Connecting Blu-ray to TV

[Sakuya]

Hi all, am new to Blu-rays and I just got a BD player Sony BDP-BX58 as a gift. I just set it up by connecting it to my Samsung HDTV with an HDMI cable because my receiver is old and doesn't support HDMI. But I really want some surround sound so I connected a coaxial digital cable from blu-ray to the receiver. But I noticed when I have both HDMI and coaxial, the video flickers and eventually stops working. Is there a way to use just the HDMI as the video and get audio through coaxial? I searched through the blu-ray options and there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off the HDMI audio.

As for the audio, it seems to be DTS-HD downmixed to a regular DTS 5.1. Would the original master audio be FAR superior or is it just a minor difference compared to this downmix by the player? I'm wondering if I should upgrade my receiver and speakers... Would you recommend upgrading just the receiver or get one of those blu-ray ready home theater systems?

[fritzi93]

I have a similar setup and had a similar problem: no HDMI input on my receiver and video glitches but only when playing a 3D Blu-Ray. I use a toslink optical cable from the standalone routed via an optical switch to receiver. The switch is necessary because I also use optical out from TV, which will do AC3 passthrough. (BTW, it was yoda who suggested that simple and satisfactory solution). All my MKVs (done by me from BDs) have AC3 640 kbps, and the TV plays them direct from external hard drive.

As for the audio, it seems to be DTS-HD downmixed to a regular DTS 5.1. Would the original master audio be FAR superior or is it just a minor difference compared to this downmix by the player? I'm wondering if I should upgrade my receiver and speakers... Would you recommend upgrading just the receiver or get one of those blu-ray ready home theater systems?

1) Are you sure it's core DTS? The solution in my case was to change the audio output of the standalone BD player from "primary passthrough" to "DTS re-encode". The receiver tells me it's still getting DTS input, but no more video glitching. And I have full surround with all channels distinct. I'm guessing the receiver is now getting core DTS. As to the glitching (and another guess here), it may be that the TV couldn't quite handle both high bitrate 3D *and* DTS-MA audio.

2) Is DTS-MA far superior to core DTS? No, not to me anyway. Nor is it superior to AC3 640 kbps, for that matter. I'd need better equipment and better ears to tell the difference.

If someone has a better explanation, I'd be very interested. Could it be possible the problem lies with the standalone player's settings? I don't think coax or optical can handle full bitrate DTS-MA, can they? Maybe it was the standalone that was glitching?

Good luck.

[jman98]

Sakuya - You may want to go to http://www.woot.com and get on their daily mail list for specials. Every 3 or so months they put a Denon receiver on sale for $150. It has HDMI inputs and full support for all HD audio codecs. I feel your pain as while I did not have your problems, I had the same setup as you - Samsung HDTV and an old receiver with no HDMI inputs. What really pissed me off is that when I bought the receiver, there were ZERO receivers available at any price with HDMI inputs. I checked. Within something like 6 months after I bought it, everybody started making receivers with HDMI inputs. I replaced my receiver with the Denon model that Woot puts on its specials from time to time and I'm really happy with it. One of our long time members (I think it was either Noahtuck or Lordsmurf) posted on the forums a few years ago about Woot and that's how I heard about them.

With regards to DTS-MA vs. "regular" DTS, I agree with fritzi93. I wouldn't say it's "far superior". Maybe if you have unusually good hearing or really expensive speakers you can tell a big difference, but I've never been able to tell much difference with my setup. I don't recommend the Woot option because you will find it a night and day difference. I simply suggest it as a cost effective way to eventually get a receiver that has HDMI inputs as that seems like it would be helpful to you.

[jman98]

I do need to warn you that if you do decide to go the Woot route and wait on the Denon that while it does have optical inputs, I was not able to send a video signal to the receiver via HDMI and also send an audio signal via optical. I am just using HDMI for audio and video. Maybe if I spent a lot of time I could eventually get both working from the same device, but I spent a little time on it and gave up. So if you go the new receiver route, be sure to have enough HDMI cables for all your devices.

