DVD Player / Stereo Receiver Playback Problem

[D.V. Dee]

I just upgraded the stereo receiver, hooked up to my old-but-reliable Sony DVP-NS425P DVD player, to an Onkyo TX-8255...

Now, strangely, when I play DVDs, listening with headphones, the music comes out loud and nearly drowns out any dialogue; this happens with any DVD I play...

Adjusting the balance on the receiver makes practically no difference, still get the same effect. What kind of adjustments should I make with the DVD player audio setup?

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-LNujTLcyuCT/p_158DVP425P/Sony-DVP-NS425P.html?tab=morepho...os#details-tab

(Just click once on the Crutchfield hyperlinked page(s) to eliminate the shading)

Thanks for any feedback!

[aedipuss]

sorry but why would anyone run video through an ancient stereo only receiver? it needs to be a modern 5.1, 7.1 or 9.2 type unit to be able to adjust the outputs of the various channels.

[D.V. Dee]

Whatever. I don't have big bucks, and I got the receiver on sale...So, what adjustments can I make via the DVD player?

[Slipster]

Which inputs did you plug the DVD player into? Not the turntable input I hope. If so, try any other input.

[jman98]

What Slipster said plus you will need to go into your Sony and force its audio output to be 2 channel PCM if you can. The receiver you bought was NEVER intended to be used with multichannel audio sources like DVD and BluRay players. That doesn't mean it can't be used that way, but it's certainly not ideal. What exactly did you pay? Full 7.1 receivers sometimes go on sale for as low as $150. I mean if that seems like Bill Gates money to you, not much we can do about that.

[FulciLives]

Nothing wrong with 2 Channel stereo. Granted a sub woofer is nice to have since (inexpensive and sometimes even moderately expensive) stereo speakers don't have enough bass for some types of music and/or film soundtracks but I find "surround sound" to be gimmicky myself. I listen to everything in stereo.

Anyway ... there should be no issue listening to 5.1 (or whatever) mult-channel audio DVD's on a stereo receiver. The DVD player is supposed to downmix the audio to stereo for you (and there are settings for doing this).

I've looked at the manual of your Sony DVD player and it has standard RCA stereo jack outputs as well as a digital coaxial output. However according to the manual you can only get DTS output through the digital coaxial output yet looking at the manual of your stereo receiver it doesn't have any digital audio inputs so you have to use the standard RCA stereo jack outputs on the DVD player. That's fine, just know that you can't ever select the DTS track on a DVD but again any DVD that has DTS also has to have either a Dolby Digital track or a LPCM audio track, so no real big deal. Just make sure you are using any input on the receiver other than the phono (LP) input.

Now the audio set-up stuff starts on page 57 of the Sony DVD manual. So please refer to that section to understand what I'm about to say:

SETTINGS:

AUDIO ATT: This should be set to OFF but you might want to try it set to ON to see what difference it makes. It seems most equipment works with the OFF setting but some equipment may need the ON setting. As I understand it you should only set this to ON if the signal seems "overly loud" and/or "distorted" due to being "overly loud" but from the description it seems that this is not a problem with most equipment. So try OFF and only try ON if you are having distortion due to the volume being overly loud (even if you technically have the volume knob set to a "low" volume).

AUDIO DRC: Standard

DOWNMIX: Normal

DIGITAL OUT: This should be set to OFF unless you are using it but since your receiver doesn't have this type of input you can't use it so you might as well set it to OFF

That's it for the settings so try all that and see what happens.

[D.V. Dee]

The connectors went from DVD player: Line Out (R-Audio-L, Video) to Receiver: Line 1/DVD...

Slipster, JMan & Fulci, Thanks for for your INPUT (tho I don't know what "connectors" you use!

[Trippedout]

modern tech you must have heard the saying new dosent mean better I still have my old arcam alpha 8 and 8p power amp dont have it biwierd at the moment as my old mission floor stand speakers are done now so im useing old bookshelf mission well not me as my kid wanted to try it out and wont give them back lol she got taste anyway you would be better trying to pick up an old dvd player on ebay or something thats meant for stereo sound stag dont rule out old as it mite just suprise you.




more info here you mite find interesting >>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKKgWaAJysE john peel would be proud of that guy he allways championed this group.

[D.V. Dee]

Nothing wrong with 2 Channel stereo. Granted a sub woofer is nice to have since (inexpensive and sometimes even moderately expensive) stereo speakers don't have enough bass for some types of music and/or film soundtracks but I find "surround sound" to be gimmicky myself. I listen to everything in stereo.

Anyway ... there should be no issue listening to 5.1 (or whatever) mult-channel audio DVD's on a stereo receiver. The DVD player is supposed to downmix the audio to stereo for you (and there are settings for doing this).

I've looked at the manual of your Sony DVD player and it has standard RCA stereo jack outputs as well as a digital coaxial output. However according to the manual you can only get DTS output through the digital coaxial output yet looking at the manual of your stereo receiver it doesn't have any digital audio inputs so you have to use the standard RCA stereo jack outputs on the DVD player. That's fine, just know that you can't ever select the DTS track on a DVD but again any DVD that has DTS also has to have either a Dolby Digital track or a LPCM audio track, so no real big deal. Just make sure you are using any input on the receiver other than the phono (LP) input.

Now the audio set-up stuff starts on page 57 of the Sony DVD manual. So please refer to that section to understand what I'm about to say:

SETTINGS:

AUDIO ATT: This should be set to OFF but you might want to try it set to ON to see what difference it makes. It seems most equipment works with the OFF setting but some equipment may need the ON setting. As I understand it you should only set this to ON if the signal seems "overly loud" and/or "distorted" due to being "overly loud" but from the description it seems that this is not a problem with most equipment. So try OFF and only try ON if you are having distortion due to the volume being overly loud (even if you technically have the volume knob set to a "low" volume).

AUDIO DRC: Standard

DOWNMIX: Normal

DIGITAL OUT: This should be set to OFF unless you are using it but since your receiver doesn't have this type of input you can't use it so you might as well set it to OFF

That's it for the settings so try all that and see what happens.

I adjusted the DVD player audio settings accordingly, and the DVD audio tracks play just fine...Thanks!

[Hoser Rob]

... I find "surround sound" to be gimmicky myself. I listen to everything in stereo...

I agree 100% ... I even find a lot of the stereo effects in videos offputting.

[Trippedout]

snap its just an update version of 1970 quadraphonic wich was a flop to good stereo system will stomp all over it every timeas my girl proved it bought 5.1 for her so i could get my old system back as she said no way lol still soobing in my tea happy lisstening