Recommendations needed for a budget of $1,500! (1 Viewer)

[colomb]

Thank you so much for your detailed instruction. I'd check the distances and find out the right measurements.
Have wonderful evening!

 

[colomb]

Hi Guys,
I bought all the equipment and the cables Martin recommeded, the speakers (4 x BIC Dv64) and the receiver (Onkyo TX-NR709) arrived fast, but the subwoofer (Epik Lengend) and the center channel speaker (BIC DV62CLR-S) probably will arrive today!
With the receiver and the 4 speakers, I couldn't wait to give it a try. Amazing! So amazing the sound is! Even if without the subwoofer and the center one! I was so excited and happy to have these things in the room. It is you guys who guided me to enter this wonderful audio world that I had never been to at home! Thank you so much!
However, after two days enjoyment, I thought that I should do something with the TV stand last night, which is a long low cabinet that I purchased from Amazon. The space for the receiver is almost the same size as the receiver and has very limited gap between the machine and the cabinet. So I decided to drill more big holes on the back so as to let more air come in to cool the receiver. I then put back all the cables and wires exactly the same as before. When I tried to watch TV programs, there is only picture but no audio! The "HDMI control" function on the receiver - "Onkyo TX-NR709" stopped working with my Sharp Aquos LED TV. Basically, I'm not able to use my speakers to get the sound from my TV any more. I know I have everything set up correctly because the receiver worked like a charm previously. Now when I go to "Hardware Setup"->"HDMI Control" and turn it "On", the receiver screen says "search..." and then a message "Not Available" pops up. It seems that the receiver cannot detect my TV's "Sharp Aquos LINK" function. The "Sharp Aquos LINK" function turned on automatically 2 days ago whenever I turned on my receiver so that the TV audio could be transferred to my speakers. I really have no clue if it's the receiver's hardware problem, as I remember there are some reviews talking about the HDMI module problem that Onkyo receiver has. I'm so scared that I am bewitched? Please advise.
Thank you!

 

[schan1269]

Welcome to HDMI...
There is a simple solution...and you will probably encounter this again when your power goes out...
You "messed up the handshake"...(also known as the HDCP)
Turn everything off, unhook the HDMI and unplug it all from the wall.
In "about an hour"...
Plug the the receiver into the wall first. (the rest of it doesn't really matter what order)
Attach all your HDMI
Plug everything ELSE into the wall...
Turn it all on again...receiver first.
(my guess here, something "wasn't off" when you unhooked your HDMI...and even with todays AVR that have "standby pass-through", before you hook something up for the first time...the AVR and the "connecting device" both need to be off)
In almost all AVR situations...Always turn the AVR on first. Turn the TV on last.

 

[colomb]

Thank you for the suggestion, Sam. I actually did the similar process both last night and this morning, after leaving all the equipment off (by turning off the extention outlet) for a whole night. I'll try again tonight.

 

[schan1269]

There is no "similar" by flipping to turn it all off.
The handshake needs to be created IN ORDER.
Just flipping the switch back on does nothing to re-establish the handshake.

 

[colomb]

Thank you again, Sam, for your further guidance. It was really a mess last night. At first, I unplugged everything per your instruction and then drove to a nearby Radioshack store grabbing an optical cable, just in the hope to find out if it was the HDMI problem. After an hour or so, we (actually with my son's help) plugged everything back, plus the optical cable. With several attempts, we succeeded in getting audio from the TV and all the 5 speakers and the subwoofer worked at the same time (received the center channel speaker and the subwoofer at about 8 pm)! The sound is awsome and unbelievable! However, this was done through the optical cable but not the HDMI, since the HDMI control showed "not available" all the time! This means that the receiver was not able to detect the audio signal from the TV while no problem with the picture. By then we got to realize that there was indeed a problem with the HDMI module of the receiver. As I contacted with the seller about this as soon as I had this problem, they had no solution but agreed to do an exchange. I just paid them for the new one so that I can get it by end of this week and then return the old one and get the refund later. What a bad luck!

 

[Jason Charlton]

Wait a minute...

Victor, are all of your sources connected directly to the TV via HDMI? Generally, we prefer to run all the source devices to inputs on the Receiver, then run a single HDMI from the receiver's OUTPUT to an input on the TV.

In terms of the signal flow, nothing "comes out of the TV and goes into the receiver" - in fact, it's just the opposite. All the audio/video signals originate at their source (Blu-Ray, Cable, XBox, etc.) and flow INTO the receiver, then the receiver plays the audio through the speakers, and sends a single video signal, via HDMI, OUT to the TV.

Perhaps I missed something in one of your earlier posts that required you to run things to the TV and use HDMI control, etc. If so, I apologize, but I think if you rerouted your sources directly to the receiver, then used the "monitor out" HDMI connection from the receiver to HDMI input on the TV, things will work out.

 

[colomb]

I'm sorry that I forgot to mention about the sources I use at the moment. I do not have a cable TV subscription, no blu-ray player, no CD/DVD players, no game players like Xbox, etc. The only media sources I'm using now are the public TV programs with Netflix subscription, and an Ipod/Iphone. The reason I pointed out the HDMI problem is that I read many reviews online about this receiver and HDMI module failure happens frequently. One review on Amazon says the problem happened to his two machines within one week upon arrival! Anyhow, I'll try what you suggested tonight and see what will happen.
Thank you.

 

[Jason Charlton]

OK, my mistake - for programming that utilizes the TVs built-in tuner (cable/satellite without a set top box), or any of the TV-based streaming apps, then yes, the signal originates in the TV and should be passed to the receiver. ARC (audio return channel) support in both the TV and the receiver should mean that with HDMI control activated in the receiver, the audio from the TV flows"upstream" to the receiver via HDMI, otherwise you're stuck using digital optical cable - which you tried and verified DOES work.

So yes, sounds like if all efforts to try and reestablish handshake failed, then there may be an issue with the receiver.

Sorry to scare you there, but I couldn't be certain that this was the case. Hope things work out with the new unit.

Edit:
However, the difference in "quality" of the audio signal between digital optical and HDMI in this case may be nothing. The digital optical out from the TV should preserve any lossy Dolby Digital multichannel audio (5.1) from internal sources (both cable and streaming). Neither of those sources broadcasts anything more than lossy DD. The only thing HDMI would provide is support for the lossless audio formats of Blu-Ray, which you don't currently use.

It's still worthwhile to make sure that you have a fully functioning receiver - don't get me wrong there - but I don't think there will be any difference between what you hear now with digital optical vs. what you'll hear with HDMI.

 

[colomb]

Thank you so much, Jason. You're absolutely right! I Now I know the audio quality difference transmitted between a HMDI and an optical cable. I'm going to buy either a blu-ray player or a PS3 later.

 

[colomb]

The replacement receiver came in last Friday and it's working well with the HDMI main connection. The sound is good for all channels now! Believe it or not, things always get tricky when it's my turn. I really hope everything will be Okay from now on. Thank you guys for all your time and help!