onkyo 605 listening modes

[atoal]

so i was messing around with the different listening modes on the receiver while listening to some music with my xbox, after i switch backed to my ps3 to watch a movie the listening mode stayed on. i tried both bitsream and linear pcm with uncompressed audio and it didnt change. the last time i watched a blu it would say multich or whatever on the display but now it still says the listening mode that i was using previously. is there anyway to just switch of the listening mode?

[atoal]

anyone have an idea???

[crackinhedz]

each codec has a setting (receiver settings under listening modes)...its probably set to "Last Valid"

so if your using a listening mode for PCM it will stay on that setting for all PCM signals....if you have a listening mode on Dolby, every dolby track would play the 'last valid' mode...

so you gotta set them in the receiver if you dont want them to change.

ex.

Dolby = Dolby
Dts = Dts
PCM = Direct
Dolby TrueHD = Last Valid
etc


You can apply the modes for each codec.

[SDon1969]

When you watch blu-rays on your PS3, does the Onkyo 605 click a bunch of times while the movie loads (and when you fast forward/skip)? Like it is switching listening modes back & forth....found a few google hits on this topic and am hoping it is normal.

[SDon1969]

Crackin, do you know why my sound seems better watching BDs when the 605 listening mode (only two choices in most cases, Direct or Multich) is set to Multich? It sounds so much richer to me on Multich, I tried it over & over on different movies...

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by SDon1969

Crackin, do you know why my sound seems better watching BDs when the 605 listening mode (only two choices in most cases, Direct or Multich) is set to Multich? It sounds so much richer to me on Multich, I tried it over & over on different movies...

sorry, I do not know why it sounds different to you...I was under the impression it is generally the same, but when I get home i'll look at the manual and see what it says about 'Direct' and 'Multichannel', see if it gives any clues.

[SDon1969]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

sorry, I do not know why it sounds different to you...I was under the impression it is generally the same, but when I get home i'll look at the manual and see what it says about 'Direct' and 'Multichannel', see if it gives any clues.

Allright man, thanks. I searched the pdf manual for awhile but gave up after getting a little more confused!

[atoal]

well i when i changed it to direct with pcm it was only 2 the left and right speakers. i just went ahead and reset all the settings on my ps3 and that seemed to fix my problem

[ausamerika]

To me, setting lossless tracks to Direct sounds more spacious and seems to have better separation, but you lose a significant amount of bass from the soundtrack. Multichannel seems to me a lot less realistic but heavier in bass.

Food for thought: With a native PCM soundtrack on the disc, would you want the receiver to handle the audio exactly as it comes from the player (DIRECT) or is there any benefit in having the receiver "decode", such as it is, supposedly already decoded audio (MCHNL)?

Ditto goes for DTS MA and DTHD... if they're decoded in the player, theoretically there's an already decoded PCM stream going to your receiver -- eliminating the need for the receiver to do any processing, right?

Or am I off-base here?

[un4gvn94538]

i have the 705. when i switch from multichannel to direct, there isnt much of a difference. however, when i change from multi channel to direct, the audessey light goes out, meaning that the speaker settings are no longer what the auto calibration selected. when i change back to multichannel, the audessey light goes back on.

multi channel seems to be the standard most are using

[ausamerika]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

i have the 705. when i switch from multichannel to direct, there isnt much of a difference. however, when i change from multi channel to direct, the audessey light goes out, meaning that the speaker settings are no longer what the auto calibration selected. when i change back to multichannel, the audessey light goes back on.

That's a really interesting observation.... my old system used to do this with SACD and DVD-AUDIO -- it would completely forgo my speaker settings every time I played one of those two formats. I'll have to check this phenomenon out.

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by ausamerika

That's a really interesting observation.... my old system used to do this with SACD and DVD-AUDIO -- it would completely forgo my speaker settings every time I played one of those two formats. I'll have to check this phenomenon out.

im thinking that the only reason they may sound different is because of the speaker settings.
unless i use thx select 2 for matrix 7.1 i leave it on multichannel

[un4gvn94538]

plus even in direct, at the top of the display in small wording, it still says pcm multichannel hdmi. that doesnt change.

[ausamerika]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

plus even in direct, at the top of the display in small wording, it still says pcm multichannel hdmi. that doesnt change.

That's sort of what I was getting at. I suspect that in the PCM coding, there are probably speaker settings... which is why it turns off Audessey -- in favor of the presets the soundtrack creator thinks are most appropriate.

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by ausamerika

That's sort of what I was getting at. I suspect that in the PCM coding, there are probably speaker settings... which is why it turns off Audessey -- in favor of the presets the soundtrack creator thinks are most appropriate.

i never heard of preset speaker settings within any code. i would like to see what a receiver would do with the sound bitstreamed then. in any case, it should be the same going out of the speakers bitstreamed or not. there are too many differences in every house or where ever. its the receivers job to adjust speakers.

when i first hooked up my ps3 to the 705 via hdmi, after adjusting speakers settings, the very first blu i played came up multichannel, not direct.

[un4gvn94538]

[ausamerika]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

Oh! It's panic! I thought you were doing a victory dance...

[ausamerika]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

the very first blu i played came up multichannel, not direct.

...and that still begs the question then... what the heck is DIRECT actually for??

[un4gvn94538]

on my nr801, i used direct for selecting the audio, if it was a dts movie and it would show dts (no matrix). multi channel on the 801 was just that, multi channel from the multi channel inputs. i think its basically the same thing. however, ive been thinking, if the audessey lights go out when i change to direct, the speaker settings change probably to whatever they were before the audessey was used.

[ausamerika]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

if the audessey lights go out when i change to direct, the speaker settings change probably to whatever they were before the audessey was used.

Or maybe factory defaults?