low dialog in 5.1 dd.

[slipchuck]

I have a surround system with a yamaha rxv 363 as the reciever.
When I watch certain ac3 programs in HD with the bell 6131 I can barely hear the narrators. once the commercials come on it seems normal. I have tried to put the 6131 in pcm but nothing changes. I used the recievers night modes, but it doesn't help.
Put the reciever on straight, the dynamic range is less but the dialog is still too low.
The reciever is a HDMI passthrough for video, not audio.
This is the way it is set up..... 6131 uses HDMI for video to HDMI input in the yamaha. It also has optical from the back of the 6131 to the input of the yamaha in order to get 5.1.
A HDMI runs from the yamaha reciever to a HDMI input on my 46" toshiba LCD (bought this year)
I have a sony blueray hooked up the same way.
I tried to change the toshiba menu to have dolby, then to PCM but no difference

any thoughts?

The yamaha was already sent to repair and came back....
did I say this is driving me nuts????????

thanks

randy

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I have a surround system with a yamaha rxv 363 as the reciever.
When I watch certain ac3 programs in HD with the bell 6131 I can barely hear the narrators. once the commercials come on it seems normal. I have tried to put the 6131 in pcm but nothing changes. I used the recievers night modes, but it doesn't help.
Put the reciever on straight, the dynamic range is less but the dialog is still too low.
The reciever is a HDMI passthrough for video, not audio.
This is the way it is set up..... 6131 uses HDMI for video to HDMI input in the yamaha. It also has optical from the back of the 6131 to the input of the yamaha in order to get 5.1.
A HDMI runs from the yamaha reciever to a HDMI input on my 46" toshiba LCD (bought this year)
I have a sony blueray hooked up the same way.
I tried to change the toshiba menu to have dolby, then to PCM but no difference

any thoughts?

The yamaha was already sent to repair and came back....
did I say this is driving me nuts????????

thanks

randy

Randy, I was about to suggest to run YPAO automatic setup, but looks like your AVR doesn't have this feature.
Imo you have two options: Try to reduce room modes (which are the real cause for poor dialog comprehension) by adding acoustic room treatments - I'm not an expert on the subject - I know it's doable and if done DIY doesn't have to be expensive.
Option b) Change your aging avr to modern model which included YPAO or another type of automatic room correction
For example:
http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-RX-V467BL-Channel-Receiver-Black/dp/B003CP0K8W

 

[MDS]

Is the Bell 6131 a cable or satellite set-top box?

Check the settings for it and see if it is using any compression modes and if possible turn them off. My cable box has something similar and allows you to set the 'audio range' to normal, narrow, wide. Normal seems to be 'leave it alone' while narrow and wide are forms of compression and mess with the audio a bit.

Also check the volume output, fixed or variable. If set to variable, the box's volume control would have to be all the way up and I know with my cable box, any time the power goes out it reverts back to a volume setting of about half. Fixed is a slightly lower output level but at least you never have to be concerned about the position of the box's volume setting.