Onkyo 606 multichannel confusion!

[lordmortlock]

Hello all! I am now the proud father of a Onkyo 606... and I love it. I have a question though. I run a toshiba HD DVD player through one of the amps hdmi inputs and this displays the word multichannel on the amp. Am I right in thinking that this is a catch all setting that will correctly encode whichever audio type I output through the HD DVD (true hd, dolby digi etc)? Or have I done something wrong? I want my new amp to sound as good as possible! Many thanks for any help in advance

 

[nads]

so which HD DVD is it.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Hi lord,

This setting means that the amp is receiving sound that has already been decoded at the source.

I have the same amp and a sony 350 blu ray player, and have found that bitstreaming the sound to the amp via the hdmi cable, and allowing the amp to decode sounds better to my ears......

Hope that helps.....

 

[professorhat]

Depends which HD-DVD player you have though, if it's the HD-EP30, then this can't bitstream HD audio formats.

 

[Anonymous]

Firstly you are not connected properly, as I understand it, you should need just an HDMI cable to the 606, but must select HDMI bitstream audio out on the DVD menu, and ensure you have 'assigned' the correct input on the DVD menu of the 606. Hope that helps, but its all in the handbook.

Now I have a problem that I hope someone can help with.

I have done all this, but when playing a Dolby True HD Bluray (Cars - it came free with the Panasonic BD30), with bitstream out selected and what I think are all the correct menu settings on the 606 - the display does not show Dolby True HD, as it should. Have tried another Bluray disc, still the same.

Am I right to expect this via HDMI (I think so), or do I need to connect a Digital opt or co-ax and then change the 606 audio input settings to that input?

 

[professorhat]

filmmad:Firstly you are not connected properly, as I understand it, you should need just an HDMI cable to the 606, but must select HDMI bitstream audio out on the DVD menu, and ensure you have 'assigned' the correct input on the DVD menu of the 606.
Well, as stated, it depends on the model of HD-DVD player he has, some cannot bitstream audio over the HDMI cable.
filmmad:Am I right to expect this via HDMI (I think so), or do I need to connect a Digital opt or co-ax and then change the 606 audio input settings to that input?
Nope, should definitely all be running through HDMI, you can't get TrueHD or the other formats via the digital optical or co-axial cables. Have you definitely selected the correct soundtrack from the disc? By default, some Blu-Rays start with the standard Dolby Digital sountrack and you have to manually go into the Setup and ensure it's using the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Professor - I had selected the correct soundtrack on the disc, but its worth a reminder. Yesterday I took the player to my local Sevenoaks to test with their amps. It failed to put True HD from the same disc, and another disc, into either of two amps(Onkyo 606 and a new Yamaha model)Whereas two other Bluray players (Samsung and Yamaha) showed True HD on the Onkyo display. So with two of their techy types, and me, we failed to produce a True HD signal into anything, the conclusion is that I have a faulty Panasonic BD30. I passed this problem to their tech helpline, who are investigating, and a visit from the John Lewis tech guy is due tomorrow.
I have updated the firmware to the latest release 2.0, could this have something to do with it?
My thanks to Jo and Matt at Norwich Sevenoaks.