Home theater question: no 5.1 over HDMI?

I'm going a little bit crazy here. I've recently made the jump into HDTV, and I'm having a hell of a time getting one piece to work.

To wit: I cannot get a 5.1 signal out of a DVD player over HDMI.

Right now, I have the HDMI signals going into the TV. A digital coax cable runs from the TV to the amp - the amp doesn't have HDMI. The Apple TV will output Dolby Digital over this setup. So will the Dish receiver. But the DVD player will not.

I've swapped cables, changed ports on the TV, messed with every setting I can find. I've swapped out a new Sony Blu-Ray player to replace the new Sony DVD plater.

If I plug the DVD player directly into the amp via digital coax, I get Dolby Digital. I just can't do it over HDMI. Is this a Sony thing, and an LG/Samsung/Philips/whatever player will solve it? Anybody have any ideas?

Shotgun?

On what device? The DVD player seems to be the odd man out here, plugging the Apple TV in to the same cable gives me the Digital signal. I'm getting sound out of everything, just not Dolby Digital from the DVD player.

About two months. The Blu-Ray player came home from the store approximately 6 hours ago. In fact, the latter only has HDMI and digital coax outputs, nothing else. And both brag about Dolby Digital on the box.

you have a new Blue Ray player and you still want to hook up the dvd player?

Some old HDMI devices don't put out audio over HDMI. If both the DVD player and the Blu-ray player don't... Have you tried disconnecting the apple tv and the dish, putting the blu-ray on the known working HDMI port/cable?

And to clarify, the Apple TV and the Dish box are both connected to the TV via HDMI, and the TV is properly putting the audio output to the coax?

Plus, I'm about to put a Yamaha RX-V367 onto Craigslist. It's got 4 HDMI inputs. PM me if you're interested.

The only reason I have a new Blu-Ray player is to try and determine if the problem is the DVD player. I own no Blu-Rays, so I don't care which one wins Since the Blu-Ray didn't solve the problem, it's back in the box to be returned. I MAY bring home a non-Sony product to try, as currently the one common thread is Sony.

I wasn't clear about this: they're all putting out audio. I can get sound. But I only get stereo sound out of the Sony disc players. Not 5.1. I can always turn on good ol' Pro Logic to get a simulation, but it's not right.

If I take the HDMI cable out of the back of the Blu-Ray and plug it into the Apple TV, I get 5.1. Plug the Blu-Ray back in, no 5.1. I've tried multiple combinations of cables and ports, and the only way to get 5.1 out of the Blu-Ray is to wire it directly to the amp via coax. Which means I have to play old-school telephone operator and start juggling patch cords if I want to change devices, not acceptable.

Sorry, but I don't have any interest in changing out the amp. I'm quite happy with it. And I know it can do 5.1 as long as there are no Sony disc readers involved.

Keith Tanner wrote: I wasn't clear about this: they're all putting out audio. I can get sound. But I only get stereo sound out of the Sony disc players. Not 5.1. I can always turn on good ol' Pro Logic to get a simulation, but it's not right.

Are you saying that you're getting stereo audio via HDMI from the DVD player, just not surround sound?

Correct. Stereo only via HDMI, but Dolby Digital surround when I hook up directly to coax. Only on the DVD/Blu-Ray player.

While not a direct comparison, most dvd/bluray players won't pass audio over hdmi when connected to a receiver. A coax or fiber optic cable has to be run to the receiver from the dvd/bluray player.

In your setup with the hdmi straight to the tv the tv most likely cannot output the audio track in a digital format. I'm pretty sure it is for copyright protection to make dubbing harder.

i had a customer with a sony dvd player many years ago that stopped putting out a digital signal. i offered to check it out for him but he just wanted a new one. sold it to him and he gave me the old unit. i went into the audio menu and turned the digital output to ON...

The TV can output the audio track in a digital format - at least, it can when it's hooked up to the Apple TV. That's the frustrating thing about this, it's only the DVD/Blu-Ray player that's acting this way. Running the coax in directly works, but that makes things frustrating from a useability standpoint.

