Home Audio Help!!!!

[Cliffio]

ok, big problem

i cant get my surround sound speakers to work

i can get my center to come on when my reciever is turned to tv but nothing else, no cd, no aux(computer), no dvd, no nothin -sub works and R L speakers work

my sub, R and L speakers work all the time

ive goin though the manuel like 10 times and all it says to do is cycle through the menu and change something, and i change it and i get nada.


im tryin to get my center (JBL EC25) and my two surround sounds (JBL N28) to come on all the time. ive got em hooked up correctly i believe all hooked up with monster cables and banana plugs

my reciever is a Yamaha HTR-5550 in case it matters ive got a jbl 12" sub and 2 JBL s-312 floor speakers. not that it matters but it may, got all this hooked to the reciever sony 300 disk cd player, mitsubishi dvd, motorola digital cable box, pioneer laser disk player.

basically the center works when the reciever is set to tv, if its set to anything other than that it doesnt work, and the surround sound never works

anybody got any good ideas?

thanks

Cliff



edit- ok i just got the surround sound to work but only when its turned to tv. i did this by switching modes, pro logic, 5.1 and so on until i found the right one, however i cant seem to do this cycle in other channels such as dvd or cd. whats the deal?

[Blennidae]

I'm no expert, but it was my impression that unless the source is sending a signal that makes use of the center speaker the receiver wont be able to make use of it.

Some recievers have DSP modes that creat "pseudo-surround" from non surround sources, but I don't know if yours has that feature.

Basically, a CD recorded in stereo only will only playback in stereo, unless the reciever has some kind of DSP features.

I could be wrong, I don't keep up on the latest things.

[gimp]

Ask the guys in the forum at http://www.hometheaterspot.com Thats where I usually go when I have questions about audio stuff.

[atcer]

you actualy have a laser disc player? Hahaha wow! i have not seen one of those sence my 8th grade science class! where do you get movies for that thing?

[Cliffio]

oh man i dont think i would ever give up my laser disk player, i dont use it very much, but its fun for impressing people, and i think i still get great picture from it. ebay is where i usually find movies, ive only got like 15-20 movies but i love the thing, of course the dvd player is what i use mostly but its just a fun part of video history

[Mango]

Cliffio: I used to sell and install home audio systems, I think I can help. Basically, the signal that is coming from your TV is analog and is really crappy, so when you have it set to home theatre from the TV the reciever will push everything out the center. It cannot decifer the analog signal into each channel. There is sound coming from your fronts and rears but it is VERY low and close to inaudible. See if your digital cable box has a digital output (most likely an optical one) and try to hook it up that way. *Just saw your edit, ok if you are going to watch TV through the reciever, dolby pro logic mode is going to push it out the center. You cannot use dolby 5.1 because you did not hook up your digital cable box using a digital optical or coaxial cable.

Ok next, you want the surround sound to come on ALL the time. Well this will not happen, because if the signal is analog then the reciever will do its best at trying to split it up, and your rears will only be a signal from 20,000Hz to 5kHz, and it will be "matrix surround", meaning the same thing comes out of both rears. Not digital which is independant and the signal is full range. So it will sound crappy.

Now, your CD player most likely has a digital output. Did you use that? Your reciever has 4 digital inputs, I would invest in a digital cable (either optical or coaxial) and hook it up to your reciever that way. also, your reciever has DSP modes, that will activate all your speakers to create different sound stages. For music, you don't want "dolby pro logic" and you will not get "dolby digital" or "dolby 5.1" from the CD player. When listening to music, basically the only way to get surround sound that way is if your reciever had what is called "5 channel stereo" or if you use the various DSP modes. From a purists standpoint, I am strictly a 2 channel guy, or DVD audio or Super Audio. But those are other things.

So here is the summary:

*TV - no digital surround unless digital cable box is hooked up with digital coaxial or optical audio output.

*Rear speakers will work in 5.1 if you hooked up your laser disc using optical output, is it an old AC3 laser disc? if so, you might have to use the 5.1 composite connectors on the reciever and use the reciever as a decoder.

Hope this helps.

[Cliffio]

i do have the laser disk player hooked up with optical, and i can pick up some more optical for my dvd player, digital cable box, and cd player.

if i get those, then can i use digital surround in those modes? maybe not cd but dvd and cable box?


Cliff

[Mango]

definetly from the DVD, thats a must. the cable box will output digital only when the source is broadcast in digital, like from an HBO movie or something. Make sure that the laser disc is set to output PCM digital or however it labels it. Same with the cable box. The DVD player will automatically delect. And make sure to set the reciever to autodetect the incoming source for each digital input. Every one is different, you might have to do that, might not. enjoy!

[Cliffio]

i think i pretty much got it, switched the optical from the laserdisk to the dvd and am watchin a movie, seems to work pretty darn good, gotta buy one more optical and i should be money

thanks for the info tho


Cliff