Newbiw Surround Sound questions.

[admin_exported]

HI all

Not messed with Surround Sound since my old Technica Hi Fi back in late 80's so...

Kids room we have an Onkyo TX-SR609. We have V+ box, PS3 and HDTV connected. All via HDMI.

I have front, rear and centre speakers connected. Nothing fancy... the Lusso 10's.No Sub Woofer.

THere is no 'cinema unit' or whatever..

So.. question is.

Under what conditions IF ANY will the rear and centre speakers produce sound cos so far they are silent.
Am I being dumb here and missing something.

Front speakers working fine..

Even if not 'surround' sound, be good to get some rear sound just for 'fill'.

Any views?

 

[professorhat]

Not sure on the V+ box as I'm not sure what channels you get, but essentially, the centre and rears will generally only be used when you're putting through something with a 5.1 soundtrack. On the PS3, virtually all games and any DVD / Blu-ray should have this - so if you're not getting anything with this, I'd say something is wrong. Might be worth running through the sound setup wizard again i.e. through Settings > Sound Settings > Audio Output Settings, then select HDMI and allow it to find the available output formats - you should certainly be getting a tick in most of them, including the Dolby Digital 5.1 Ch, DTS 5.1 Ch and Linear PCM 5.1 Ch boxes. Once this is done, go to the Settings > Video Settings > BD / DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI) menu - if it's an older "fat" PS3, choose Linear PCM, if it's a newer PS3 slim, choose Bitstream.

Your Onkyo should be in Surround mode, rather than Stereo or something else. Assuming this is an older "fat" PS3, generally you should be getting Multich on the Onkyo display and this shows it's decoding the 5.1 format and sending it as PCM. If it's a newer PS3 slim, when you're playing a DVD with a 5.1 soundtrack, the Onkyo should then indicate it's receiving a Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack on its display. If you're using a Blu-ray, you should be getting Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio on the Onkyo display.

Come back and let us know how it goes!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response. I finally got to looking into this. PS3 was set correct. Onkyo display showed the DOlby symbol and PLII logo. But it seemed to be in Stereo mode with no way to change it. But eventually I found a setting that allowed me to choose between T+D, "PL II" and a few others. The "PL II" activated the rear speakers so I assume this is the setting.

There seemed no way to change anything via the remote though. Had to press button on front of unit. Hence hadnt seem it before

But all seems to be working now.

Many thanks