Wilber, I've been looking for a menu setting like that. But I can't seem to find a menu for the player itself, only for the disc of the moment. Although I've never tried to see if I can access anything without a disc in the player. Hmm...

Keith Tanner wrote: The TV can output the audio track in a digital format - at least, it can when it's hooked up to the Apple TV. That's the frustrating thing about this, it's only the DVD/Blu-Ray player that's acting this way. Running the coax in directly works, but that makes things frustrating from a useability standpoint. Wilber, I've been looking for a menu setting like that. But I can't seem to find a menu for the player itself, only for the disc of the moment. Although I've never tried to see if I can access anything without a disc in the player. Hmm...

Can you just run the coax and reassign that audio input to match the video input on the receiver?

like i said, that was many years ago. LONG before bluray, so i wouldnt be surprised if that portion of the menu changed and it's assumed ON or something, but since it too was a sony i thought i'd throw it out there.
the last time i messed with a sony menu i think they called it "Wega Gate" or something? i would think there has to be some sort of menu, maybe it's set up like a PS3 with the icons.

i do know that miatame has a setup with a sony BD player through hdmi that i'm pretty sure is the only cable going to his processor, but his is probably 2 yrs old.

This is a really stupid question but you don't happen to have an HDMI 1.3 cable that is "active" rather than passive do you?

If so you might have to reverse it.

You will probably have to do the audio setup on the DVD player without a disc in it. I'm not sure what setting will work, but there will probably be an option to either pass Dolby Digital or downsample it to stereo (or that may be called PCM or bitstream or something like that).

z31, the way the plumbing currently works that's not an option. Heck, I've got this whole shebang auto-switching now, so all you have to do is turn on the thing you want to make the pictures and voila, it shows up on the screen. None of the video passes through the receiver, it does audio only because that's what it's good at.

The0retical, I don't think so. All the cables are new, and like I said I can simply swap one device for another on the same cable and see a change in behavior. I'll confirm that tonight.

I'll see what I can do about a setup menu on the disc players. Good suggestion, guys.

The reason I'm so aware of this is partly from trying to use THX setup discs and discovering that the channels don't line up, but also because there's a light on the decoder that shows when it's seeing a Dolby Digital signal Without either of those, it might have been some time before I noticed.

Check the TVs menus. Another thing to consider is the HDCP stuff. I am not sure if it would apply here but... Something to consider.

Okay, an update. I found the secret DVD menus with no disc in. But alas, there was no joy in Whoville. No matter what combination of settings I tried, I could not get 5.1 out of the HDMI.

Audio, yes. I've been getting that all along. Just not 5.1. And I was using the exact same cable, connection and port that was reading 5.1 off the Apple TV. It was pretty clearly something with the DVD player.

I exchanged the new Sony BluRay player for a new Visio, just in case it was some retarded Sony interface thing - I have a low regard for Sony's interface design. Nope, no dice.

However, the new Visio has a Toslink out, something Sony doesn't believe in. So I ran that to the amp. Problem solved, it's carrying a proper audio signal.

So, the end result is that my magic auto-switching system falls down when I want to watch a DVD. I need to switch over to the optical input on the decoder. Still a lot easier than it used to be with my previous setup, but it's puzzling.

For those who are interested, here's the setup:
- Apple TV, Dish receiver, BluRay player are connected to an automatic HDMI switch
- HDMI from the switch to the TV
- digital coax audio out of the TV into a Marantz DP870 signal processor
- 5.1 individual channels out of the DP into a Marantz SR870 amp

To the above, add a separate Toslink cable from the BluRay player to the DP870. And a Sony DVD player that is just a few months old and no longer necessary.

bigbrainonbrad wrote: While not a direct comparison, most dvd/bluray players won't pass audio over hdmi when connected to a receiver. A coax or fiber optic cable has to be run to the receiver from the dvd/bluray player.

That's how my Onkyo blu ray is set up, HDMI to the TV but digital audio to my amp. I can play DVDs and blu rays without the amp but it's in stereo on the TV then.