Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, but do different noises come out of each speaker?

This never happens, incidentally. The PS3 doesn't downmix audio. What happens is most Blurays have a 5.1 DD or DTS soundtrack (i.e. DVDish) as well as a fancy pants HD/lossless/7.1/whatever one. The former is what comes out of the optical jack. This is particularly noticable on the Highlander bluray were the two tracks are a 5.1 DTS HS lossless mix and a 2.0 DD stereo mix. Wired over optical, I get 2.0.

I know that's what usually happens, but I thought I'd seen an option which seemed to indicate it can, somewhere.

That is what I will check.. as teh sky goes to teh TV then via optical out to the speakers

Was it the big list of "my amp supports these formats" where you can check or uncheck dozens and dozens of different bitrate/speaker/codec combinations?

Possibly the wording above that list, yes.

That list controls which codecs will be sent as bitstreams and which as linear PCMs.

Clearly

I just plug it in and it sounds nice.....

I try not to get worried about the nerdy stuff

So, what proportion of the population at large have fancy TV's, amps, bluray players and speakers all wired up in such a way that half the benefit is lost straight out? Judging by this thread, about two thirds of them.

*glares*

Just me I think, but I don;t have blu-ray and my DVD player is built into my 5.1 system

To avoid potential stat skewage based on my faulty contributions in this thread - mine's set up correctly, but then I split the audio and video at the source because my amp doesn't know HDMI (which is why I need a new one).

My PS3 does manage to make noise come out of my telly over HDMI, but I have no idea what it's doing (and don't care, because correct-sounding noise comes out of the telly).

I was more thinking that based on the incompatibilities some people here are having, and assuming that we're in the more technically proficient and aware portion of society, what are the chances of my Dad going into Dixon's and coming out with something that's even vaguely correct, let alone plugging it all in right when he gets it home.

That is what I did

4%

Kovacs buys...
Kovacs plugs in...
Kovacs gets pretty sounds..
Kovacs is happy..
Kovacs comes here and feels stupid....
Kovacs is sad..

Hey, at least you got all the way there. I've not even hit step 1 yet, I'm still too busy nerd-statsing.

A winner is who? A winner is YOU!

Well, technically I'm more stalled wondering which country MissN and therefore I am going to be living in next month. So, you know, still you.

In that case, I'm sure you do get 5.1 from your DVDs.

I gathered that....

Therefore, please go back to being happy with the pretty sounds.

Just ordered the Onkyo 508.

I'd been eyeing them up for a few months now and couldn't decide between the 308 and 508.

Slightly disappointed that had I ordered it last night it would have been delivered tomorrow, but because I spent so long um'ing and ah'ing I now have to wait until Wednesday. Turns out Richer Sounds have only got about 5 left in the country so coudn't just pop to the store and grab one which was a shame.

At least it gives me time to tidy up my AV rack and finally get my speakers on the wall.

Because of you Beexers, I now have the Onkyo TX-SR508B together with the Jamo A102HCS5-WH - 5.1 Speaker Package in my Amazon Cart.

Mainly aimed at the Doc and the Egg due to their recent purchase, should I press Proceed to Checkout?

FYI, I will be connecting an Xbox, Sky HD box and PS3, no 3D required yet, but depending on future developments, a 3D TV could well be on the cards.

Cheers

PS3 phat or slim?

phat mate, other than the number of usb's and no backwards compatibility, is there a difference which I am not aware of?

There's a thingy with the sound stuff that something something switches left and right rear speakers on the PS3 fat.

See Doc! I listened!

Nothing a set of £10,000 cables won't sort out though.

Early 508s, as well as a couple of other model of Onkyo amps, have a firmware bug that reverses the rear channels when receiving linear PCM audio over HDMI (mine does, and I bought it from Amazon just a couple of weeks ago). Most devices can choose to send bitstream instead and are unaffected, but the fat PS3 can't do that. Hence rear channels are inverted on all my PS3 stuff (games, DVDs, and Blurays).

The firmware flash procedure involves posting it away (at Onkyo's expense) for up to a week. Eejits.

This is enough hassle that I'd suggest you consider an equivalent Sony or Yamaha model instead.

feck...

