Static from rear speakers when watching Ghostbusters?

[victimsofadown]

I've had a new receiver (Pioneer VSX-819h-k) hooked up for literally 72 hours tops. In that time I've managed to watch between 5-7 blurays, which all sounded SPECTACULAR (especially compared to before).

However, the most recent blu that I watched (Ghostbusters) had a REALLY annoying quirk, in that whenever the rear speakers weren't being used, a heavy static came out of them. For example, any speaking scenes or non-action scenes.

I thought it was just a terrible audio mix, but then it occurred to me: that wouldn't get by the studio! Also I checked the reviews for the movie and no one gives any mention of such things.

Please help

Oh if it matters my speakers are a Polk audio 5 peice + sub set that I got from BB for 199.99 (I can no longer find them listed on the website to give the appropriate model #), and my player is the PS3 (which I have set to PCM)

[Rob J in WNY]

I have Ghostbusters on BD, and play through a Pioneer Elite SC-05 via a Sony BDP-S350 player. All HDMI. No problems.

The only thing I can think is that you may want check if your PS3's firmware is up to date, especially because you decode audio in your player and send as PCM to your receiver. Essentially, your receiver doesn't really "see" anything other than PCM audio coming from your PS3, and other discs are working just fine.

[victimsofadown]

So far as I know everything is up-to-date, and if it is out of date it is literally by no less than a week. Could that really have an impact? I'll try either way, but I'd still really appreciate more suggestions.

[Rob J in WNY]

Originally Posted by victimsofadown

So far as I know everything is up-to-date, and if it is out of date it is literally by no less than a week. Could that really have an impact? I'll try either way, but I'd still really appreciate more suggestions.

Yes, absolutely. The reason why I bring up firmware is that Ghostbusters, though an older movie, is a new release. Your PS3 does the decoding of all your Blu-ray audio and streams as PCM. Given that you stream multi-channel PCM from all your discs, I doubt the problem lies with your receiver. The only changeable factor is the newness of the Ghostbusters BD. On occasion, new discs cause playback problems (although granted, the Ghostbusters BD is not really all that unique in of itself), hence, the suggestion to check for a newer firmware version.

One thing you can try, although a long shot, is to make sure all your HDMI cables are firmly seated. Your other discs are working fine, though.

Hmmmmm......You can also take your Ghostbusters BD and try playing it back on a different surround system (a friend's, or at a store with a setup which the player decodes the audio and sends as PCM - hopefully with an up-to-date PS3 as a player). As far as I remember, Ghostbusters will default to the Dolby TrueHD audio option. Double-check and make sure that you are using the Dolby TrueHD audio on your system, then make sure it is selected on the test system. There is an ever-so-slight chance of the disc is defective.

[CasualKiller]

Take a look at your cables, make sure they aren't laying on top of each other, it would be a sure fire way to introduce interference.

[aramis109]

I'm actually betting if you listen to something in stereo or just have the speakers on you're going to hear a whine/static. You're probably getting some ground loop or other interference. As mentioned, check your cabling, make sure they're not wrapped or laying on top of each other, and try unplugging each item until you find the source. I have that BD and it's very quiet in the rear channels- I think that's why you're hearing it.

[Steve]

I would also check to make sure that the volume setting of the PS3 is set at 0. I've heard of quite a few issues when people have this setting higher than 0 or +1.