Problem with Onkyo 606

[mr_spitts]

Hello all,

I just purchased a 606 and have Polk 6880 speakers. Here are my a/v components:

hr20 DVR via HDMI
PS3 via HDMI
Xbox 360 via component video and optical audio
Old school Xbox via S-video and RCA
Wii via RCA

The 606 is connected to my TV via HDMI.

I ran the auto setup and all my speakers work fine. Video works fine and looks great, esp the 360. However, I am getting no audio at all from the hr20. For the Xboxes and Wii I get audio only from the front L and R speakers. Nothing from the center, sub, or surrounds. I tried using a different HDMI cable for the hr20 and that made no difference. I hooked it up directly to my TV and got audio from the tv speakers so I know the problem has to be with the receiver-hr20 connection.

The strange thing is the PS3 works beautifully. Tremendous sound and video.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be? This is my first non-htib system and I'm starting to think I should have stuck with that

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum! Hopefully we'll get you set up quick enough that you don't run back into the arms of a HTiB.

I'll try to track down some of the owner's manuals for these components to get a better idea of what's going on, but let me try to get this started:

1. Xbox 360 only plays in stereo - make sure that the 360 is set up to play multi-channel surround sound, make sure that you have selected a multi-channel surround sound mode on the 606, and make sure the game that you are playing has multi-channel surround sound.

2. Xbox only plays in stereo - can it even play in surround sound? The 606 can probably simulate surround sound, but if you only have it connected with two RCA audio cables, then the best that it could deliver is matrixed surround sound (like Pro-Logic).

3. Wii only plays in stereo - similar to the above. If you only have it connected with two RCA audio cables, then the best that it could deliver is matrixed surround sound (like Pro-Logic). Can it be connected with a digital audio connection (coax or optical)?

Let me look into the hr20.

Adam

 

[Adam]

Okay, I think that I may have found it. The following might solve your issue with audio on the HR20, depending on how you set up the Onkyo.

On the Onkyo 606, the "HDMI3" input on the back is the default video input assigned to the "CBL/SAT" selection. However, the "COAX2" digital input is the default digital audio input for "CBL/SAT". If you didn't manually specify an HDMI input for the HR20, or specifically change the digital audio input for the HR20, then it's entirely possible that's the issue here. Check out pages 43 through 45 of the Onkyo 606 owner's manual for how to set those up. If you have any questions, let us know.

If you already did that and you still don't have audio, be sure to let us know.

As a side note, be sure to turn on Dolby Digital output on the HR20 (I'm referencing page 30 of the online owner's manual found here). It shouldn't be causing your problem, but it's a good thing to do.

 

[mr_spitts]

Thanks for the advice. I did make sure that the 360 is set to surround sound and the game I was playing has dolby digital. Still only audio from the L and R front speakers. For the Xbox and Wii, even in regular stero I should be getting sound from the sub, right? I'm not hearing any bass. Do you know how to set it for simulated surround sound? I searched though the manual but didn't find anything on that. Thanks again for any help you can give. I've been pulling my hair out for 2 days.

 

[Adam]

Happy to help.

There are two things that come to mind that might be causing you to not have any sub output when in stereo mode. I'll mention the one that I think it is - if your front speakers are set to "Full Band", then the receiver won't send any bass to the sub when in stereo mode. You can set it up to send bass to both the front speakers and the sub (called "Double Bass" and described on page 74 of the manual), or you can set the front speakers up so that they are not full bandwidth. A lot of auto setup routines set front speakers to full bandwidth (called "large" on other receivers) even though you would really want to not send all of the bass to them. A typical crossover setting is 80Hz.

As for the Xbox 360 playing in stereo mode, hmmm. Did you have the Onkyo 606 set to play Dolby Digital? Perhaps there is a setting on the 360 that needs to be toggled. I don't know anything about 360s, sorry. Hopefully someone else here can chime in on those. If something comes to mind regarding the Onkyo, I'll be sure to post my thoughts.

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks for the advice. I did make sure that the 360 is set to surround sound and the game I was playing has dolby digital. Still only audio from the L and R front speakers. For the Xbox and Wii, even in regular stero I should be getting sound from the sub, right? I'm not hearing any bass. Do you know how to set it for simulated surround sound? I searched though the manual but didn't find anything on that. Thanks again for any help you can give. I've been pulling my hair out for 2 days.

AFAIK, Dolby Digital can be just 2.0. Maybe even 1.0 mono. Does it actually say 5.1, and not just Dolby?

Use one of the matrixing options, such as Plii(x), Neo6, etc. That should give you something. Remember though, matrixing, IMO, never sounds as good as the discrete signals from an HT m-ch track.

Its possible, especially for Wii games, that there isn't enough bass to trigger the sub to turn on. Very random possibility. You can turn up receiver's sub trim, while lowering the gain on the sub, if you want to keep the levels even, yet have sub trigger be more sensitive. In any case, a lot of these games will have very little low bass.

anyways, this is strange... but you're in good hands with adam here...

 

[mr_spitts]

Ok, I have the HR20 plugged into HDMI 3 or cable/sat and I changed the digital audio input to HDMI 3 on the 606 and still no audio. I also tried using the digital coax out on the HR20 to the digital in on the 606. I set the audio input on the 606 to COAX 1- no dice.

Regarding the 360, so you are saying I should manually set the sepakers to 80Hz. Currently they are set as follows:

Subwoofer= Yes
Front= 100hz
Center= 120hz
Surround= 100hz

 

[jostenmeat]

play with the "HDMI audio on/off" selection in the setup. I can't remember which you need, but I know this is a common issue with noobs AFAIK. Not sure if this will do the trick, but its definitely something to try.

 

[mr_spitts]

Ok, I'll give that a try when I get home from work and let you know how it goes.

 

[mr_spitts]

Problem solved

Hey all,

We called Onkyo customer support. They walked us through some troubleshooting and determined the receiver was defective! So swapped out for a new and now everything works to perfection. Thanks to all for your inputs! Glad I didn't go running back to htib!!

 

[Adam]

That's great news! I'm glad that you got it working (well, a new one, anyway ). I really appreciate you letting us know how it all worked out.