Newbie Help Needed; Can only get 2.1 out of 7.1 (1 Viewer)

[Fred Mounts]

I have the following equipment:


Mitsubishi 65 inch Widescreen TV
Pioneer VSX-D811S
Panasonic DVD-CP72
Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer
JBL N28 fronts
JBL N-Center
JBL N24 for surrounds and rear surrounds

Anyway, I can only get the front left and front right speakers to work. I'm either hooking something up incorrectly, missing something, or not configuring the units correctly. Any help would be great!

 

[John Garcia]

You didn't say what connections you are using, specifically between the 72 and the 811. If you are not using a digital connection, and are only using stereo analog, then that is all you will get out of the receiver.

If you are using optical or coaxial digital, then you may have to go into the DVD's setup menu and change your digital audio settings. You will want to set the player to bitstream rather than PCM and be sure to turn on DTS while you are in there. There may also be a "downmix" option that you may need to turn off or change the setting to.

On the 811, you should only have to make sure you have set the source selection for the DVD to use one of the digital inputs.

 

[Fred Mounts]

Thanks for the reply! I couldn't figure out the instruction booklet, so I was trying to use both an optical and analog connection to the receiver. I wasn't sure if because I am using a optical connection that I don't need the analog connections at all. On the 811 there is the DVD audio left and right that say front on them and then a yellow that says "7.1" input. But where does the other end of that wire go?

 

[John Garcia]

I'm not familiar with the 811's connections, so you will have to wait until someone who owns one can comment, but it looks to me, based on the picture on Crutchfield, that this is a composite video (which is typically yellow). You want to use one of the assignable digital inputs on the top center, where it says "DIGITAL IN", either coaxial (RCA, my preference) or optical. Since they are assignable, you will need to go into your receiver's setup menu and tell it that, for the DVD source, you want to use whichever digital input you choose to use.

The analog connection will not be of any benefit to you via the same source connection (DVD), but you could hook it to another analog input (CDR, MD, etc...) for music CD playback.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

A few steps to go through:

1.) Make sure the digital input (optical or coaxial) is assigned to the device you're using

2.) Make sure you have the receiver set to one of the standard surround modes (DPLII or NEO:6) and not Stereo or Direct). When in surround mode, which ever mode you've selected will be applied to any material that is not Dolby Digital or DTS. When Dolby Digital or DTS tracks are found, those will play. If in Stereo or Direct mode, even Dolby Digital and DTS tracks will be mixed down to 2ch output.

3.) On the receiver, make sure all speakers are set to small, and that the surround back speaker is set to small (not sub).

4.) Make sure in the DVD player menu that Dolby Digital and DTS are both turned on and set to bitstream (not pcm).

5.) Make sure that 6.1 is set to "fixed" on the receiver. If it is set to automatic, many sources that are 6.1 or EX will only play 5.1 because of the flaws in the DD-EX and DTS-ES Matrix flags.

6.) When playing a DVD, make sure you select the Dolby Digital or DTS track in Audio/Languages in the movie's menus.

These are all the settings i can think of from memory that could possible prevent you from getting full surround out of the 811S.

Hope this helps

 

[Fred Mounts]

Thanks for the help, guys! It turns out there were several problems. The first was that I had both the digital and analog sound slots filled. The second is that I had to not only tell the receiver that I was using the first optical sound slot, but that I also wanted digital sound while playing the DVD. Confusing and frustrating, but oh so beautiful now that it's right.

Fred

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

Good to hear that you got it figured out. Now it's time to enjoy it