Onkyo 3500 ; Set up for beginners

[Rockfella]

Nothing. Changed from 2.0 to 5.1 in both VLC and KMPlayer AVR still reads DTS as 2.0. Though it is not a deal breaker but it intrigues me :sos:

 

[virtueso]

very strange..Why dont you download an episode of any 720p tv show,approx 400-500mb, and play that and see..It is such content which i keep mentioning plays dd with no hassles

 

[Rockfella]

My player supports : Audio : MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AIFF, Dolby Digital AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS 2.0 +Digital out, Tag ID3.

DTS 2.0 + Digital out : DTS 2.0 + Digital Out means the device has the capability to decode the DTS stream, then downmix and output 2ch audio to be played back via stereo speakers. Digital Out means the device can also output the DTS bitstream via Digital outputs (S/PDIF or HDMI) to an AV receiver to decode DTS audio.

My guess: The AVR gets DTS 2.0 which it displays as 2.0 and decodes it as 5.1. I am assuming this because this is what the AVR displays i.e it outputs 5.1 Sound.

 

[Rockfella]

Well whatever the hell the avr receives and outputs the end result : surround is good enough so I'm not looking into this anymore. If i want to connect the AVR to my pc and if i want true DD and DTS-MA i'll need this:

https://www.asus.com/Sound_Cards_and_DigitaltoAnalog_Converters/Xonar_HDAV13_Slim/

 

[baijuxavior]

^^ All you need is a decent graphics card for DD, DTS, Dolby TruHD, DTS HDMA passthrough and 3D support. I am using GT520 that costs around 2.4K only.

 

[Rockfella]

Any idea if this motherboard will do the deed:

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Motherboard - Gigabyte: Flipkart.com

EDIT: I don't think it does.

 

[virtueso]

Guys, what is A and B in my display? behind the ht, in A all my 5 speakers + sw are plugged in. B has space for two more speakers but is currently empty.

Is it for 2 channel sound? If i am watching something which has 2 channel audio, should i switch from A to B? when i do, sound only comes from center, front and left speakers. When i select A&B, there is no sound at all.

I know my system isnt 7.1 so why are there 7 slots there? (+1 for sw) ?

 

[Rockfella]

A & B are two sets of speaker connections. You can connect additional set of 2 speakers (to speaker B W/O sub) to be used in a different room/same room for stereo effect. Use speaker A for 5.1 Don't switch to B coz you won't hear anything.

Guys, what is A and B in my display? behind the ht, in A all my 5 speakers + sw are plugged in. B has space for two more speakers but is currently empty.

Is it for 2 channel sound? If i am watching something which has 2 channel audio, should i switch from A to B? when i do, sound only comes from center, front and left speakers. When i select A&B, there is no sound at all.

I know my system isnt 7.1 so why are there 7 slots there? (+1 for sw) ?

 

[Rockfella]

I downloaded this file: "hd_dolby_bit_harvest_lossless" from here:

2D High Definition Trailers (HD) - Demo World

and for the first time saw True HD on the AVR and the sound was very impressive!

Played it from the Asus Player but i wonder how it decoded/bitsreamed/whatever to the AVR. The "True HD" lit up for the first time lol!

 

[Rockfella]

and something funny happened ... after playing the truehd sample all other movies are playing in their audio channel mode, dts, dolby D etc :LOL: I wonder how????/

 

[Rockfella]

Im facing some weird issues setting the Incoming Digital Signal. Actually Ive not set it to fixed so theoretically the AVR should detect digital signal on its own which it does but not always. When I play movies with Dolby OR DTS or DOLBY TrueHD etc the lovely orange display lights up on the AVRs display but sometimes this does not happen. I dont know if it is due to some weird setting which Im missing or some sort of problem with the AVR.
Anyone facing this issue or any insights would be very helpful.
Many thanks.

 

[virtueso]

I too just today tried out a movie, which had dual audio. (Eng and swe) . The english track was 6channel, according to media info (very helpful sw btw) and this movie also does NOT switch to dd.
Other movies i tried, with same 6channel setup but no dual audio worked fine, the glorious dd symbol lights up nicely !

