Help: L & R surround spkrs playing same sound (1 Viewer)

[Bampf]

Hoping someone can give me a hint what's wrong. I hooked up my surround sound speakers for my 5.1 setup. When I run white noise through each speaker the front speakers are all fine. The surround sound speakers both play when either left or right should be playing.

Another clue: when the test plays in-phase and out-of-phase tests between the two surround sound speakers, I hear the in-phase tone correctly but the out-of-phase test appears to play nothing.

My first thought was that the receiver was mixing the speakers together because of some setting, but I've verified it's set to 5.1 and I've played with most of the other settings as well.

I assumed it was user error but I'm running out of ideas. Could the receiver be faulty?

Receiver: Pioneer VSX-816-K
Speakers: Harmon Kardon 5.1 Home Theater System HKTS14
(The test I was running is the basic test suite included on the Raiders of the Lost Ark DVD.)

Thanks for any hints!
Matt

 

[Bob McElfresh]

While your Receiver is 'set' to 5.1 - could your DVD player be set to 'ProLogic'?

With ProLogic - both rear speakers play the same sounds.

 

[Seth=L]

Some DVD players have sound output options. For instance if you are using a Playstation 2 you have the option of disabling the Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio that some DVDs provide (note: most all DVDs have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track). Access your DVD player's menu or if you have a playstation use the setup function while a dvd disc is in and stopped and activate the 5.1 audio output modes (Dolby and DTS). These setup features generally can only be accessed when the dvd player is stopped or doesn't have a disk inside.

Just as a reminder, the DVD player must be connected thru a digital cable and not analog.

What DVD player are you using?

Seth=L

 

[ScottCHI]

Is ROTLA 5.1 or not?

 

[Seth=L]

The Raiders of the Lost Ark is remastered, like the Star Wars Trilogy, into 5.1 Dolby Digital EX surround track. It isn't bad either.

 

[Bampf]

Thank you, everyone, for directing my attention from the receiver to the DVD player. I found an audio setting on the player for digital output that was set to "PCM"- I switched it to "bitstream" and the problem is fixed.

As a bonus, I also diagnosed a problem I was having getting S-video working: I had a bad S-video cable! Who'd have thought.

So it's been a good day, and I'm grateful to everyone for the assist.

Since someone asked: the DVD player is a Samsung DVR+VCR combo: DVD-VR330.

 

[Seth=L]

Glad that you rendered the problem. Just wanted to know what it was so I could walk you through on setting the DVD player's digital out to the correct orientation. Since you figured it out there isn't really a need to know what you have, but thanx for sharing anyway.

My Toshiba SD-9000 has a similar pcm or bitstream selector.