Older Elite receiver, help needed

[CustomKing06]

Hello everyone. First post, hope I don't sound to stupid. I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-41 receiver, it has served me well until Blu ray. I hooked up my Sony BDS-350 blu ray player HDMI to my T.V., with a fiber optic cable out of the T.V. to the receiver. The problem is, its like someone pushed the mute button, don't get me wrong it still gets loud but far from what I'm used to, it also sounds like there is less separation in the rear surround speakers compared to my old DVD player and Xbox 360 HD DVD player. I have been through the menu on the blu ray player and believe I have it all set up correctly. Any help would be appreciated. Also been considering a new receiver with HDMI I/O (Elite VSX94TXH or Onkyo TX-SR806) Any opinions on these two receivers would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum, Aaron!

Which TV do you own? I'm wondering if the optical output is variable (affected by the volume control on the TV) or fixed. Have you tried adjusting the volume on the TV to see if that adjusts the volume coming from the speakers?

 

[CustomKing06]

My T.V. is a Samsung HL56A650.

 

[Adam]

I'm downloading the manual now, but have you tried adjusting the volume on the TV?

 

[CustomKing06]

Thanks for the suggestion, just tryed it, doesn't seem to have any affect on output to receiver.

 

[Adam]

I may have found your issue. Per page 15 of the owner's manual for the TV regarding the TV's optical out jack:

"When the receiver (home theater) is set to On, you can hear sound output from the TV’s Optical jack. When the TV is displaying a DTV(air) signal, the TV will send out 5.1 channel sound to the Home theater receiver. When the source is a digital component such as a DVD and is connected to the TV via HDMI, only 2 channel sound will be heard from the Home Theater receiver."​

Let me look into the blu-ray player. Can you connect the audio directly from it to the receiver? Like an optical or digital coax?

 

[Adam]

If your player is the BDP-S350, then it does have an optical audio output that you could use to connect directly to the receiver. I can't find BDS-350 on Sony's site (although there were hits on Google).

 

[CustomKing06]

I'm downloading the manual now, but have you tried adjusting the volume on the TV?

I may have found your issue. Per page 15 of the owner's manual for the TV regarding the TV's optical out jack:

"When the receiver (home theater) is set to On, you can hear sound output from the TV’s Optical jack. When the TV is displaying a DTV(air) signal, the TV will send out 5.1 channel sound to the Home theater receiver. When the source is a digital component such as a DVD and is connected to the TV via HDMI, only 2 channel sound will be heard from the Home Theater receiver."​

Let me look into the blu-ray player. Can you connect the audio directly from it to the receiver? Like an optical or digital coax?

It Does have a separate out on the blu ray player, I guess I'm heading to the store for a longer cable. Thank you for your quick response, I can't count how many stores I have been to asking this question and never getting an answer accept you must have your audio settings wrong on the blu ray player.
Thanks again,
Aaron

 

[Adam]

You're very welcome! I hope that the direct connection solves your problem.

In case you didn't already know, the optical connection can't carry the new lossless surround sound modes (like Dolby TrueHD). It just can't handle the bandwidth. You need HDMI for that. The optical connection can still do Dolby Digital and DTS, just like always. The manual for your player likely discusses how (or if) the player outputs the lossless modes through the optical port. If you have any questions about that, please just let us know. I'd be happy to look into it, and others here already know all about that stuff.