So i dont know if the dual audio was significant or not, but definitely few movies which are supposed to, are not playing dd.

Downloaded the 'trueHD' trailer from your previous link,it didnt work on my tv, yet to try it via laptop on avr.

I have not set the audio to fixed like you have ^

 

[Rockfella]

Which TV do you have? Neither have it "fixed it" The AVR detects input audio signal on its own which it does but sometimes it doesn't which is weird. For e.g. I play a demo with Dolby TrueHD and the glorious "TrueHD displays on AVR/audio is friggin superior. I switch off system, switch it on later and play the same file again and it I dont see the TrueHD display/audio is shitty/subpar. I kinda reboot the AVR and again I see the display. The AVR does this on its own and I cant figure out why! I think you won't be able to play that demo from your laptop even thru HDMI because bit streaming HD audio needs some specific hardware.

Downloaded the 'trueHD' trailer from your previous link, it didnt work on my tv, yet to try it via laptop on avr.
I have not fixed the audio to fixed like you have ^

 

[virtueso]

Thats just downright weird !
Same things happens with xbox. 8 out of 10 times it displays dd and plays dd, 2 times it doesnt and i have to restart the system. (including 360)

Are you switching the power off from the main switch as well? I havent since a few days, i let it be on standby (the little orange/yellow light glows) . Since then, xbox has always detected and played dd by itself.

Edit ; TV is samsung series 6 lcd

 

[Rockfella]

Yes some friends were home yesterday and the bloody thing just played all data in the "non-bitstreaming mode/whatever mode" (The DTS DOLBY etc not lit up mode lol) and felt that the previous shitty 6k LG home theatre sounded better ) They're coming again today for the shocker
Back to the point :
1) I called the Onkyo tech and they gave me generic suggestions like change settings on remote to work it in DTS. Guy had obviously no idea, when i asked him more questions he gave me another technician's number to call tomorrow :lol:
I've posted this in some AV forums. Let's see what comes up.
2) This is happening with both our 3500's, maybe it's a problem with this model or we both are missing some settings.
3) I've turned off "Music optimizer" and waiting for it to rollback into "Non glorious mode" to do some more headbanging with it.

Thats just downright weird !
Same things happens with xbox. 8 out of 10 times it displays dd and plays dd, 2 times it doesnt and i have to restart the system. (including 360)

Are you switching the power off from the main switch as well? I havent since a few days, i let it be on standby (the little orange/yellow light glows) . Since then, xbox has always detected and played dd by itself.

Edit ; TV is samsung series 6 lcd

 

[virtueso]

Not exactly the same. I think your asus MAY be the actual culprit, you need to tweak it's settings perhaps. Reason- I am unable to change from normal preset to dd/dts only on the xbox, and that too once or twice out of 10 times.
On the TV if it's supposed to be dolby and currently isnt, i am easily able to change it from tv itself.

On laptop by default it never plays dd, but when content has dd encoded, the option to change to dd appears, and again i am able to change it without a problem.

The content which i tried today, which wasnt showing dd when the media info software clearly says that it does have 6channel is the only case i encountered in which i couldnt switch to dd (besides xbox,rarely) .

I tried same content via laptop, and even here the option to change it dd was NOT there. Conclusion- some content even if mediainfo says is 6channel, is not/does not play dd.

I seriously doubt any such problem would occur with an original dvd/bluray. The problem with this particular case probably lies with the file,while scaling down audio in the bdrip there must have been some bits left out or some other technical error.

Also, i played the true hd trailer on laptop, and was able to change it to dd like i always do, but the avr only displayed the regular dd sidn |db| and said DD there. It didn't say 'TRUE HD' or 'TRUE DD" or anything.
As you said, this might be the problem with the sound card of my laptop, not really sure on that.

