need some help / advice pls

[tricky69]

Now bear with me because i am not really very knowledgable about surround sound systems etc but here goes..

I have a Pioneer Plasma TV and the audio system i have is a Pioneer XV-DV360, pictured below :-


The DVD player in the middle acts as an amp as well i think, as the speakers and sub woofer connect straight to that with speaker cable. The DVD player seems to control all sound and it all works well, apart from i can't get surround sound to work on anything apart from DVD's. So when i play it through LINE 2 (AUX) which is SKY it only plays in stereo. I have replaced the speakers with Bose speakers but otherwise the system is as is pictured. All the speakers are connected with basic speaker cable such as this :-



it is all buried in the wall so don't want to change it. So what i would like to know is there either :-
1) A way to get this system to play surround sound with all the speakers all the time
or
2) What can i buy that would easily replace the DVD player/Amp part of the system so that it would work on surround sound the whole time ?

thanks vm

edit to add that SKY is SKY HD and is connected to the TV with HDMI cable

[tricky69]

hmm have just come across this :-

would this unit do the trick ? It is a Pioneer BDP 51FD Blue ray player, however the back of it looks like this :-


would i be able to get a an adapter so my basic speaker cable will fiit into the connectors in the picture above ?

thks

[Bonefish Blues]

These? http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/shopscr2996.html

[rednotdead]

No - those sockets are to connect the unit to an AV amp.

Your current unit can play surround sound from the line in/aux input. See here from page 14 of your user manual:

Listening in surround sound
You can listen to stereo or multichannel sources in surround sound. Surround sound is generated from stereo sources using one of the Dolby Pro Logic decoding modes.
• Press SURROUND repeatedly to select a listening mode.
The choices that appear in the display will vary according to the type of source that’s playing.
• AUTO – Auto listening mode (see above)
• DOLBY PL (Dolby Pro Logic) – 4.1 channel surround sound (use with any two-channel 1
• MOVIE (Dolby Pro Logic II Movie) – Pro Logic II 5.1 channel surround sound, especially suited to movie sources (use with any two-channel source)


So reading that you'd set your input to listen to your Sky as you do currently then press 'surround' repeatedly until you get to the option of 'Movie'.


Failing that you'f be looking at replacing your current DVD/amp combo with a separate DVD player and AV amp.......

[tricky69]

rednotdead said:

No - those sockets are to connect the unit to an AV amp.

Your current unit can play surround sound from the line in/aux input. See here from page 14 of your user manual:

Listening in surround sound
You can listen to stereo or multichannel sources in surround sound. Surround sound is generated from stereo sources using one of the Dolby Pro Logic decoding modes.
• Press SURROUND repeatedly to select a listening mode.
The choices that appear in the display will vary according to the type of source that’s playing.
• AUTO – Auto listening mode (see above)
• DOLBY PL (Dolby Pro Logic) – 4.1 channel surround sound (use with any two-channel 1
• MOVIE (Dolby Pro Logic II Movie) – Pro Logic II 5.1 channel surround sound, especially suited to movie sources (use with any two-channel source)


So reading that you'd set your input to listen to your Sky as you do currently then press 'surround' repeatedly until you get to the option of 'Movie'.


Failing that you'f be looking at replacing your current DVD/amp combo with a separate DVD player and AV amp.......

Hey mate, yeah i have tried that.. whilst watching an HD Movie on sky which i know is in 5.1 when i press the button it just flashes the word STEREO on the screen which must indicate that it can only play in stereo ? Doewsn't give any other options

also slightly related question, does the PS3 play in 5.1 ?

[greggers]

The manual contradicts itself, here's an extract from the troubleshooting section:

No sound from surround or center speakers?
• Refer to
Setting the channel levels
on page 10 to check the speaker levels.
• When TUNER or LINE is selected, you can only hear the source in stereo. Switch the input source to DVD/CD or USB for multichannel sound.
• Check that you haven’t selected the
STEREO mode (see Listening in surround sound on page 15).
• Connect the speakers properly (refer to the Setup Guide).

There's actually a footnote on page 15 as well. Looks like you'll need to upgrade your amp.

[tricky69]

greggers said:

The manual contradicts itself, here's an extract from the troubleshooting section:

No sound from surround or center speakers?
• Refer to
Setting the channel levels
on page 10 to check the speaker levels.
• When TUNER or LINE is selected, you can only hear the source in stereo. Switch the input source to DVD/CD or USB for multichannel sound.
• Check that you haven’t selected the
STEREO mode (see Listening in surround sound on page 15).
• Connect the speakers properly (refer to the Setup Guide).

