No worries BSA - you're reply was appropriate for my poor wording - you are quite right - a single small 8" sub and some bookshelf speakers aren't going to blow anybody away! Fortunatly I'm not after that (not these days anyway - I used to have two 15" subs in my car each driven by 400w amps - but that was another time!)
OK - so I've been reading and listening and experimenting and I've run into a problem.
For much of my source material (anything less than Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio, and sometimes even them) the listening is less than impressive. Just sort of weak, dull, uninspiring.
BUT
When I choose one of the Yamaha Cinema DSP modes (like Movie:Spectacle or Movie:Sci-Fi) the results are quite good - much more impressive and immersive.
Maybe due to my speakers, speaker placement, room acoustics, whatever - it just works.
That's great, but it complicates things, as it is much easier to understand what's going on if just using "straight".
My confusion is this:
According to the manual P. 67 "Configuring input sources (Input menu) - Decoder Mode" The settings are:
It seems to me, this is where you tell the AVR how to decode what the Blu-Ray sends it, and it seems "Auto" would be the right/normal choice unless for some reason you have a problem, in which case you can "force" "DTS" if you need to.
No problem so far.
Moving on to P. 46. DSP Category SUR DEC (surround decode), it gives the following options:
Now, I *think* these are only applicable if picking one directly from the SUR DECODE button. In other words, these have no effect unless you select one by cycling through them with the SUR DECODE button (which you would only do for a 2-ch input source).
Furthermore, I believe this is exactly the same thing as described on P.75. "Parameters useable in surround decoder, Decode type"
Assuming my deductions so far are correct, no problem, but here's where it gets confusing:
P. 51 shows the “Configuring settings specific to an individual input source (Option Menu), Extended Surround”
I had thought this was a universal setting (at least universal for all HDMI inputs, which is all I am worried about) that basically told the AVR “If you get a 5.1 signal, here’s the method to turn it into 6.1 or 7.1
What I don’t understand is the layering or “order of operations.” For example, say I’, playing a BD with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 – is this decoded according to Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and THEN run through the option selected here before being sent to the speakers? What about a disc in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 – would this be decoded in accordance with DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, and then potentially run through Dolby PLIIx Movie (if that’s the setting chosen in accordance with p.51). And if so, that means I would have to select “off” here if I want to hear “pure” DTS HD Master Audio 5.1? This page 51 setting doesn’t seem to be tied to a DSP Mode, so I assume it applies even if using DSP: STRAIGHT??
And then I get really confused because, according to P. 74 “Setting sound program parameters (Sound Program menu), Cinema DSP parameters, Decode Type” there are the following choices:
With footnote:
Which seems to imply, that if I select a DSP Movie (like, say, Sci-Fi), it is using the selection made here (i.e. all DSP Movie selection will use one of these).
But how does that relate to the input source? If I have a DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 disc playing and select DSP Movie: Sci-fi, does it decode according to DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 and THEN apply, say, Dolby PLIIx Movie. Or, if I select DSP Movie: Sci-fi, does it not decode according to DTS HD Master Audio 5.1?
This is further confused by the following, from Yamaha’s website, that says:
Where, you will notice, the info isn’t the same as the options given on page 74 of the manual.
What is going on here? I am so confused!
Basically, what are the order of operations, what are the layering methods? What happens if you have a disc with encoding that differs from the options on P.74, but choose to play it using a Cinema
SP mode?
Please help!
Bill
