to bitstream, the player will send the DD 5.1 or DTS core tracks to the receiver instead of the lossless ones.

With the Panasonic players, you need to set the DD and DTS outputs to either PCM (for player decoding) or bitstream (for AVR decoding). The Sony Direct setting uses the HDMI handshake to determine the capability of the receiver and the player sets the output format based on that determination.

[Juan M.]

Well, I have the SD-350 player set to direct and the Onkyo SR806 receiver set to HDMI-Audio Out-OFF like their website troubleshooting says. See below.
http://www.onkyousa.com/faqs_detail.cfm?detail=1&id=273
The receiver is decoding all the codecs including DTS, DTS6.1 etc, but still sees the TrueHD signal as Multichannel PCM 5.1.
I'm stuck with the chicken or the egg here. Both Onkyo and Sony phone support had me on hold yesterday for two hours each. I finally gave up.
I think it has to be the player. The receiver is properly seeing every other bitstream sent by the player.
Perhaps the cable?? I spent all this money in the components to hook them up with cheap cables from buy.com because I think the $99 Monster cables are a rip off.
Please keep the advice coming....
Thanks.

[Juan M.]

Well, I take back all the bad things I said about the BD-350, Sony, Onkyo and Monster Cables.
Fixed my problem by installing a Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cable ($89) from the player to the receiver. The receiver is now decoding the TruHD signal being sent over by the player.
Thanks for all the help.
Juan

[blujacket]

Originally Posted by Juan M.

Well, I take back all the bad things I said about the BD-350, Sony, Onkyo and Monster Cables.
Fixed my problem by installing a Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cable ($89) from the player to the receiver. The receiver is now decoding the TruHD signal being sent over by the player.
Thanks for all the help.
Juan

Did they kiss you after raping you for that cable? $89.00? Wow!

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by blujacket

Did they kiss you after raping you for that cable? $89.00? Wow!

I suppose it's possible that he had the wrong cable from the start perhaps being only HDMI 1.1 or 1.2. Of course any 2 meter HDMI 1.3a cable would probably have been good enough for bitstreaming DD-TrueHD or DTS-HD MA to his Onkyo. The important thing is he got the right cable and it works. Monster is overpriced but they do make good cables. I guess the $89.00 could in part be considered an initiation fee for being a newbie.

[Octavio]

Originally Posted by Juan M.

Well, I take back all the bad things I said about the BD-350, Sony, Onkyo and Monster Cables.
Fixed my problem by installing a Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cable ($89)
Juan

OMG! 89 bucks for a HDMI cable
Now that should be called The Great Cable Robbery!

I got my HDMI cable ver. 1.3a (Sony) for free when I bought my Sony S350 last christmas. Even more, for about 300 dollars I got the player, the HDMI cable, the USB memory plus 2 BD's.

Why Monster Cables are so expensive? are they MUCH better than another brands or what?

[mr.hidef]

Originally Posted by Juan M.

Well, I take back all the bad things I said about the BD-350, Sony, Onkyo and Monster Cables.
Fixed my problem by installing a Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cable ($89) from the player to the receiver. The receiver is now decoding the TruHD signal being sent over by the player.
Thanks for all the help.
Juan

Juan......go here: http://www.monoprice.com/products/se...i+1.3a&x=0&y=0

Return that awful $89.00 cable at once.......pay $10.00 w/shipping for a Monoprice 1.3a cable........use the rest to buy Blu's.

[Roger Zoul]

What is the difference (to the listener) in having the player decode vs the receiver?

[ryoohki]

Originally Posted by Roger Zoul

What is the difference (to the listener) in having the player decode vs the receiver?

For once it have less 'Bass management issues' Decoding inside the player is always at the mercy of bass management and players seems to have all sort of problems with this....

[BIslander]

Originally Posted by Roger Zoul

What is the difference (to the listener) in having the player decode vs the receiver?

There isn't any when using digital transmission from player to receiver.

Originally Posted by ryoohki

For once it have less 'Bass management issues' Decoding inside the player is always at the mercy of bass management and players seems to have all sort of problems with this....

You are confusing player decoding with the player doing the digital to analog conversion. It makes no difference where a track is decoded. The resulting PCM is identical. If you are using an HDMI connection to send the PCM to your receiver, all processing, including bass management, will be done by the receiver. But, if you are using analog connections, then the player will handle all of the processing and the sound output will be different.

[Roger Zoul]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

Changing the setting to Direct also tells the player to bitstream DTS-HD MA to the receiver via HDMI.

You answered correctly of course since Juan was only asking about DD TrueHD.

It's too bad that the default setting is Mix. The video/audio settings for this player are a jungle for newbies. I would think most people buying this player would want the ability to decode both DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in the receiver right out of the box.

If you read the manual for the Sony, you'd never surmise this meaning for "mix" and "direct". Whoever wrote that must have been from a another dimension or something. Or it just plain wrong.

[Juan M.]

Well, I thought I'd close the mission I started at the top of this thread. Thanks to all of you who suggested returning the $89 Monster Cable. Here's what I did: Returned the cable, got the money back and went to a nice dinner on Valentine's day with it. Then went back to the first of two sets of cheap HDMI cables cables I had bought from buy.com. And the cheaper of the two worked fine. Now my receiver is actually showing a TrueHD signal output. Actually the one cable that did not work said HDMI 1.3 in the package. The one that worked was in a plain wrapper, no labels.....go figure. So to all, keep the cables in mind, it is not always the dumb Sony settings. I had both the receiver and the player set correctly all along.