Audio setting on Pioneer DV-563A (1 Viewer)

[anthony_s]

Hi. I am trying to set up the DV-563A DVD player to you the 5.1 analog audio outs with my Yamaha receiver that has 5.1 analog audio ins.
The manual says the DVD player has built in DD and DTS decoders and I would like to use that.
Previously, I had a Panasonic DVD player that connected to a separate DD decoder that in turn connected to the same Yamaha receiver using the 5.1 analog outs. That worked fine.
If I connect the Pioneer DVD player directly to the receiver with the 5.1 outs, the volume seems very low, especially bass. I have fooled with the audio settings on the 563A, but nothing seems to make much of a difference.
The manual is very confusing to me. For instance, in one paragraph it says to get surround sound, use the 5.1 analog outs. In another it says to get surround sound you must use the digital outs...
Please help.
Thanks!!

 

[BrentPollard]

The 5.1 analogue outs are used for the hi-rez layers of DVD-Audio or hybrid SACD's or single layer SACD. You will not get DD or DTS out of those outputs. To get DD and DTS you will have to use the Digital coax out on the DV563-A to a coax in on the Yamaha. I also found as you did that the 5.1 analogue outs do have lower volume, so i just went into the Pioneer menu and increased the speaker levels. If you have no SACD's or DVD-Audio disks, then don't bother hooking up the 5.1 analoge cables and just stick with the coax. If you do have some SACD's you will have to go into the 563''s initial settings, find options then SACD and pick either Multichannel or Stereo to set a a default when you insert ann SACD.

 

[Brian L]

Are you sure about that Brent?

Most uni players that I have read about do in fact use the 5.1 analogs for DD, DTS, and of course MC SACD and DVD-A.

Now, it normally better to use the digital out to your receiver or pre/pro since the BM and TA functions in most uni players are below par.

I did use my Pio 45a that way until I upgraded my receiver from a Pro Logic only machine to a DD/DTS capable unit. I suppose the 45a could have been an oddball, but I suspect not.

BGL

 

[Brian L]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...22#post1800722

Might be some useful info here, Anthony.

BGL

 

[anthony_s]

The Pioneer 563A's manual is so vague and hard to understand that I didn't even know it had DD and DTS decoding until i read a review after I bought it!
If I use the digital out, I won't be able to play DVD-A or SACD's since I don't have a digital in on my receiver, only have 5.1 analog ins. This is what I was trying to avaoid by using only the 5.1 outputs on the 563A...

 

[Brian L]

Sounds like my old Marantz SR-96...it pre-dated DD and DTS, but they were smart enough to include the 5.1 analogs.

Well, since that's the only way to hook up the 563 to your receiver, why not just throw in a movie with a DD or DTS soundtrack. I think you will be fine for all formats, but worst case: you won't get any sound from DD or DTS movies. Best case: it will work fine, as did my 45a.

And perhaps you know this, but DVD-A and SACD, for the most part, will not send anything out the digital outs; the 5.1 analogs are the only way to go.

And to be clear, even if you had a digital in, you would want to hook it up, as well as the 5.1 analogs.

BGL

 

[BrentPollard]

I did not know that DD and DTS wopuld pass thru the 5.1 Analogue. I will gogive it a try shortly and get back with the results..

 

[BrentPollard]

Well don't I feel silly you can indeed pass DD & DTS thru the Analogue out.:b
Now that I have been set straight I did a very quick test on the diff between analogue and digital and as far as volume goes the analogue was quieter but not that much. However I have set the speaker volume in the 563 set to max.

 

[anthony_s]

Right Brent. It seems to work for me too, but the levels are so low it is difficult to get the full effect.. bass especially.

 

[Nathan Stohler]

Anthony,

What's wrong with just turning up the volume?

As for the bass, I found that I needed to set the subwoofer output about 10 dB higher than the other channels. Although you can't set the sub to +10 dB in the menu (only +/- 6), you can set the sub to +6 and all the other channels to -4.

