A/V connector problems... (1 Viewer)

[Tim Beebe]

I again thank everyone for helping me on my first problem.

Hopefully everyone can help me out on my next roadblock.

I'll put all my equipment again...

My Receiver is a Yamaha 5590.

My TV (I think) is a Phillips 27PS60S 27 in.
It has 3 inputs, 1 output, and 1 RF (duh).
A/V Composite Inputs- 1 (side)
A/V Outputs Composite- 1 (rear) (Labeled Monitor Out)
S-Video Inputs- 1 (rear)
Number of RF Jacks- 1 (rear)
Number of Component Inputs- 1 (rear)
I'm not sure what the others are labeled, but I can go check if it's necessary.

My speakers are PSBs- 2 pairs 4T, Sub6i, 9c

I'll be hooking up the following...
VCR (PVV4524S)- I may want to have this hook up to the front ports of the receiver, because it may be traveling back and forth between two televisions (if I can get this problem fixed, anyway). The VCR actually only came with a regular RF cable. No A/V cables at all. Luckily I had an extra. Either way, this component isn't really a problem yet, because I haven't gotten to hooking it up.

The XBOX (also the DVD player). Component Video Hookups.

The Gamecube and the Playstation 2 have a shared S-Video Hookup.

I want to use the HT system for everything-- TV, VCR, and Video Games/DVDs.

If any more info is needed on components, let me know...

Here's what's going on.

The Xbox is working fine. All hookups seem to be correct.

The PS2/GC hookup has something wrong with it.
I have the Red/Whi/Yel/S-Video cable going from the console to the receiver and I have Red/Whi/S-Video cables from the receiver to the S-Video. Is it because there isn't a regular Yellow video cable? Would this matter? I also have an optical cable I could use from the PS2 to the receiver if I wanted, but it's not yet being used. I'm a little confused as to what the optical cable is for (The S-video cable I bought came with it). The television has no optical hookups. The sound seems perfect (except for the below problem). But the picture is blurry, constantly looses color, and is distorted.

The other problem I'm having is the sound isn't quite working correctly... at least, I don't think it is. I have the AVIA DVD, and when I was checking all the channels, I noticed that the "RS(Right Surround)" and "LS(Left Surround)" checks are coming out of both surrounds, and maybe all speakers. I have tried this in all the different Presets (6CH Stereo, Hall, Church, etc.) and nothing changes except for the volume/effect of the sound. When I do the innate receiver check through all the speakers, it works fine. All channels are separate. Also, as I'm pretty sure this may be related, on the front of the receiver, only the [L] and [R] are lit up, when, I'm assuming [RS], [LS], [SWF], AND [C] should be lit up...

So, what am I doing wrong?

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Your DVD player is likely set to only send ProLogic to your reciever. (ProLogic sends the identical sounds to both rear speakers.)

There are 3 things you have to check:

- The DVD player setup menu to make sure you have enabled Dolby Digital (or 5.1) and NOT something like ProLogic or PCM.

- The Avia setup disk to make sure you have selected the DD audio track (almost all movies come with audio track #1 being ProLogic)

- That your reciever is set to "Auto" detect the feed from the DVD player.

 

[Steve::Weaver]

The optical cable is for digital audio (it hooks to the receiver, not the TV). Whether the analog cables or digital optical cable sounds better depends on which device has the better DAC. Try them both and use whichever sounds better to you. Since the PS2 doesn't do DD, it's not going to make much difference, although if the receiver converts the analog back to digital for signal processing there might be some loss there. My guess is that GTA3 doesn't have enough encoded audio resolution that it matters.

Have you tried hooking the s-video cable from the ps2 directly into the TV to see if the picture problems go away? It's probably a bad cable unless a new cable, hooked directly to the TV, exhibits the same problem. If you can't solve it, just use the composite (yellow) video cable from the PS2 to the TV. maybe the dot-crawl will smooth out some of the PS2's terrible anti-aliasing.

As for the sound problem, as Bob said, make sure the DVD player is set to put out a DD signal, and make sure you selected the DD track on the DVD. Also, how do you have the DVD player hooked to the receiver? If you're using the analog cable (the red and white ones), you won't be able to get digital audio. You'll either need to make the connection from the DVD player to the receiver using the digital coax audio connectors (normally orange) or the digital optical connectors.

 

[Tim Beebe]

My DVD player is my XBOX. I bought the appropriate Hookups so I could get DD (http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/h...tionavpack.htm). It's on the right settings as well. Audio Mode- Dolby Surround / Dolby Digital- Enabled and DTS- Enabled. X-box doesn't even run in Pro-Logic. The hookups are confusing me now though. Because you say it wouldn't be using a red/white cord, but that's what it came with... confusing.

I'll double check the AVIA disk... didn't think of that.

I do usually put the receiver to "auto." But when it wasn't working I tried all the settings manually as well.

Thanks for the information on the optical cable. I'll try it out.

 

[Steve::Weaver]

Ah!

The little box that comes with the HD pack has a little slot in it (by the component jacks) for a digital optical cable. You need to hook that to the receiver to get DD.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The reason you are getting the tones from both surrounds is because you do not have the optical connection hooked up. The only way to get DD/DTS is to hook up the optical digital connection (or have 5.1 analog outs, but that is another story). Right now you only have Pro-Logic from the L/R analog connection. Hook up the optical and enable it at the DVD and receiver. You will be amazed at the difference.

 

[Tim Beebe]

I just saw that last night. Good thing that optical cable came with the S-Video cable I bought.

Also, I guess the PS2/GC cable was just a loose connection as that is also working fine.

Thank you everyone, you've been a great help.

My Home Theater is working great and everything is fine.

Hopefully I'll still be around the HTF posting something that doesn't involve needing help.