There's actually a footnote on page 15 as well. Looks like you'll need to upgrade your amp.

urghh ok thought that might be the case... is there any that you guys would recommend ? Love it to be simply unplug the old and plub in the new

[greggers]

Also, on the PS3 front, it does output surround sound through HDMI and a Toshlink cable if your amp will take it. There are many formats and it'll depend on how you connect it and what formats your amp supports. If you want Dolby Digital 5.1, it is possible.

Did you want to keep you DVD/BluRay player and Amp in a single unit, or would you consider a dedicated Amp?

[greggers]

tricky69 said:

urghh ok thought that might be the case... is there any that you guys would recommend ? Love it to be simply unplug the old and plub in the new

If you want a decent well priced Amplifier look at Onkyo, they also do Blu Ray players or you can use your PS3. For £250 this would do everything you want and more. here

[tricky69]

greggers said:

tricky69 said:

urghh ok thought that might be the case... is there any that you guys would recommend ? Love it to be simply unplug the old and plub in the new

If you want a decent well priced Amplifier look at Onkyo, they also do Blu Ray players or you can use your PS3. For £250 this would do everything you want and more. here

Looks great, but it doesn't have connections in the back for basic speaker cable.

[tricky69]

i think something like this would work...:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LG-5-1-DVD-HOME-CINEMA-PLAYE...

but again i don't know if i will have the same problem when watching sky etc...

[greggers]

tricky69 said:

Looks great, but it doesn't have connections in the back for basic speaker cable.

They're screw terminals so it'll take bare wire or banana plugs. Page 11

[greggers]

tricky69 said:

i think something like this would work...:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LG-5-1-DVD-HOME-CINEMA-PLAYE...

but again i don't know if i will have the same problem when watching sky etc...

Has optical in, so you'd hope it would take a surround signal.

[tricky69]

greggers said:

tricky69 said:

Looks great, but it doesn't have connections in the back for basic speaker cable.

They're screw terminals so it'll take bare wire or banana plugs. Page 11

so i can plug my basic speaker wire straight into the back of one of these ? Why does it have so many HDMI sockets ? Can i be used as a media centre as well ?

[greggers]

tricky69 said:

so i can plug my basic speaker wire straight into the back of one of these ? Why does it have so many HDMI sockets ? Can i be used as a media centre as well ?

Yup, unscrew the terminals feed the wire in and screw back down. The amplification in this will give you the means to upgrade your speakers later if you want. Have a look at the dimensions of the amplifier, it's a fair bit larger than what you have now.

So you can connect multiple HDMI devices (PS3, Sky Box, Blu Ray Player etc) you just switch the inputs on the receiver and have one HDMI out to your TV. If you want a network one (to take audio from a NAS or PC) you'll want one that is DLNA certified such as this http://www.eu.onkyo.com/products/TX-NR579.html.

You don't really need that if you have a PS3 though because that can stream audio and video itself.

[tricky69]

greggers said:

tricky69 said:

so i can plug my basic speaker wire straight into the back of one of these ? Why does it have so many HDMI sockets ? Can i be used as a media centre as well ?

Yup, unscrew the terminals feed the wire in and screw back down. The amplification in this will give you the means to upgrade your speakers later if you want. Have a look at the dimensions of the amplifier, it's a fair bit larger than what you have now.

So you can connect multiple HDMI devices (PS3, Sky Box, Blu Ray Player etc) you just switch the inputs on the receiver and have one HDMI out to your TV. If you want a network one (to take audio from a NAS or PC) you'll want one that is DLNA certified such as this http://www.eu.onkyo.com/products/TX-NR579.html.

Ahh yes i see what you mean.. ok cool on the same page. How about the sub woofer ? Looks like i need a different connection for that ? Or a new sub woofer ?
You don't really need that if you have a PS3 though because that can stream audio and video itself.

[tricky69]

Sorry to have to ask so many questions, but with the Onkyo system would it work with the following ?
I have a pioneer TV which has a media centre. My Sky box, PS3 and DVD/amp player all plug into the back of the media centre. There is then and audio cable that goes from my DVD to the media centre. Otherwise all that comes out of the back of the AMP/DVD player is the speaker cables.

With that sysem would i know connect everythig into the back of that and then hdmi from the media centre to the Onkyo ?

[Alex]

How is your surround system connected to your Sky box?

[greggers]

Alex said:

How is your surround system connected to your Sky box?

Do you mean me? Toshlink.

[tricky69]

Alex said:

How is your surround system connected to your Sky box?

Sky Box connects to the Media centre, then from there to the DVD/Amp via the audio cables. PS3 connects the same way