Subwoofer does not work with Coaxial Out (1 Viewer)

[Ravinder]

Hi,

I have the following setup:

Hitachi 57S715
Denon AVR-3300
Enery Take 5 Series speakers and sub-woofer.
Panasonic DVD-F86 DVD player.

I recenlt bought Panasonic DVD-F86 (for progressive scan). This DVD player only has Coaxial out. When connected via Coaxial to the Denon receiver -- there is no output in the sub-woofer. If I connect my old DVD player that has Optical out, sub-woofer works fine.

Any clues?

Thanks,
Ravi.

 

[JoshGivens]

Does this dvd player have a digital audio out instead of the coax? You should use that if it doesn't have an optical out.

 

[John S]

Oh man, that would be a bad quirk for a DVD players digital out to have.

I can't imagine it being the Denon AVR or any setting, unless the DVD player is not outputting DD / DTS at all.

Can you tell if it is getting true DD5.1 / DTS Multi-channel to your AVR?

 

[Doug Otte]

Have you checked the settings in the DVD player? Maybe the subwoofer is set to NO, meaning it's not outputting any sound for the .1 channel.

Doug

 

[Ravinder]

Thanks all for your suggestions.

JoshGivens - The only 'digital' output on DVD-F86 is Coaxial.

John S - The Denon AVR-3300 receiver display shows "Dolby Digital". All five channels work.

Doug Otte - There is no subwoofer setting in DVD player.


Maybe somebody here can suggest a good progressive scan DVD player with both Coaxial and Optical audio out. I bought DVD-F86 because consumer reports rated it #1 and it was cheap.

Thanks!

 

[John Garcia]

There is no difference between coaxial and optical, the stream is identical, so changing from one to the other will not solve your problem. If it does, there is a more serious problem. Subwoofer setting in the player will make no difference when using a digital connection.

I think the problem is your settings in the new player. Just because the old one worked, does not mean the new one has the same settings and works the same way. 90% of the time you will need to adjust the digital audio settings for it to work correctly.

Check your player's setup and make sure you have DD set to "bitstream", not PCM, and no downmix options are turned on. While you are in there, make sure DTS is on also.

Does the receiver go to "Dolby Digital" or "Dolby Pro-Logic" when you play a movie? If it does not say "Digital" then you are not getting the correct bitstream from the player.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Also check the settings for the receiver. Make sure the speaker assignments for the DVD input were not changed when you switched the input for DVD over to the coax in. I don't know how, but it could have switched your subwoofer to off for that input or maybe reset them to a default of some sort. Just a guess.

As an addendum to above, did you even switch the receiver's digital input for DVD from "optical" to "coax"? If you did not and also have the red/white analog cables hooked up from DVD to the receiver, then you are only getting analog (Pro-Logic) despite what the screen says. If this is the case, assign the digital coax to the DVD in the setup menu.

 

[John Garcia]

Actually, with a stereo signal, whether it is analog or digital, the sub should be in use. Do you have a "direct" mode on the receiver that might be disabling the sub?

 

[Ravinder]

Thanks all for prompt responses.
I am as perplexed as you guys.

The Dolby Digital / DTS output in DVD player's Audio settings is set to "Bitstream".

In the receiver setup screen, the digital output for DVD is set to "Coaxial".

When I play the movie, the Receiver screen is set to "Dolby Prologic" at Movie Menu screen. However, as soon as the movie starts, it changes to "Dolby D".

 

[Massimo N]

If you play a CD through the digital out connection, does the sub work? If you sub doesn't work, it's probably an issue with the set-up on your receiver, as the player is sending 2 channels, and your receiver should use bass management to allocate the bass frequency to your subs.

My thinking is that the coaxial input may have a different memory on your receiver's settings. While playing a CD or DVD, go into the speaker setup on your 3300 and make sure the speaker settings are correct.

 

[ChuckSolo]

Does your new DVD player have a subwoofer output on the back panel? I used to have a Panasonic player with a subwoofer output on the back panel and it had a button on the front where the DVD player would handle the bass management when the sub was connected directly to the player. Check to see if your player has this feature. If you have the sub hooked to your receiver, you need to turn off the bass management on the player if it is so equipped. I looked the player up on different sites and I believe it does have its own bass/subwoofer managment feature.

 

[Ravinder]

There is no subwoofer output on the back panel of DVD-F86.
The operating instructions have lot of controls for subwoofer and speaker management but they are all for DVD-F87.

Interestingly, my old DVD player (Panasonic DVD-CV51) has Subwoofer out on the back panel and subwoofer works when connected to that.

Operating instructions are available online:

panasonic.com.au/content/library/files/F000773.pdf

 

[ChuckSolo]

Hmmm.....very interesting. I find it amazing that you have the operating instructions for a newer DVD player!! I looked up your DVD player on a number of sites, and you are correct, some of the players shown have the sub output and others do not, in fact some of the players shown have a digital optical out!!!! Well I am stumped on this one. The only other time I have experienced the problem you mention is when I had a Klipsch 75 watt active sub hooked to my 600 watt receiver (100 watts per channel) and no matter what I did, I got very very little response from my sub. I hooked the sub up to my Panasonic DVD player's sub input and got great sub response, although I had to set my receiver to the "No Sub" setting to get decent bass from my front speakers (Sony Towers). Once I upgraded to a 100 watt active sub, that problem went away and I could hook the sub up to my receiver.

 

[Ravinder]

I can now say that I tried every possible thing, including changing the Coaxial cable. Nothing worked. So I ended up returning Panasonic DVD-F86. I am in hunt for a new progressive scan DVD player again.. Panasonic DVD-S97 seems like a good one but I can't find it in local stores.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Just for giggles, try going into the Denon's setup menu and verifying that all speakers are set to "small" and that sub is present. It may need to be reset for that input.

Also, in the audio section of the player's setup menu, make sure dynamic range compression is turned off.

BTW, I've never seen a Panasonic player (and I've owned 4 of them, including 2 very recent models) that had a coax digital out but no optical. I've had 2 that had optical but no coax, however.