Onkyo 876 HDMI question

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

Hope the Onkyo experts can help me

I've got a PS3 hooked up to my 876 by HDMI, and i seem to be getting very little sound coming from the centre speaker when playing games or listening to music etc. Almost all dialouge comes from the front left and right speakers

Is this normal for this setup? Also, how come's my amps not picking up a Dolby Digital signal when that's what the games are made in?

Hope someone can help

Thanks a lot in advance guys

 

[professorhat]

Firstly, I'd play the test signal and ensure sound comes out of the centre speaker whilst it's doing it's routine here. If it isn't, the centre speaker isn't connected up properly, so the system is assuming you don't have one and sending the dialogue to the other front speakers. If it is, then my first guess would be you have the amp in the wrong mode e.g. it's in Stereo instead of Dolby mode...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that Prof, i'm pretty sure the centre is being recogised as when playing games i do get some sound coming from it, just not the sound i'd expect. i.e. dialogue comes from the front left & right speakers.

If i change the BD/DVD HDMI sound output on the PS3 to bitstream, will this allow a dolby digital game to be played in dolby digital? The Onk shows Multichannel at the mo. Or do i have to also change something at the amp end?

Thanks for the help so far mate

Much appreciated

 

[professorhat]

I'm pretty sure games ignore the BD/DVD setting when it comes to sound output but I need to test this - I'll give it a go tonight. How are films when you're using the PS3 - is the dialogue the same or is it just games? Also, which games - if I have the same ones I can try it.

 

[Alsone]

Could it be the game has surround sound effects and thus the dialogue is coming rfom those speakers because the character speaking is off centre? Check the game spec and see if it supports 5.1.

Also, get an ordinary DVD and play it and see where the dialogue comes from on that.

 

[Anonymous]

Alsone:

Could it be the game has surround sound effects and thus the dialogue is coming rfom those speakers because the character speaking is off centre? Check the game spec and see if it supports 5.1.

Also, get an ordinary DVD and play it and see where the dialogue comes from on that.

I'll have to check standard DVD to see how that comes out, but the games i use are all in Dolby Digital

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:I'm pretty sure games ignore the BD/DVD setting when it comes to sound output but I need to test this - I'll give it a go tonight. How are films when you're using the PS3 - is the dialogue the same or is it just games? Also, which games - if I have the same ones I can try it.

The main game i tried it with was Far Cry 2. Do you have this?

It is also the same with CD playback incidentally.

If the BD/DVD settings don't affect games as you suspect, then does your 876 auto switch to Dolby Digital when playing games mate?

Thanks again for your help, i hope you can help me get to the bottom of this

much appreciated

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, Just given it a go and no joy, i just can't seem to get games to output in Dolby Digital. DVD's work fine, in Bitstream they come out in DD, in PCM mode the Onk's display shows Multichannel, with dialogue coming through the centre channel as expected.

Any ideas?

Thanks all, this is driving me mad!

 

[professorhat]

Hi there,
Okay, as I thought, the BD/DVD settings don't seem to affect games, but in the opposite way to what you're thinking above i.e. no matter what you have the BD/DVD setting on for the HDMI output, it seems to always decode onboard and send out as PCM. The only way I could get Dolby Digital to come up on the amp was if I hooked the PS3 up with an optical cable and set the Onkyo to use this for the PS3 input, then switched the PS3 over to optical output on the sound. I was trying this with the original Resistance: Fall of Man game (don't have Far Cry 2 I'm afraid). Incidentally, no matter what I set the BD/DVD settings for the optical output to, the PS3 always bitstreamed the game soundtrack, so it was always Dolby Digital for the amp to decode. The main point was though, no matter which way I had it hooked up, all the sound was working as it should i.e. dialogue coming out of the centre speaker, surround effects all working as they should be etc.
My guess on this is, Sony have tried to be clever. They believe that the decoding onboard the PS3 is the best that can be due to its cell processor, so for games, when hooked up with the HDMI cable, they've decided they will always decode the formats onboard and send to the amp as PCM (just as they do for HD audio soundtracks on films). It would appear you have no choice on this - at least I can't find a setting. This explains why you and I both get Multich on the Onkyo display - the PS3 is doing all the decoding onboard.
On the other hand, Sony know that the optical connection doesn't have the bandwidth to send Dolby Digital 5.1 uncompressed over an optical connection, so with games, once again, it ignores what you've chosen for the BD/DVD settings and just outputs the signal as bitstream for the amp to decode. By doing this, for games at least, they're basically trying to guarantee the person gets the best sound possible. This is probably an attempt to make the games side simple so people who buy it as a games console don't have to worry about all the different possible formats a game's soundtrack could be in, it's just plug and play.
The main question then is why you're getting odd sound from the game and I'm not sure I can help on this I'm afraid. I remember there was a post I made earlier on with people with LittleBigPlanet also getting strange issues with sound that I wasn't getting. I'll see if I can find it...
EDIT - here it is, though looks like in this case, it was an issue with the guys speakers connections, so if a test tone is working okay for you out of all speakers, I'm stumped...

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, thanks for the explanation mate.

Good to know that the fact Dolby Digital doesn't light up isn't anything to worry about.

I tried Resistance myself and tested some other while i was at it and i'm thinking maybe its just a characteristic of some games. Resistance comes out just fine, as does Gran Turismo. With Far Cry 2 i do get some sound from the centre, just not what i was expecting. It doesn't sound bad as such so i'm thinking its just the way it is.

Thanks again