Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Panasonic 'BD10A & Its "Working Relationship" with Onkyo TX-SR605...

Linksys 845c · 05-22-2008, 04:02 AM

Hello All...

Was wondering if I could get some possible answers on whether or not I have my system set up correctly -- specifically the "relationship" between my Panasonic '10A Blu ray player and Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver...notably, the way these devices are "talking" to each other for transmission of PCM signals, etc...let me explain a bit better:

My Panasonic Blu ray deck is going HDMI OUT for audio AND video transmission (no other connections -- no analog, component, nothing) to the Onkyo's HDMI IN (1)...from there, a second HDMI cable is going from the Onkyo's HDMI OUT to my Sony KDS-50A2020 SXRD RPHDTV's HDMI IN...that's it -- there are no other connections in or out of the system, except for the speaker cables connecting my Polk surround speaker array from the receiver, of course...

Now, this Blu ray player is not only handling Blu ray playback duties in my theater, but standard DVD playback as well (the horrible DVD upconversion on this machine is a topic for another day), and so under the player's "Digital Audio Output" menu, I have selected all legacy Dolby/DTS tracks to be sent BITSTREAM (because this player can send those signals bitstreamed to my 605) and the new high resolution audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD I have set to "PCM" output because this player does NOT bitstream any of the new codecs it supports (Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD and DTS-HD, NOT Master Audio) and instead decodes them internally to PCM and sends them out to a receiver like that...and so, under "TrueHD" I have that set to PCM...

The issue I'm wondering about is multi-fold...first of all, can Dolby and DTS legacy tracks be passed just fine over HDMI instead of coax or optical?

Now...the player also has a "Speaker Setting" menu under the setup which lets you select "2 Channel" or "Multi Channel"...I have found that after experimenting endlessly with these two selections (and of which the directions in the manual are COMPLETELY wrong on this issue -- don't ask) the "Multi Channel" selection is the correct one for passing decoded PCM tracks over HDMI in multi channel so my receiver can read them. But, also under this "Multi Channel" menu on the Panasonic player, there's a second menu that pops up and asks you to set speaker sizes, levels, delays, etc...now, this was all set inside my receiver already -- that is, calibrations, delays, speaker crossovers, etc...and I was under the assumption that this speaker setup menu on the Blu ray player was ONLY for if you're using the multichannel analog outputs, which I am not -- ONLY digital HDMI is what I'm running. So, do those speaker sizes, distances, etc. matter if I'm connected via HDMI and not analog? Do these need to be set in order for uncompressed and decoded PCM signals to pass correctly to my receiver? Some have said leave them at SMALL in terms of sizes (my speakers are all Polk bookshelves, so they're not large) and others have told me they all need to be set to LARGE in this menu so there's no "double crossover processing" going on between the player and receiver (or some such rhetoric)...I don't know what the correct answer is for this because even still, some say this doesn't matter at all because I'm connected with a DIGITAL HDMI output.

Once again, my speakers are all monitor sized Polk "R" series bookshelves with a powered PSW 10 sub; in my receiver, all calibrations have been made for these speakers including a 80Hz rolloff on all speakers...given this, do I need to set those speaker values in the PLAYER as well, in order to pass PCM tracks correctly? And do these speaker settings in the player affect the digital transmission of BITSTREAMED audio?

Should PCM DOWNCONVERSION be left OFF in the player? Could this be affecting the sound? To be honest, decoded TrueHD and uncompressed PCM tracks don't sound all that "great" when I select them off Blu ray discs; to my ear, legacy DTS and Dolby tracks on DVDs are much "punchier" with a much more intense sense of presence and weight; I just don't hear this out of the TrueHD or uncompressed PCM tracks...could something be set wrong in my player?

The manual for the Panny '10A says that by selecting "PCM" for audio output of digital codecs supported by the machine, this will make the player "downmix" the track to a 2-channel PCM mix -- but that's not what I want, as I want the full multichannel PCM mix from the disc...why would Panasonic say this is downmixing to a 2 channel mix if PCM is selected but yet I hear all five speakers working when I play these tracks back???

If someone can shed ANY insight on ANY of these issues, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance!

