Need help: audio during previews but not during movies

[Guillaume]

Hi guys,

I'm quite new at this, but I've been spending countless hours on this issue and I can't seem to find a solution (upgrades being excluded for now).
I just bought a surround sound system for the first time, nothing too costly I'll admit (RCA RT2770), and I've been having issues with getting any sound when playing a blu-ray movie (with my -once again- pretty cheap Magnavox NB530MGX). Basically, I get the audio from all the previews and intros (and even the disc menu), but then nothing at all during the movie itself.

I understand that the HDMI connection to my HDTV is what seems to be causing the issue. My receiver (which unfortunately has no HDMI port) is connected to my blu-ray via an optical cable, and I read that this may conflict with the sound output by the HDMI cable to the TV. So I've set the HDMI audio output to mute, so that the optical cable and receiver can handle the audio part, but no luck with that. I've been playing with other blu-ray settings, like switching to PCM or bitstream, and also using a coaxial cable instead of the optical one, but still no audio during the movies. At least during most of them, because it did work for a few blu-ray movies when I first acquired my receiver, go figure...

I'm getting really frustrated with this, and it looks like I might have to give up on the HDMI cable and use regular RCA cables between the blu-ray and the TV instead. But if anybody else has any other suggestion, I'd sure appreciate it.

[MrBoylan]

Your RCA Surround System is the culprit here. It includes a Dolby Digital decoder, but not DTS. Trailers are usually in Dolby Digital but many Blu-ray movies use the DTS codecs which your surround sound system does not support. Also, even with a Dolby Digital decoder, depending on which chip set it uses for decoding, it's possible that it will not be able to decode the high bandwidth (640 KBPS) Dolby Digital companion track found on most Dolby TrueHD Blu-ray Discs.

Setting your Blu-ray player to PCM output and using either the fiber or coax output should allow you to get sound from all discs (assuming the RCA unit supports PCM decoding which it should). But really this is not going to be very much, if at all, better than using the standard two-channel stereo (white red) analog outputs instead. PCM digital sound over coax or fiber digital outputs is limited to two-channel sound. This means your RCA surround system will not be doing discrete 5.1 surround - the best it will do is Dolby Pro Logic matrix surround from that 2-channel source.

If you want discrete 5.1 channel surround from all discs (DVD, Blu-ray, DTS, Dolby, etc.) then you will need to buy a new HTiB system or new receiver. I'd strongly recommend going with one that has HDMI inputs and HDMI audio decoding so that you can take full advantage of the new lossless surround sound codecs on Blu-ray Disc.

The best option for your current set up is probably to use both the digital (fiber or coax) output of your player *AND* the analog audio output of your player (left/right RCA jacks), plugged into separate inputs on your RCA HTiB system. When you're watching a Dolby Digital DVD or Blu-ray Disc, you can switch over to the digital input for discrete 5.1 surround. And if you don't get sound (as from a DTS or high bandwidth Dolby Digital Blu-ray) then you can switch the RCA over to the analog input instead and get matrixed surround. At least you will reliably be able to get sound this way while you save your pennies for a new HTiB system with HDMI audio capabilities. BTW, in this set-up you should set your player to its BITSTREAM output so that you will get the discrete Dolby Digital bitstream from DVDs and compatible Blu-ray Discs.

If you want some recommendations on receivers or HTiBs, then let me know. The new Panasonic Blu-ray HTiB systems are looking/sounding pretty sweet, but I know you already have a Blu-ray player, so on of these for $429 might be overkill:

Panasonic SC-BT330 Blu-ray HTiB with iPod Dock, Tall Boy Speakers, Netflix streaming, etc.

If you want to replace just the receiver and keep your current speakers (though they're probably not very high performance) and want to keep your current Blu-ray player, then you could go with something inexpensive but high quality like the Yamaha HTR-6240 receiver. It's got HDMI audio decoding (including DTS-HD Master and Dolby TrueHD) and it's on sale for $229. With this you could use your current speakers, then if you get tired of the way they sound you can upgrade those as well some time down the line. Here's a link

Yamaha HTR-6240BL on Amazon: $229

Anyway... hope this helps and good luck!

-Chris

[Guillaume]

Thank you so much Chris, this was very helpful.
I finally managed to make it work by switching to "HD LPCM" in the blu-ray settings (which prompted me for the speaker size and all of that), but I understand that this is obviously far from being optimal. I guess it'll be as good as it gets in the meantime. I know I can't be too demanding with such a setup, so if I at least manage to get some type of surround sound until I can afford better, it's still something.
I will definitely keep those upgrade suggestions handy for later. Thanks again!

[MrBoylan]

Thank you so much Chris, this was very helpful.
I finally managed to make it work by switching to "HD LPCM" in the blu-ray settings (which prompted me for the speaker size and all of that), but I understand that this is obviously far from being optimal. I guess it'll be as good as it gets in the meantime. I know I can't be too demanding with such a setup, so if I at least manage to get some type of surround sound until I can afford better, it's still something.
I will definitely keep those upgrade suggestions handy for later. Thanks again!

Yup. The PCM setting (called LPCM on your player) is correct if you want to send everything over to your receiver digitally, but it will lose the discrete center and rear channel information from Dolby Digital and DTS tracks. In this case, the player internally converts everything to PCM and then downmixes that to 2-channel output. Your receiver may kick into Dolby Pro Logic mode to extract a matrixed rear and center channel but it's not as realistic or as immersive as discrete 5.1 surround.

The HDMI Multi (LPCM) setting and speaker configuration menus don't actually affect you. These would only be relevant if you were using the HDMI digital output for audio decoding on an HDMI-equipped receiver. As long as you keep HDMI audio set to MUTE then you shouldn't need to worry about the other HDMI audio settings.

I still think you'd be best off using the analog and digital outputs and set the digital output to Bitstream (and keep the HDMI Audio set to MUTE). This will at least allow you to get discrete 5.1-channel surround sound from Dolby Digital discs, and you can switch over to the analog input on your receiver for DTS titles. But if you prefer the simplicity of the digital/LPCM setting, then that's your call.

Good luck!

-Chris