Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Receiver Problem

As you may have noticed from another thread, I have been in the receiver market for quite a while and have not been able to make up my mind. I had planned on waiting until the "spirit" moved me because I thought that my old receiver was basically doing just fine.

Well, I have noticed a "problem" that is really starting to bug the wife and I.

I have Comcast cable connected directly to my new Sony HDTV. It is my understanding that the Sony's tuner will accept and decode multichannel DD audio from the cable signal. Even though the Sony has an optical (audio) output for multichannel DD, I am just using the Right Left outputs to my old Kenwood receiver. Why? The old Kenwood only has one optical input and I am using that for my OPPO DVD player.

Now for the problem. The audio on the HDTV cable signals is sometimes overwhelmed by the surround sound/ noise/ audio. For example, on a football broadcast, it is sometimes difficult to hear the announcers because of the crowd noise. The same thing sometimes happens on "24," "E-Ring," and other HD shows. It is like the center channel is not driven hard enough.

I am using a 5.1 system and all channels were calibrated with a Radio Shack Sound meter.

I am beginning to wonder if the old Kenwood is being confused by the TVs audio output? I have tried the Kenwood with all of its digital modes. Prologic seems to be the best, but still is not good.

I have thought about adding gain to the center channel, but, then it wouldn't sound right when I watched a SD channel or used the DVD player.

Have any of you experienced this effect? If so, what did you do about it?

Maybe I just need to flip a coin and get a new receiver????

Hello RP

Some receivers require that you calibrate the speakers for each source. In other words, just because you have calibrated the receiver for DVD doesn't mean it will 'take' for your HD cable box source.

Just a thought. I always found Sony receivers have a decent processing section but weak amps. Maybe you should check out the manual again.

G'luck

Turn your center channel up and surrounds down. Pretty simple.

Recall, I am not using a cable box. The cable is fed directly into the TVs tuner. I only "hear" this problem on the HD channels, not SD channels.

The old Kenwood does not vary the calibration from source to source.

I'm confused. So your Kenwood reciever is only getting left/right signal from the Sony TV which is decoding DD from cable? So when you're watching TV, you should only be getting sound from the right and left speakers, no? If you're getting them from everything, the receiver must be doing some sort of surround processing, such as Dolby Pro Logic. It can't be doing Dolby Digital, because there's no digital connection from the cable to the receiver, right?

Yes, basically you have it correct. The receiver is just getting Right and Left from the TV. To get the surround sound, the old Kenwood is doing processing.

What I suspect is happening on the HD channels is that the audio is multichannel audio. The TV is "processing" it and then producing Right and Left for the outputs. Then, the receiver is taking the Right and Left and "processing" it again for surround. In the double processing, something is getting confused.

I really have no idea what algorithms are used.

But, in any case, it only does it on the HD channels.

As an aside, you mentioned "24". If that was in reference to this past week's season-opening episodes, they were mixed pretty poorly. My wife and I both noticed that the first night was particularly bass heavy, and made the dialog extremely difficult to hear/comprehend. And we weren't using the HT set-up. We were using our Sony HDTV's built-in speakers.

Sorry that doesn't really help your issue, but should give you some peace of mind that the "24" issue was not your system!

Take care,
Rich

Yes, that was in reference to the Sunday and Monday night "24" shows. I really enjoyed them.

But, I was watching "Idol" this evening on FOX HD and the same thing was happening. I went to the FOX SD channel and the problem went away.

I guess that no one else on the board is seeing this effect.

My situation is similar to yours. I suspect source signals.

My HD which is OTA changes by channel and program. Some have no center, some too much bass. The Denon shows 5.1 for true HD channels and stereo for SD digital.

My basic cable (no box) shows no signal type on the Denon, but is processed to 5.1 by the Denon.

Both basic and OTA come from the same digital out on the SXRD.

For the programs with no center, the mains were phantoming or I change to PL music to change the soundstage. Too much bass means changing the sub volume. (I wish Axiom had a sub volume remote.)

I'd say that you are absolutely right. Might be worth trying to switch the optical input to the TV just to test.


Time for a new receiver!