Audio HELP!

[BAM]

My husband and I just got some new items:
-Panasonic 50 in. Plasma TV - TH50PX80U
-Panasonic Home Theater/DVD player/receiver - SC PT760
-Time Warner HD Cable Box - Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC

Here is how we have it hooked up:
-HDMI from cable box to TV
-HDMI from receiver/dvd to TV (Vierra Link)
-audio cables (red & white) from cable to receiver/dvd

There is only 1 HDMI outlet in the cable box and 1 in the receiver. The TV has 2 on the back and one on the front.

Our problem: The audio is very low when we watch TV or DVDs. We have to turn the receiver up to level 25-30 to hear it clearly. But when we turn on the tuner or CDs, the sound level is fine at 15. I know it is in the hook up and have searched for several weeks now trying to find the problem. I emailed Panasonic but their "only" recommendation was to add more audio cables from the TV to the receiver. We thought the whole idea of HDMI was to eliminate some of these cables.

Can anyone give us some ideas? Otherwise, everything is great. Even this way, the surround sound is good. It is just that we have to turn it up so.

Thanks.

 

[jliedeka]

You should be able to run the HDMI from the cable box to the receiver input rather than the TV. That should pass audio and video to the receiver which will pass it on to the TV. Then you can eliminate the extra cable from the cable box to the receiver.

That probably won't solve your volume problem. I'd check to see if the receiver has any sort of source settings for volume. If not, you may just have to change the volume.

Jim

PS: Running cables from the TV back to the receiver shouldn't do anything useful. I'm not sure why they told you that.

 

[BAM]

My problem is that if I use the HDMI cable from the cable box to the receiver, I do not have another HDMI outlet in the receiver to run an HDMI cable to the TV. I would have to use regular cables. Would that lessen the clarity, etc. that we are supposed to get from the HDMI?

 

[jliedeka]

I misunderstood. I thought you had one HDMI input but now it sounds like it's an HDMI output only.

Does the receiver have audio inputs for optical or coax digital? Those could be an improvement on the analog connection from the cable box (assuming the cable box has a corresponding output).

That still doesn't help with the DVD level being lower than the tuner level. The only thing I can suggest for that is to poke around in the receiver settings and see if there is any way to adjust the volume for tuner down or the DVD up.

Jim

 

[audio ninja]

Did you get all your answers?

If you haven't already, an optical cable will be of great use to your new system. See link:
http://www.impactacoustics.com/product_list.asp?cat_id=901

Trash the analog red & white audio cables and connect an optical cable from your cable box via (optical audio out) to the receiver via (optical audio in). From there, you might need to go through the set up menu to assign the input to cable/sat so when you change from DVD to watch Cable TV, your system knows it needs to look for audio coming into the optical input. Hope that made sense?

This small change will give you ability to hear surround sound from HD channels encoded with 5.1 surround sound audio, even commercials too! Overall sound quality is better.

Your variance in volume from one source to another is not a problem with your system, it's... kind of just the way things are... It has to do with the way each audio source is recorded and then transmitted through your system. See this link for some info: http://broadcastengineering.com/audio/audio-hd-common-problems-cures/

 

[Midcow2]

Here is how to hook up your system!

I just looked at your manual on-line.

You HDMI output is from the SC-PT760 only.

You CAN NOT connect your cable video to the SC-PT760
=====================
With the equipment you have (it is not really an AVR per se becuase no video input) , [
U]Here is the best way to connect your system:[/U]

Connect the SC-PT760 to your TV using the HDMI out to the first TV HDMI input.

Connect the left and right audio from your cable box to the AUX in (see page 8).
Connect your cable box video to the second TV HDMI input.

When you want TV set your SC-PT760 to AUX and set your TV to the cable connection to your TV, HDMI input 2.

When you want DVD set your SC-PT760 to DVD/CD and set you TV to the SC-PT760 HDMI connection, HDMI input 1.

You will have two switch between the DVD and cable using you TV because the Panasonic SC-PT760 does not have any video input and cannot be used fro switching video.

Good Luck!

MidCow2