IHT 6000 & Sony STR-DG810

seanf
seanf Posts: 3
edited February 2012 in Troubleshooting
Hi all,

Sorry if this has been asked before (i did try to search.. honest).

I am trying to add a new IHT600 Surroundbar to my home theatre setup. I had been using a Sony ATR-DG810 receiver with JBL speakers but the speakers were shot. I would like to continue to use my 810 since it's acting as an HDMI hub between my components (PS3, TivoHD & AppleTV).

I have all components connected (via HDMI) to the receiver and HDMI out to the TV. I then connected my 6000 to the TV's digital audio out (Toslink).

Here's the problem:

I get sound to the 6000 but it's kinda choppy and it's only showing the blue light (not Dolby) and never goes green no matter which source i select. I suspect that the Sony is doing something to the audio signal (could be the TV i suppose) and therefore causing it to come through as PCM or something.

My questions are these:

1) Is this the best setup? And if so, is there a way to get the Sony to stop messing with the audio signal?

2) should i ditch the Sony 810 and get an HDMI/TOSlink switcher?

thanks!

- sean
Post edited by seanf on

Comments

  • Syndil
    Syndil Posts: 1,582
    edited January 2012
    It does sound like your receiver is decoding the bitstream to PCM before passing it to the soundbar. Depending on your source, this will be necessary, since Toslink is not capable of passing the lossless codecs such as Dolby TruHD or DTS Master Audio. There simply isn't enough bandwidth.

    However if the sound is choppy, that is a problem. Is it choppy with every source? And do you have your various sources set to decode the Dolby/DTS info before sending it to the receiver or are they passing it unmolested?

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  • seanf
    seanf Posts: 3
    edited January 2012
    Thanks Syndil. it's not choppy enough to be horrible but it's annoying. i would assume it's passing unmolested since the receiver shows it's decoding the dolby. i'm gonna take the receiver out of the mix and see if it's better.

    thanks again.

    - sean
  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited January 2012
    How about if you set your source to output PCM instead? That way, the receiver won't be decoding the Dolby Digital and just processing the PCM signal. I would try this first to see if this solves the problem. Otherwise, I would suggest contacting Polk Customer Service, they are very helpful!!
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  • seanf
    seanf Posts: 3
    edited February 2012
    So I figured I would circle back around just in case anyone were to have this same issue.

    Turns out the receiver WAS/IS the problem. It's decoding the audio and there is no way to disable this (As far as I can tell). I removed the 810 from the mix, put in am HDMI/TosLINK switch and now I get full Dolby audio to the surround bar and the audio is "right as rain".

    thanks everyone for the help/advice.

    - sean
  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited February 2012
    Glad to hear you got it working!!
    polkaudio RT35 Bookshelves
    polkaudio 255c-RT Inwalls
    polkaudio DSWPro550WI
    polkaudio XRT12 XM Tuner
    polkaudio RM6750 5.1

    Front projection, 2 channel, car audio... life is good!