On the upside, that should be enough to postpone my purchase until after pay day instead of me delving even further into my overdraft.

Cheers

I was wrong.... I was happy with teh set up till I read this thread

What is an equivalent Sony / Yamaha model, anyone?

The ones that cost the same money. STR-DH810 for the Sony, I think.

Because I am a lovely husband and drove to the shop to buy Flis some icing sugar yesterday she is "allowing" me to buy a new amp.

So, being me, I am pushing my luck a bit and gonna get some speakers too.

http://www.classic-hi-fi.co.uk/acatalog/Onkyo_TX-SR608___Boston_Acoustic_XS_5.1.html

Looks like a bargain, and whilst the 608 could well have the same ps3 problems as the 508, the apparent saving of this package over the separate items makes the gamble seem worthwhile.

Topical... I just finished pulling my 508 out of my rack and replacing it with a Sony STR-DH810. The Onkyo is going back to Amazon tomorrow because of the rear channel thing.

If you only use the ps3, couldn't you just swap the speakers over?

Yes. If, on the other hand, I also use 360, Sky HD, Airport Express, the TV's own audio, and potentially a new media streamer soon...?

Well, yeah, that.

Oooh! Let me know how you get on, as the 810 is top on my list to replace the 800.

I like it.

Anything specific?

What? You mean the awesome Sony amp that went tits up after a couple of years which they wouldn't fix. That one?

It was an awesome amp, and if Blade Runner taught me anything, it was that the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

Still, it's a bit of a shitter that I now need to get a new one.

What years of experience of buying Sony crap has taught me is that their customer care is even fucking worse than their build quality.

Well, I got the Sony STR-DH810 at Christmas, rather unexpectedly, after my parents and my two brothers clubbed together to get me one as a joint birthday/Christmas present. I'm mighty chuffed! Finally got round to setting it up in the flat last night. It also means those KEF 2005.3 speakers I bought last year can finally be put to some actual use (as my Sony STR-DH800 blew up only a few months after buying them - and even then I was only using them in the bedroom at my parents in anticipation of moving out). I'm making sure I keep the box and receipt close at hand though, just in case it decides to follow it's predecessor, though at least in the flat I'm able to have it somewhere that's better ventilated than before.

I did need to buy a pair of speaker stands for the flat (previously the speakers were wall-mounted, but such an arrangement wouldn't work in the flat) and KEF brilliantly use non-standard fittings to ensure you only buy their official stands - which are £100 a pair from Richer Sounds (and that's the cheapest I've seen)! Still, you do get some bloody nice stands for that ludicrous sum of money, with fairly substantial weights in the bottom to prevent any accidental knocking over of the speakers.

As it was getting late by the time I'd got everything set up, I didn't get to it all a proper run, but what I did briefly try sounded fantastic. Definitely benefits from the much larger space in the lounge of our flat.

As for the amp, it's really only a very slight incremental upgrade over the 800, but there's some nice extra stuff there (though my fairly basic Bravia TV supports virtually none of it's features, though I guess at least I now have an element of future-proofing). Main new features seem to be support for HDMI 1.4, so 3DTV and Audio Return Channel (the TV can send audio back to the amp for processing - so ideal if you have a TV with built-in Freeview HD for instance). I tried my Wii out with the built-in HDMI upscaler in the amp, but it wasn't very good to be honest. The picture was much better just plugging the Wii directly into my TV via component cable.

Anyway, I imagine no one on this forum is interested in any of the above, but it's a very quiet day at work and I needed to type something to look busy, so this is what you get.

I continue to like and enjoy my own 810.

Just taken delivery of one of these.

Alas, I won't have a chance to set it up until Monday night.

Do you nkow about the inverted rear channels bug?

No...?

Edit: yes - just gone back and read your early post. Hmm. I guess I'll have to test mine to see if it has it.

It's in this thread.
Hang on...

viewtopic.php?p=461572#p461572

Won't they be shipping new ones with the current firmware?

Cheers, got it.

Hoping mine is late enough to not have the bug (what markg said). Any idea what firmware version the "fixed" ones have?