HD-A3/Onkyo 605 Audio Problems (1 Viewer)

[Michael Flynn]

I've had my 605 for about 3 months now and love it. However, I seem to be having a problem getting lossless (namely multi-channel PCM) out of my HD-A3 and have had to resort to using Dolby Pro Logic for the surround effect. My 605 is set to direct and this is how my PS3 is functioning.

However, with the A3 no matter what I toggle in terms of the HDMI audio settings all I can get through Direct mode (the one to get the straight-up audio) is 2-channel PCM. The Multichannel PCM light will not go on.

Quite simply, how do I find a way so that the A3 will output multi-channel PCM without what is currently going on?

 

[Ralphie_B]

I am getting multi-channel PCM from my HD-A3 to my Sony STR-DG910... if I remember correctly, in addition to the HDMI audio settings, you must also configure the TOSLINK/Optical audio settings a certain way as well (it's not at all intuitive that these settings affect handling of audio over HDMI, but I believe they do). I cannot remember offhand the 'right' settings to get MPCM over HDMI, though... I'll try and remember to take a look and let you know.

 

[Ralphie_B]

I found a reference to the "quirk" I was talking about:

"When you set the "Digital Out SPDIF" menu selection to Bitstream in setup, the output of the HDMI audio is limited to a sample frequency of 48kHz. When you set Digital Out SPDIF to PCM (which limits the SPDIF output to two-channels), the maximum possible from on the HDMI audio link increases to 96kHz. Since movies are generally mastered at a maximum sampling rate of 48kHz, this quirk should be irrelevant for most soundtracks. But it might be something you'll want to be aware of on music HD DVDs (perhaps even including some future multichannel, music-only HD DVDs). "

I think this is what I was remembering -- but it sounds like it only affects maximum sampling frequency, not multichannel.

As long as your HDMI audio setting is "PCM", your HD-A3 should be decoding the audio stream and outputting multi-channel PCM to the receiver. And I'd expect the receiver (in direct mode) to take it and put it to the speakers with no additional processing (like it's doing for your PS3, and like my STR-DG910 does for my HD-A3). Very curious.

If you still have issues getting this working, it might be worth a look at the AVS forums -- I believe there are several threads there devoted to both the Toshiba HD-A3 and the Onkyo 605... hopefully between them, you'll find the info you need to get this working.