Sony STR VA555ES firmware

stackini · 10-19-2006, 10:25 AM

Hello, I have just recently joined the 21st century and logged onto the internet and only just found out about the problem with the amp. Mine never plays full DTS-ES tracks and I have to use the 6.1 matrix. I always thought the problem was with my dvd player and not the amp itself. I have looked and looked for the firmware upgrade on the net and cannot find any trace at all.
Has anyone got a copy of the upgrade saved that they could send me or know of how and where to get it please? I have looked on the Sony websites around the world and cannot find it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers Matt

John Garcia · 10-19-2006, 11:58 AM

First make sure you are playing discrete discs, as not all ES material is. Many are matrix only.

How did you find out about the availability of a firmware update? Ideally, you would contact Sony for any updates, but unless you know for a fact that it exists, there may not be an update that allows discrete processing vs matrix only.

stackini · 10-19-2006, 01:55 PM

I found it on this website in the archives. The actual post was dated sometime in 2003. I input on google 'the problem with sony str va555 es' and it bought me to this forum. The discs I am playing are fully dte-es compliant. One being the lord of the rings extended edition along with blade 2and x men 3. When I select the 'auto' feature on my amp and there is a dts-es signal being input to it. No sound comes out and the speaker display just keeps flashing. This only happens on es soundtracks and not normal dts. It is fine with dd ex soundtracks. That is why new firmware was bought out to fix this problem and thats why I would like to try and track down a copy. So I can fully enjoy dts-es using the in built dts-es decoder and not the sony 6.1 matrix.

John Brill · 10-19-2006, 02:36 PM

In Internet Explorer (didn't work for me in FireFox, must be one of my no-popus or download settings...), go to: http://www.css.ap.sony.com/downloads...SW/VA555ES.exe

and save the file... I'm sure you can find the instructions on how to upgrade the firmware from there

(null modem cable, etc, etc...)

Good luck!

stackini · 10-19-2006, 03:02 PM

John, thanks mate you are a star!

It says in the instructions not to use windows xp. Do you know of any reason why not or was that when XP was first bought out and there were some compatibility issues between the programs.

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John Brill · 10-19-2006, 03:23 PM

Hmm, I'm thinking it may have more to do with XP trying to identify your AVR and not finding it therefore not working. Also, it may simply not run the utility file. I don't think there is any harm in trying to hook up your AVR with a null-modem cable and trying it with XP. Worse comes to worse, I'm sure you can find someone with a Win98 machine? Whole procedure should take less than 5 minutes from what I've read.

stackini · 10-19-2006, 03:30 PM

I see what you mean. I will try it with the plug and play feature switched off. So, touch wood? It should not try and identify the amp. In theory anyway. If not I cant see it doing any harm. (famous last words?)

stackini · 11-02-2006, 04:39 AM

I have updated my amp using Windows XP and have had no problems at all.
I can now enjoy full DTS 6.1 discrete sound at last!!

It took longer to disconnect and reconnect all the cables than it did to actually update the firmware!