05-22-2008, 04:02 AM	#1 of 15
Linksys 845c *Bobby Copeland* Join Date: May 2008 Local Time: 06:31 AM Local Date: 11-18-2008 Posts: 54	Panasonic 'BD10A & Its "Working Relationship" with Onkyo TX-SR605... Hello All... Was wondering if I could get some possible answers on whether or not I have my system set up correctly -- specifically the "relationship" between my Panasonic '10A Blu ray player and Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver...notably, the way these devices are "talking" to each other for transmission of PCM signals, etc...let me explain a bit better: My Panasonic Blu ray deck is going HDMI OUT for audio AND video transmission (no other connections -- no analog, component, nothing) to the Onkyo's HDMI IN (1)...from there, a second HDMI cable is going from the Onkyo's HDMI OUT to my Sony KDS-50A2020 SXRD RPHDTV's HDMI IN...that's it -- there are no other connections in or out of the system, except for the speaker cables connecting my Polk surround speaker array from the receiver, of course... Now, this Blu ray player is not only handling Blu ray playback duties in my theater, but standard DVD playback as well (the horrible DVD upconversion on this machine is a topic for another day), and so under the player's "Digital Audio Output" menu, I have selected all legacy Dolby/DTS tracks to be sent BITSTREAM (because this player can send those signals bitstreamed to my 605) and the new high resolution audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD I have set to "PCM" output because this player does NOT bitstream any of the new codecs it supports (Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD and DTS-HD, NOT Master Audio) and instead decodes them internally to PCM and sends them out to a receiver like that...and so, under "TrueHD" I have that set to PCM... The issue I'm wondering about is multi-fold...first of all, can Dolby and DTS legacy tracks be passed just fine over HDMI instead of coax or optical? Now...the player also has a "Speaker Setting" menu under the setup which lets you select "2 Channel" or "Multi Channel"...I have found that after experimenting endlessly with these two selections (and of which the directions in the manual are COMPLETELY wrong on this issue -- don't ask) the "Multi Channel" selection is the correct one for passing decoded PCM tracks over HDMI in multi channel so my receiver can read them. But, also under this "Multi Channel" menu on the Panasonic player, there's a second menu that pops up and asks you to set speaker sizes, levels, delays, etc...now, this was all set inside my receiver already -- that is, calibrations, delays, speaker crossovers, etc...and I was under the assumption that this speaker setup menu on the Blu ray player was ONLY for if you're using the multichannel analog outputs, which I am not -- ONLY digital HDMI is what I'm running. So, do those speaker sizes, distances, etc. matter if I'm connected via HDMI and not analog? Do these need to be set in order for uncompressed and decoded PCM signals to pass correctly to my receiver? Some have said leave them at SMALL in terms of sizes (my speakers are all Polk bookshelves, so they're not large) and others have told me they all need to be set to LARGE in this menu so there's no "double crossover processing" going on between the player and receiver (or some such rhetoric)...I don't know what the correct answer is for this because even still, some say this doesn't matter at all because I'm connected with a DIGITAL HDMI output. Once again, my speakers are all monitor sized Polk "R" series bookshelves with a powered PSW 10 sub; in my receiver, all calibrations have been made for these speakers including a 80Hz rolloff on all speakers...given this, do I need to set those speaker values in the PLAYER as well, in order to pass PCM tracks correctly? And do these speaker settings in the player affect the digital transmission of BITSTREAMED audio? Should PCM DOWNCONVERSION be left OFF in the player? Could this be affecting the sound? To be honest, decoded TrueHD and uncompressed PCM tracks don't sound all that "great" when I select them off Blu ray discs; to my ear, legacy DTS and Dolby tracks on DVDs are much "punchier" with a much more intense sense of presence and weight; I just don't hear this out of the TrueHD or uncompressed PCM tracks...could something be set wrong in my player? The manual for the Panny '10A says that by selecting "PCM" for audio output of digital codecs supported by the machine, this will make the player "downmix" the track to a 2-channel PCM mix -- but that's not what I want, as I want the full multichannel PCM mix from the disc...why would Panasonic say this is downmixing to a 2 channel mix if PCM is selected but yet I hear all five speakers working when I play these tracks back??? If someone can shed ANY insight on ANY of these issues, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance!