Sharp Blu ray BD HP20 and Onkyo 606 sound ?

[admin_exported]

I am now very confused now as to how I get Dolby Tru HD sound, hopefully someone will point me in the right direction.

I am unable to get the Dolby HD to light up on the amp via the HDMI connection, it is 1.3 lead. I select Dolby Tru HD in the languages on the DVD . The player says it is playing HD sound. But the amp is lit up with just Dolby.

I phoned Onkyo who advised me that you can only get Dolby Tru HD via a HDMI connection,which must be set to bitstream, you need to speak to Sharp to change your settings on the DVD player.

On the player I am unable to set the HDMI output to bitstream, so I phoned Sharp who advised me to use the 5.1 analogue connections and use these to listen to HD sound. I have now tried this but still the amp does not light up with Dolby Tru HD, I am using the multichannel input, what am I doing wrong, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Andrew Everard]

The player can decode the soundtrack, but can only output it via the analogue multichannel connections. The Onkyo won't show HD when this is happening, as it's seeing an analogue input, not an HD bitstream in need of decoding.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, so if I use the mutichannel input on my amp I am using whatever sound is being sent by the DVD player and the amp just passes the sound on to the speakers ?

Is this the only Blu ray player that cannot send bistream via HDMI or is this usual ?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Correct.

And no, it's not alone - some 'only' deliver HD audio as Linear PCM, and some other earlier players were like the Sharp in this respect.

It's no drawback, assuming the player's onboard decoding is good.

 

[Anonymous]

Does that mean that I cannot use the on board decoders on the Onkyo ? They may be better ?

 

[Andrew Everard]

They may well be, but no - not with that player

 

[Anonymous]

Tried both ways now, firstly normal Dolby 5.1 via HDMI and secondly I tried the Dolby HD sound via the analogue inputs , they both sound excellent. I did notice that the sound via the analogue route is at a lower level at the same volume on the amp.( if that makes sense)

 

[Andrew Everard]

You can increase the output level of each channel by up to 6dB in the audio menu. See Sharp manual p40

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew, thanks for your help.

 

[Anonymous]

This is interesting. I'd never given this a thought before - I have one of these players and have been happy with it since October '07. So, when I buy my new amp (whatever that may be) and plug in my HDMI lead from the HP20, will the amp only be playing regular DD sound? Will I still need to use the 5.1 inputs to receive HD sound?

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

You'll be able to get everything except DTS-HD MA over HDMI but it will be the player doing the decoding, not the receiver.