No 5.1 from PS3...WTF?

pmckeealaska

I recently, disconnected all of my equipment to clean and organize stuff. I tried to be as careful as possible but now, when I try to play a blue ray or DVD on my PS3, I can only get 2 channel sound! I did a test on my receiver to make sure that the speakers were connected properly and all was good. I can also get surround sound music from my Denon 2900 so I'm pretty sure the issue is my PS3 and the settings.

I have the PS3 connected to my receiver via a digital optical cable. I have never had any issues like this until I disconnected everything. I have the sound settings correct I think (optical digital with all of the 5.1 formats I want selected) and under the BD/DVD settings I have it set to bitstream, which I think is also correct to get 5.1 using a digital optical cable but I still am only getting two channel. Please help! Is the issue with the PS3 or with my receiver? I dont recall changind any settings!

mrbigbluelight

pcmckeealaska wrote:

and under the BD/DVD settings I have it set to bitstream

Believe if you set things up for PCM instead of bitstream, you'll solve your problem.

pmckeealaska

Nope. That didnt do anything. In fact, from what I have read, I need to have it set to bitstream to get 5.1 when using a digital optical out for sound. I have no idea whats going on here!

pmckeealaska

Man, I am totally stumped and very discouraged. I never had issues with 5.1 using my digital optical before I unplugged everything and now I can get it at all. I have been through the PS3 audio setup and BD/DVD setup and everything is as it should be. However, for some reason my receiver is downmixing the 5.1 DTS to 2 channel DTS so to me this says the issue is with the PS3 since my receiver is not receiving a 5.1 signal. Am I totally off base here? When I have the receiver set to "optical 1" where the cable is plugged into my receiver I get 2 channel sound from the BD/DVD but my center and surrounds are not turned on. However, when I toggle through the other digital audio options "optical 2, coax 1,2,3" I can hear my surrounds and center speaker turn on, but no sound from the BD/DVD thats playing. Any ideas?

avelanchefan

Try to reset the ps3....when turning on the ps3 hold down the power button for five seconds. See if that helps.

pmckeealaska

Well I did do the whole "restore default settings" thing. Is that what you're talking about? If so, that didn't do anything either!

jpena53

I know I can't 5.1 either when playing music. I am going to check if I get 5.1 on Blu-ray or not. I know if I use an aux in for music it plays on all speakers. Maybe the PS3 for me disables 5.1 sound since I am missing a sub.

intangible

Does your receive read the incoming stream from the PS3 as a 5.1 stream? If it does, have you accidentally forced it to downsample to stereo?

pmckeealaska

As is usually the case, the fault was mine. I had my receiver set to have both A and B speakers set to "on". Once I turned the B speakers off, I had glorious 5.1 again!

jpena53

Question can you get 5.1 from music? I get it from movies and games just not music, not even DD Pro Logic or anything.