HDMI makes it complicated! - SACD discovery inside

Kolia

Kolia

Full Audioholic
:rolleyes: Well, I finally managed to get my Elite player to play SACD "right", almost by accident!

I've started experimenting with SACDs and frankly, I was a bit disappointed. The surround content of the 2 discs I have (Diana Krall - The Girl in the Other Room and Pink Floyd DSOM) weren't all that impressive (ie absent). I kept playing with all the options on the player to try to make things sound better.

Until I realized that since the tv is plugged via HDMI, the player kept switching to that medium for the audio signal instead of using the 5.1 analog! :eek:

Turning the tv OFF deactivated the HDMI and at last, the analog connection started working! Weee! Much more better! :D

Damn HDMI with the "automatic adjustment of everything"... :mad:

I had to share...
 
dobyblue

dobyblue

Senior Audioholic
That is strange that the HDMI output is changing anything to do with the analog outputs. They should continue to output the multi-channel analog based on what the player is set to....like downsampling to 24/48 for example.

You're saying you had the receiver set to multi-channel input and it sounds different once the HDMI is unhooked?

It is my experience that HDMI makes it anything BUT complicated.
 
Kolia

Kolia

Full Audioholic
My receiver is not HDMI. The DVD player is connected directly to the TV via HDMI. And goes to the receiver via COAX and 5.1 analog.

Somehow, turning the TV ON got the player to switch to digital output, which does not support SACD playback. It also locked out all the SACD options from the menus so I couldn't make any adjustment. SACD playback was locked in 2 ch mode. Turning the HDMI functionality OFF allowed me to access the correct menus and switch every thing to multi-ch and to setup the speaker distances.

The player's instruction aren't very explicit on the subject of SACD/DVD-A.

Only took me a year to figure that out... :rolleyes:
 
dilznoofus

dilznoofus

Audioholic Intern
That is strange that the HDMI output is changing anything to do with the analog outputs.

My Marantz does the same thing. If the HDMI cable is plugged into the TV set and the TV powers up, the idiot box.... I mean the DVD player cuts off the 5.1 analog out. I finally pulled the HDMI cable and run component video into the TV, now life is absolutely fabulous.

HDMI is NOT your friend, HDMI is ALL about content management (defined as playing your media their way).
 
M

mfabien

Senior Audioholic
I have an Oppo and it can use HDMI for SACD and DVD-A to a HDMI capable receiver. The player has the following settings for HDMI audio:

- OFF
- LPCM
- Auto

But in my case, my receiver does not have HDMI switching so I use a multichannel switch box (Zektor HDS4.1) for all 3 players.
 
J

Johnd

Audioholic Samurai
HDMI is NOT your friend, HDMI is ALL about content management (defined as playing your media their way).
Precisely. Well, it's about ease of signal transfer too, but...

Some people just can't think out of the box...they think HDMI is the fix all. If it doesn't work, must be the cable...get a new one. There are compatibility issues with non HDMI equipment as well.
 
Biggiesized

Biggiesized

Senior Audioholic
HDMI is a mixed bag. The standard keeps updating and adding features, on top of being an all-in-one cable, but it confuses consumers and many think it doesn't interact as simply as component cables with lots of electronic devices.
 

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