 

[Rockfella]

I've tried all settings in O!Play. Probably you are correct. If i play original BluRays from a BR player i might not encounter these problems. But i simply don't want to invest in a Bluray player and bluray titles for one time watches and then wait for either the disc or the player to stop working. This happens with mechanical drives and discs, they hardly have a friggin life. I'd rather invest in a HTPC capable of bit streaming Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA through a graphics card OR better through motherboard's on HDMI using XBMC. This is next on wishlist. But before i buy the HTPC i'll connect my current desktop with Asus Xonar DX (It has no support for DTS but it somehow sounds great and ATI HD5770 and test it for few weeks to decide if a HTPC is really needed. Thanks for helping me out with the dealer info and price.

Not exactly the same. I think your asus MAY be the actual culprit, you need to tweak it's settings perhaps. Reason- I am unable to change from normal preset to dd/dts only on the xbox, and that too once or twice out of 10 times.
On the TV if it's supposed to be dolby and currently isnt, i am easily able to change it from tv itself.

On laptop by default it never plays dd, but when content has dd encoded, the option to change to dd appears, and again i am able to change it without a problem.

The content which i tried today, which wasnt showing dd when the media info software clearly says that it does have 6channel is the only case i encountered in which i couldnt switch to dd (besides xbox,rarely) .

I tried same content via laptop, and even here the option to change it dd was NOT there. Conclusion- some content even if mediainfo says is 6channel, is not/does not play dd.

I seriously doubt any such problem would occur with an original dvd/bluray. The problem with this particular case probably lies with the file,while scaling down audio in the bdrip there must have been some bits left out or some other technical error.

Also, i played the true hd trailer on laptop, and was able to change it to dd like i always do, but the avr only displayed the regular dd sidn |db| and said DD there. It didn't say 'TRUE HD' or 'TRUE DD" or anything.
As you said, this might be the problem with the sound card of my laptop, not really sure on that.

 

[virtueso]

I've tried all settings in O!Play. Probably you are correct. If i play original BluRays from a BR player i might not encounter these problems. But i simply don't want to invest in a Bluray player and bluray titles for one time watches and then wait for either the disc or the player to stop working. This happens with mechanical drives and discs, they hardly have a friggin life. I'd rather invest in a HTPC capable of bit streaming Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA through a graphics card OR better through motherboard's on HDMI using XBMC. This is next on wishlist. But before i buy the HTPC i'll connect my current desktop with Asus Xonar DX (It has no support for DTS but it somehow sounds great and ATI HD5770 and test it for few weeks to decide if a HTPC is really needed. Thanks for helping me out with the dealer info and price.

Sure no problem. By original dvd/blu-ray i meant that something which is not ripped from 10gb to 2 gb. For ex,if I downloaded LOTR 720p 7gb file, I would most likely not have a problem with the sound.
Anyway, good luck with it !

 

[baijuxavior]

Most of your audio problems are with the player and not with the avr or rip file. If the movie has 5.1 audio then you should get 5.1 out. Sometimes the rips can have two tracks - one 5.1 and another 2 channel in which case the first stream is usually played. Problems can also occur if the audio is in aac format. AVR will use prologic for aac audio if you set aac to bitstream in your player. Using mediainfo tool, check the audio codecs in the problematic files. AC3, DTS and AAC are the most common audio formats used in rip files.

 

[Rockfella]

Thanks. The problem is same files play in DTS/Dolby etc and sometimes same files play without proper audio. This happens on its own, though it is not happening now but it made me think hard. I saw the Dolby TrueHD for the first time when i played a demo and realized that the asus player supports Dolby TrueHD but i played anotehr sample demo with DTS HAMA and the player did not bitstream it so that file played in DTS mode Appreciate your help

Most of your audio problems are with the player and not with the avr or rip file. If the movie has 5.1 audio then you should get 5.1 out. Sometimes the rips can have two tracks - one 5.1 and another 2 channel in which case the first stream is usually played. Problems can also occur if the audio is in aac format. AVR will use prologic for aac audio if you set aac to bitstream in your player. Using mediainfo tool, check the audio codecs in the problematic files. AC3, DTS and AAC are the most common audio formats used in rip files.