Onkyo 939 + Panasonic BD80 lossless audio help please?

[pchun25]

Have an old Onkyo Integra Tx-DS939 and it has both pre out and amp-in's. Both sets are grouped together under the pre-out area. When I hooked up my Panasonic BD80 blu-ray's analog "outs" to the "in's" on my Onkyo it played wayyy too loud and I couldn't control the volume to turn it down. Looking through the manual it says the "in's" are actually meant for an optional pre-amplifier. I've noticed on most forums that when hooking up the BD80 analog on most receivers the inputs are labled "multi-channel in". I 'm thinking this is the problem since I don't have a way of selecting "multi-channel in" on my receiver like some people mentioned in other post.

So I guess my question is this, is my "amp in" the same as a "multi-channel in" and if so, how do I control the volume because it is wayyyy to loud.

Please help... thanks...

[MrBoylan]

Have an old Onkyo Integra Tx-DS939 and it has both pre out and amp-in's. Both sets are grouped together under the pre-out area. When I hooked up my Panasonic BD80 blu-ray's analog "outs" to the "in's" on my Onkyo it played wayyy too loud and I couldn't control the volume to turn it down. Looking through the manual it says the "in's" are actually meant for an optional pre-amplifier. I've noticed on most forums that when hooking up the BD80 analog on most receivers the inputs are labled "multi-channel in". I 'm thinking this is the problem since I don't have a way of selecting "multi-channel in" on my receiver like some people mentioned in other post.

So I guess my question is this, is my "amp in" the same as a "multi-channel in" and if so, how do I control the volume because it is wayyyy to loud.

Please help... thanks...

You are correct. The multi-channel inputs on your receiver are specifically for using the receiver's power amplifiers with an external preamp. It can also serve as a processing loop for an external surround processor or EQ unit. You cannot plug the BD80 into that input because the BD80's line level outputs are fixed, not variable.

Unfortunately your receiver, with its lack of DTS decoding and lack of HDMI audio support or standard multi-channel analog inputs, is really not a great fit for Blu-ray Disc. If you do use it with the DMP-BD80, then use the coax or fiberoptic outputs from the player to the corresponding input on the receiver.

On the player, you will need to set DTS output to "PCM" and you can leave "Dolby Digital" set to "bitstream." What this means is that any Blu-ray Discs or DVDs that have DTS or DTS-HD soundtracks are going to send a two-channel PCM digital signal to your receiver. Also be sure to set "Downmix" to "Surround-encoded" also in the player's audio set-up screens. With this setting in place, your receiver should then be able to decoded a matrixed Dolby Pro Logic surround sound field from DTS and PCM soundtracks.

When watching Blu-ray Discs encoded with Dolby TrueHD, your receiver *should* be able to decode the 640 KBPS Dolby Digital companion track, however some very early Dolby Digital receivers (of which yours is one) actually had trouble with any Dolby Digital tracks greater than 448 KBPS in bitrate. The symptom of this would be no sound or jerky sound on Dolby TrueHD Blu-ray Discs (which use a 640 KBPS Dolby Digital track) but good sound on Dolby Digital DVDs (which use 448 KBPS or less).

My recommendation would be bite the bullet and get a new receiver. The Onkyo TX-SR507 and TX-SR607 are both excellent choices as is the Onkyo HT-RC160 or HT-RC180. All of these include HDMI audio support with on-board decoders for DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD so they're a great fit for Blu-ray Disc.

Amazon has great pricing right now on the x07 receivers, with a deal for a free iPod dock. Unfortunately the deals are so good that they're out of stock on most models. But if you're not in a hurry then you can buy thereceiver and dock (getting the dock for free) and just wait for them to ship them to you when they're back in stock.

Here's the link:

Free Onkyo iPod Dock with Purchase of Onkyo Receiver

The HT-RC160 is on sale at J&R today only (Cyber Monday) for $329.99 with a free iPod dock:

Onkyo HTRC160 Home Theater Receiver in Stereo and Surround Sound Receivers at JR.com

You can find other great home theater deals in our Cyber Monday deals article:

Cyber Monday 2009 Deals on HDTV, Blu-ray, Home Theater, Electronics: BigPictureBigSound

Anyway... sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but it might be a time for an upgrade.

-CB

[pchun25]

Mr. Boylan,

Thanks for the quick reply... I used your website to research blu-ray players before I purchased the BD80 and just recently discovered you had a forum also... wish I would have found out earlier... but I got a good deal on the BD80 at Amazon ($175). You are really providing a great service and I think you for it...

Also thanks for the additional set-up advice... I figured this part out but I don't know if I selected "surround-encode".

Man I love my Onkyo 939 man... going to hate to give it up... and by the way I'm in the AF... I'll be sure to mention your site... Thanks again!!!