5.1 AV Optical Anomaly

[RAClNG SNAKE]

Just taken delivery of a Yamaha YHT196 5.1 AV Amplifier and after initial set up the built in test tone identifies all the speakers correctly.

Connected to it via HDMI and optical cable is a Panasonic DMRPWT500 PVR/BluRay.

Using the THX optimiser on Star Wars 1 - The Phantom Menace DVD, the test identifies 5.1 channels when audio is via HDMI but only 2.1 when I switch the audio input to optical.

This is a bit confusing because I thought optical was supposed to be optimum!

[surfymark]

RAClNG SNAKE said:

Just taken delivery of a Yamaha YHT196 5.1 AV Amplifier and after initial set up the built in test tone identifies all the speakers correctly.

Connected to it via HDMI and optical cable is a Panasonic DMRPWT500 PVR/BluRay.

Using the THX optimiser on Star Wars 1 - The Phantom Menace DVD, the test identifies 5.1 channels when audio is via HDMI but only 2.1 when I switch the audio input to optical.

This is a bit confusing because I thought optical was supposed to be optimum!

You should get 5.1 via the optical. Maybe there are some settings within either the amp or the PVR to change what is sent via optical.

However you shouldn't need to use the optical at all. I would simply unplug it and use the HDMI for the audio as well as the video. As far as I understand the optical sound quality will not be better than the HDMI sound quality.

The only place you will need the optical is to connect a Sky box to the amp as they do not output 5.1 via HDMI (only stereo). Everything else should transmit full 5.1 over the HDMI along side the picture in good quality.

HTH
M

[RAClNG SNAKE]

Thanks that makes sense. It seems I am stuck between the factory settings of two different manufacturers.

You can alter the Bluray digital output from PCM to bitstream for Dolby and DTS, I will try that.

[KamSandhu44]

Surely if you're watching BluRay films you'd want to audio going through HDMI for the HD audio?

[StormLoaded]

as above, HDMI is the best
Optical will pass 5.1, DTS
But you'll need to run through a HDMI cable to take advantage of the better audio from your blurays, eg. 7.1, DTS-HD Master, TrueHD Audio

[RAClNG SNAKE]

Thanks guys. I assumed that I would need an optical connection as per the Sky box which was an oversight on my part. However the digital audio output settings on the PVR/Bluray needed changing from PCM to bitstream so I wasn't getting full 5.1 via HDMI anyway.

It seems to be working well for Bluray/DVD, next is to optimise it for Freeview.