Sony BDP S350 and STR-DG820 HD sound issues

[Hammerstein]

I just got these Sony blu-ray player and AV receiver and can't sem to get the AV receiver to output HD surround sound.

I've connect them with a HDMI cable and although I've played around with the settings for both machines, the AV receiver still does not output Truee HD or DTS -HD Master Audio.

I know the BD player does not decode DST-HD Master Audio so I think I've got it set up to output Bitstream (which should allow the receiver to decode everything). It just seems that the AV receiver is still receiving Linear PCM (as indicated on the Amp screen).

When I set choose A.F.D Auto, it seems to be receiving Stereo only. The best I can do to switch to E Surround which then only outputs standard suround.

I just can't tell if it' the BD player outputting the wrong signal or the AV receiver not recognising the correct signal.

Any help please?

 

[d4v3pum4]

The first thing to confirm is that the player is actually set to Bitstream Direct. I know this might seem obvious but are you selecting the HD audio track on the disc's menu as it isn't the default? Also if you press the info/display button (not familar with your player) what does it say? The amp should be in Auto.

 

[Hammerstein]

A fair question. yes - I have selected True HD while playing The Dark Knight.

Looking over previous discussion threads regarding the S350, I've set the audio setting on th eplayer as follows:

Audio Output Priority ------------HDMI

Audio (HDMI)-----------------------Auto

BD Audio Setting------------------Direct

Audio ATT-----------------------------OFf

Dolby Digital------------------------Dolby Digital

DTS------------------------------------DTS

48Khz/96Khz PCM -------------48 Khz

Audio DRC-------------------------Auto

Downmix-----------------------------Dolby Surround

Pressing display on the BD Player bring up Sound as Dolby TrueHD3/2.1 48Khz (can't tell if this just means the sound track being read or what is being output to the amp) and it looks to be at least 27 Mbps.

The AV Receiver shows AFD Auto, then Volume, then Linear PCM.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the same player as you and i have a sony AV receiver too. You can rest assured that the sound out put is correct the AV will show linear PCM when you select the THD audio on the BD. even if you select any other HD audio format on the disk the AV will show LPCM. So rest assured all is correct you will hear the difference in sound when you switch between different audio formats onthe disk eg. DD Uncompressed 5.1 and THD.

 

[Hammerstein]

OK - so the settings on the Blur-ray player (S350) should be corect. Then the problem must be on the DG820 Av receiver?

I've gone through the setting several times but must be missing something. Does anyone have a breakdown of the setting on their own DG820?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Hammerstein:
OK - so the settings on the Blur-ray player (S350) should be corect. Then the problem must be on the DG820 Av receiver?

I've gone through the setting several times but must be missing something. Does anyone have a breakdown of the setting on their own DG820?

By the way, there is a firmware that came out in December that will give your BD player DTS HD Master Audio. Not really an issue if you are sending the audio to your receiver to decode but it's there.

 

[Andy Madden]

Hi Gerrardasnails. Can i ask where you heard that the update for the '350 enabled decoding of DTS-HD Master Audio? I'm 99.9% sure that this isn't the case...

 

[professorhat]

Try setting the Downmix to Standard, this is what my BDP-S550 is set to and works okay.

Otherwise, go into Video Settings and make sure the Output Video Format is higher than 720p or above i.e. so it's actually sending HD video. Have seen on a few posts where this needs to be forced sometimes rather than using Auto and then everything starts working.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the same Sony amp with a Pana BD30 and was experiencing the same problem as you. The thread I started is below (sorry not sure how to post as direct link), the replies and advice given helped me to solve the problem.

No true HD or DTS HD output from Panasonic BD30

 

[Anonymous]

I've got the same player. If you have the HDMI video output to anything less other than 720p, 1080i/1080p the player will auto downmix to PCM no matter what the audio side of things is set. Try looking at this.

It's in the small print on page 63. The note with the lightning strike above it.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Andy Madden:
Hi Gerrardasnails. Can i ask where you heard that the update for the '350 enabled decoding of DTS-HD Master Audio? I'm 99.9% sure that this isn't the case...

Apologies, I got mixed up with 2.0 firmware - ignore me!

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, sorry prof just repeated what you wrote. Will have to stop speed reading and pay more attention.

 

[professorhat]

No need for apologies!

 

[Hammerstein]

Thanks all for the responses so far. I have checked the video settings and I've got it on 1080p.

I'll check the other setting out once home tonight. I'm fairly certain the player is outputting the correct signal as bitstream but even if it was decoding onboard, surely the AMp would output TrueHD?

 

[professorhat]

No, if it was decoding onboard, the amp would show PCM as this is what it would be receiving.

 

[Hammerstein]

Just checked the thread on Kevlon 24s response and note Dirk Gently mentioned the HDMI setting around Amp+Tv. I hadn't looked at this so it's possible this could be causing a problem.

I'll check this out tonight.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello If all else fails try reseting the amp. The intructions are on page 29 in the manual. You will need to re-calibrate the amp after though.

 

[Anonymous]

Good advice Si22 I finally solved the same issue with a Sony 820 and Pana BD30 by resetting both back to default and starting agian.

 

[Anonymous]

glad to be of help

 

[Hammerstein]

Wahooooo!

Just got home from work and tried Dirk Gently's idea of checking the HDMI option. It was set to AMP+TV. And changed it to just AMP and when I spun up The Dark Knight, Dolby TrueHD started across the AMP display. Just started listening and it definately sounds HD.

Thanks all.

 

[professorhat]

Good stuff!