[yoda313]

But I noticed when I have both HDMI and coaxial, the video flickers and eventually stops working.

Do you have a tos optical input on your receiver? I'd try that out to see if the same thing happens.

If you have ONLY a coax input you might look online for a fiber optic to coax converter. I don't know if there are any and I don't know if it would work for your situation. But I'd try to use the other digital output to make sure its not your player.

There is a chance you might have a faulty bluray player. If its still returnable you might think about getting another unit - the same model of course but a new piece of hardware.

(BTW, it was yoda who suggested that simple and satisfactory solution).

Thanks for the shoutout - And I'm glad it is still doing what you need it to do

And in regards to dts vs dtsma - I have a ps3 connected to a sd audio amp and I am happy with the downconverted dts. I have not heard high def audio so I don't know what I'm missing. But I like what I do have.

be sure to have enough HDMI cables for all your devices.

And check the lengths too - I think the freebies you get tend to be short 4 footers. And also the location of your hdmi jack on the unit. If you don't have the cable length you might have to rearrange your players if the jack is on the left or right and you need it on the other side for that six inches of length.

[Sakuya]

Do you have a tos optical input on your receiver? I'd try that out to see if the same thing happens.

My receiver does have optical in but the Bluray player actually has no optical out, only digital coaxial. I tried removing the HDMI cable and connected the player straight to the receiver with component and coaxial, watched for a good 30 min. and no video glitches! But unfortunately, I can tell the difference with the video quality with component vs. with HDMI. HDMI video is more crisp and has more fine details.

Temporary Solution:

I also tried using HDMI and coaxial, then turning off the TV's speakers. It seems to work for the 15 min. that I watched with it, but not sure if the glitches will return. I couldn't find any audio option in the Bluray player to turn off audio coming from HDMI, there was only an option to output that audio as PCM. The options for regular Dolby/DTS are separate and doesn't affect the HDMI.

Thanks for the Woot suggestion! Since you guys said the audio difference is not that big, I'll just wait. I just thought there was something wrong with the downmix since in some parts the audio was muffled. Black Friday is coming up soon...

[Sakuya]

While on the subject of audio, if I get a new receiver with Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD capabilities, is it backwards compatible? It can still play back regular Dolby Digital/DTS over HDMI?

[jman98]

While on the subject of audio, if I get a new receiver with Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD capabilities, is it backwards compatible? It can still play back regular Dolby Digital/DTS over HDMI?

Yes it will be compatible with older Dolby and DTS.

[fritzi93]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't gotten more comments, with so many knowledgeable members here.

Anyway, I honestly can't tell the difference between DTS-MA and DTS. Not on my own system, nor on supposedly top-line systems. I'll freely stipulate I attended a good many concerts in my youth. Remember Deep Purple?

As to DTS versus AC3, one thing I feel fairly sure of is that DTS modifies the dynamic range. I can detect that on Blu-rays with both AC3 and DTS tracks. I perceive it as more of a wall of sound in particularly "busy" passages with swelling, dramatic music and lots of whiz-bang effects. But I can mimic that somewhat with AC3 by fiddling with the dynamic range settings on my receiver. That's how I hear it, anyway...

If you go to the AVS forum, it seems lots of members there think DTS-MA is the best thing EVER. I don't get it. Then again, my impression of that forum is of a bunch of techno-geeks competing with each other to expound the most impressively technical, abstruse arguments.

Go ahead and tell me why I'm all wet.

[Sakuya]

Okay, I bought a receiver Yamaha RX-V373. I've connected my Bluray to receiver via HDMI. The receiver outputs to TV via HDMI. Everything works well and sounds nice. However, one day it would play fine. The next day, the sound would only output through TV speakers, nothing in surround speakers (even though the receiver detects that it's playing DTS). I unplug HDMI cable and replug and it works again. Not sure why this is. I never changed the setup or anything. Repeat problem for the next day...

I have HDMI Control set to on, audio is on auto detect, and I set ARC to on. Not sure what ARC is exactly but the manual says if your TV supports it, there should be an HDMI port that says "ARC" which I don't have. I turned ARC off and don't see any difference.