Yamaha RX-V661 - Blu-Ray/PS3

[kjatlanta]

I just upgraded some of my equipment in the past six months. I bought a Philips 47" LCD and upgraded to Yamaha RX-V661 (before I knew there was a RX-V663). I am pretty bummed that I missed out on the RX-V663 but what is done ....I am thinking of getting a PS3 or waiting for the new Sony Blu Ray's that have been mentioned on this forum.

My question is will my yamaha be able to perform to HD audio with the Blu Ray or PS3 (does the HD signal pass from the BD/PS3 to the receiver?) I'm not sure how to ask that question, I hope one of the veterans here can help me. I do have HDMI connection for DVD, TIVO, TV.

Thanks.

__________
Philips 47" LCD Ambilight II, Series 3 TIVO, Yamaha RX-V661, Sony Up-convert DVD player, Harmony 880. Boston Acoustics Speakers/Sub.

 

[Cruise Missile]

The PS3 decodes all formats , except DTS-MA, on board. The decoded formats are then sent out via HDMI as uncompressed PCM. The results are pretty darn stunning!! By the way, My buddy picked up a 661 a few weeks ago and couldn't be happier. That's a great reciever, especially at the price!!
Also if you set up the PS3 on HDMI it will auto detect the settings for the pcm connections your reciever supports. Your reciever will show PCM in on the screen even when playing back Dolby ect... don't worry it is whatever format you select on the disc playing. Messed me up for a while also..

 

[kragnorok]

Hey, what happens, at least with the PS3, is the HD audio will be transmitted via PCM,so the PS3 decodes the audio and sends it to the receiver in PCM. The receiver ( I have the same one just the HTR version) will output that audio in PCM mode, and that is how it will display on the receiver display. The 661 is only 1.2a which means it doesn't decode the HD formats itself, just will allow the player to do the decoding which is fine.

All the stuff I have read is that there isn't a big difference between this, except the PS3 as of now can't decode.... DTS-MA I think? Someone can correct me on this because I am only about 75% sure.

So if you get a PS3 or a BD player you will be fine, just send the audio through PCM, you won't have a fancy HD audio light up on your receiver display, but that is about it .

 

[Cruise Missile]

Absolutely correct. This issue was giving me upgradeitis pretty bad until someone let me in on it. And, no DTS-MA,yet! Are you listening Sony??
But you 've got it, the Ps3 does the decoding, leaving your reciever to do the Dac and amping. But how I wished the light would come on the reciever

 

[GlocksRock]

Unfortunately the PS3 isn't capable of bitstreaming it's HD audio, but they are working on adding internal decoding of dts-hd ma. You should be seeing another update in the near future according to a post I read on bluray.com.

 

[Padioca]

So I'm having a problem with roughly the same setup and can't find anywhere online that has a solution to it.
My problem is this: I have HDMI coming out of the PS3 into the RX-V661 with 5.1 speakers setup (all tested and working fine). When I play certain games (Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto 4) I only get sound coming out of the two rear channels but when I play other games (Ratchet & Clank) I have audio coming out of all channels and it sounds awesome. All of the Blu-Ray and standard DVDs also play exceptionally on all channels.
In order to overcome the lack of audio that I get from the front channels I have to put it into "7 channel surround" mode instead of MPCM (accessed through the "Surround Decode" mode).
I currently have turned off all modes in the PS3 sound menu except for the 2 and 5 channel PCM modes to try to rectify the problem but it still persists. I haven't yet tried to go into the amp to see if I can solve the problem through there mainly because I am less than confident in my abilities to decode whatever information is presented to me via the OSD.
Anyone have any ideas? I'm not super-frustrated at this point but it would be nice to have the better imaging that accompanies the 5.1 PCM as opposed to the processed surround I'm getting through the amp.

 

[darien87]

I have the 661 and I would suggest you change the surround setting to "Straight". That way you will be bypassing any type of DSP and just get the exact output that the 661 is getting as input from the PS 3.

 

[Padioca]

Thanks for the tip but I've tried putting it on Straight mode and I get the same results as I do in Surround Decode MPCM. The other weird thing I noticed after posting last night is that when I put it into 7 channel stereo mode I get sound coming out of the center and rear channels but no sound coming out of the front 2 channels. Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[gus6464]

The PS3 can now decode DTS-HD/MA and it works perfectly with the 661. Actually the PS3 has been able to do that for quite a while.

 

[Padioca]

Update -- I feel really stupid (not like "is it plugged in" stupid but pretty close) and got the problem worked out.

After finagling with wires and making sure they were all good and connected I decided to do the auto configure through the OSD again. After listening to the cool sounds, low and behold problem solved, sound coming through all channels and sounding great.

Thanks for everyone's help, I do appreciate the assistance.