No sound at all (1 Viewer)

[John S]

The option will be Bitstream or PCM, it will be in the DVD Player setup menu. Sometimes you have to make sure both DTS amd DD 5.1 are enabled / turned on as well.

On the DVD media menu it is often under languages or setup.

 

[Scott-Ss]

Thanks John. I just checked my manual online at sony and i know just where it needs to be changed. I do have to enable DTS seperately as well. Hopefully that will have me setup. How sweet it will be to see "Dolby Digital" scroll across the receiver display!

 

[Tony Loewen]

If you are using the left/right analog connections from your player, the best you can ever do is pro-logic. You need to use digital out (either coax or optical) from your player to your reciever. That is the only way you will get true 5.1 surround. (pro-logic is a bastardized surround. The rears will not be full range, and most of the time, they will have the same output on both the left and the right side.) As the Sony is configurable (so I understand, I have an Onkyo), it won't matter if you use the rears or surrounds for your back speakers, AS LONG AS YOU SET IT UP CORRECTLY in the receiver. If your receiver is a 7.1, I would be willing to bet a good chunk of money that, in a 5.1 setup, the default would be to use the surrounds, not the backs. In a 7.1 set, the back surrounds take the rear signal. Since there is no true 7.1 recording format, this will be either a matrix rear surround from the DIRECT BACK audio signal, or a mono rear signal split between the two rear channels, depending on your playback mode, from the rear channel in a 6.1 recording. If you do not want to mess with assignments, I would stick the backs on the surrounds, not the backs.

As far as pressing the dvd button and getting dvd sound, check your manual to see what it uses for it's default dvd feed, and use that if possible. Otherwise, you have to setup the correct input in your receiver's settings (ie, change "dvd input" to whatever input you are connecting to from the dvd player, optical 1, coax 1, etc)

That will get you true surround.

 

[Scott-Ss]

i think that everything will be straight once i get home thanks to all the help ive gotten here. Once thing i noticed is that my receiver volume has no low end. Meaning, i have to turn it up to 40 before i start getting any notable sound. Watched a movie last night (in prologic obviously) and had to run the volume at 55 out of a total of 75(max). Is this normal?

 

[Tony Loewen]

I usually run my onkyo at around 72 for dvds (from the htpc) for a theater-like experience, and around 62 for regular tv. Not sure what it goes up to, I know 72 is pretty damn loud, and it goes up from there. I think a little over 80 is where I've taken it to. So ya, I would say that is more or less normal.

 

[John Garcia]

Yep, fairly normal. Mine goes from something like -75 to +15 and I have to turn it to -25 for normal listening.

 

[Scott-Ss]

Finally got everything working last night. Watched a little finding nemo and it sounds great! (Got the scrolling "Dolby Digital" too! WOOHOO!) Watched Oceans 12 last night though, which claimed to be in dolby digital and got nothing from the surround speakers and the subwoofer status light stayed red for most of the movie. Sounded like there was bass coming from other speakers, but nothing from the sub. Tried turning it of and on, and nothing. Put Finding Nemo back in and it sounded great. Any explanations?

 

[John S]

And on the DVD Media / Disc menu itself you manually selected DD 5.1 on the Oceans 12 DVD???

If so, I have no clue.

 

[Scott-Ss]

It didnt have any setup menu for the dvd itself like some do. Just special features. (Commentary, Bloopers...)

 

[John Garcia]

Sometimes the audio track selection is hidden in weird places like language selection or options, etc... so you may have to check the various menus until you find it.

Congrats on getting it working right.

 

[Scott-Ss]

It was in the language setup... now i know to look! Which gives better sound? Dobly Digital or Digital Theater Sound?

 

[Jack Briggs]

Scott, please don't bring that up. Endlessly debated here at HTF. Run searches on DD v. DTS in the Software area.

 

[John S]

This would be a somewhat new comment from me on the DD -vs- DTS so I'll post it on up. Sorry Jack Briggs...

I used to always use DTS, because for no other reason it was there and I had it.

I recently found two titles where the DTS track stinks compared to the DD 5.1 track.

The new Collectors Edition of "Fear and Loathing in LasVegas" and one of the recent DVD Miles Davis releases.

Both of them seemed like basic Mixing / Master issues, not any flaw in either format. So thats what your up against with such a question anyways. Makes me wonder if they are using some sort of software conversion from DD instead of a true new master using the DTS format.