 

[Steve_AS]

As a rule, to have the player do DD/DTS decoding, use the multichannel analog outs. To have the receiver do it, use the digital out. If the Yamaha has no digital input, then of course you have to use the player's decoding, and the analog outputs.

If I understand correctly, your receiver has no digital input but does have multichannel analog input. If so, and IF you have a player that does DVD-Audio and/or SACD, you can play multichannel mixes in those formats, over the analog connection. If your player is DVD-Video only, you can still play the multichannel Dolby Digital or DTS mixes that are usually found on DVD-Audio discs.

A setup and calibration DVD/CD , such as Avia or the Chesky Ultimate Surround disc, along with a Radio Shack SPL meter, would help you set channel levels for 5.1 playback. Also, does the Yamaha allow any level adjustment of its 6-channel analog input? Finally, there may be bass management issues -- for a 5.1 setup you most likely should be setting all your speakers to SMALL and the subwoofer to ON in the 563A's Speakers setup menu.

 

[Neil J]

Does anyone know why the display will indicate a downmix? I have a 5.1 setup and it shows d.mix . ?

 

[BrentPollard]

Check your menu, I think there is a setting for D-mix. If I can I will have a look today.

 

[Steve_AS]

What source are you listening to, and through what player output, that's giving you the 'd.mix' message?

In general if you have teh Intial Settings/Speakers/Audio Output Mode set to '2 channel', DD, DTs and MPEG sources played via the analog output panel will be downmixed.
See p 66 of your manual. See also the notes on p 67 regarding downmixing of DVD-Audio (there are two notes, one at the start and the other at the end of the page).

DTS has its own menu to control downmixing when DTS-->PCM has been selected. See p 66 of your manual.


All rather complicated, but worth getting the settings
right.

 

[Neil J]

The display on the player is what shows the d.mix message. It has shown up so far on everything I've been playing. I only have it hooked up with the coaxial cable right now. I have a pioneer 812 receiver. I watched Aliens, The Final Countdown, and Finding Nemo recently...all movies sounded fine to me. Here is what the manual says,
"During multichannel audio playback, indicates that the output signal has been 'downmixed' from the original audio source. This is an automatic function performed by the player in order to present the most appropriate audio mix to the speakers present in your system."

 

[LanceJ]

Neil J: do you have any speaker settings on the player set to "No"? If so, then this is the only time the player should be doing any downmixing. In other words, if you aren't using a center channel then the dvd's 5.1 mix would be downmixed to a 4.1 mix. No subwoofer either? Then the player would furthur downmix to a 4.0 mix.

And if the player's output setting is set to "2.0" (like if you had it connected to a stereo-only receiver) then it would downmix everything to two channels.

Also, from what I've read here, this player's bass management system acts really strangely, so I personally would leave bass management up to the receiver for DD and DTS duties. As for the hi-res formats' b.m.: well, you are kinda stuck with the Pioneer's system (200Hz for dvd-audio--bleh! Sacd's is better, I think at 120Hz).

Also, IIRC like many dvd players this model doesn't have distance settings to provide for proper imaging, but the Yamaha receiver will. This is especially important for surround music playback (for any format) and why they always advise placing your speakers equidistant from your listening position if you don't have access to an electronic distance compensation (delay) system.

LJ

 

[Steve_AS]

Bass management in the player won't affect the digital (optical or coax) output. Shouldn't have any effect on Neil's setup, since he only uses the coax connection.

 

[Neil J]

I think I fixed the problem in the player's setup menu. One of the settings is for a 5.1 output but the way it's worded makes it sound like it's only if you have the 5.1 analog outputs connected. Anyway now that I changed that it, the indications says 5.1 instead of downmix. Hopefully that's the normal setting.
I thought that I read before that this player can pass the below black signal but when I tried the video essentials disc it wasn't doing it. Maybe I need to just save up and get a better player.