Surround sound Help!!!

[24lemons]

I have a Panasonic DVD 5.1 home cinema setup and this morning the sound started to crackle. Now theres no sound at all.

I have tried plugging in my iPod and disconnecting the unit from my TV and theres nothing at all coming through the speakers.

All of the wires appear to be in place, I only re-connected them all 3 weeks ago when we got a new TV cabinet.

Is it possible that the the unit itself is kaput, and if so can it just be swapped out for a replacement one?

Please help, my TV speakers are horrible and tinny!!

[Troubleatmill]

Yes it is probably kaput... and yes you can replace it.

No need to replace the speakers.

The speakers are likely connected to the amplifier without any fancy connector. Just 2 bits of wire ( Am I correct? )

If so - pop down to Richer Sounds and buy another surround sound amplifier. They start of quite cheap.

Or go the whole hog and replace everything.


Or take the opportunity to listen to a quality 5.1 system..... and then decide to spend a bit more.

[24lemons]

Thanks for that. The unit I have is a Panasonic SA-PT850 which means nothing to me as I bought it secondhand of a friend of mine. Could somebody who knows about these things recommend me a suitable replacement, new or used for not much money!

I have a Virgin Tivo box and an Xbox one to plug into it if thats of any relevance

[Troubleatmill]

Brand new from Richer Sounds and will do the job just fine.
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s...


Personally.. I would chose this for under £200.
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/o...


Edit... or look at the clearance section of your local Richer Sounds.....
http://www.richersounds.com/clearance


Pick the cheapest AV Receiver unit in your closest store.

Edited by Troubleatmill on Sunday 6th September 18:12

[tdm34]

Unfortunately you'll need to replace the speakers, as they lack the power handling for even a budget amplifier, but your main problem is that the sub in the Panasonic system is driven by an amp in the original head unit, all separate amps have a sub out only, so any sub connected to it needs to be of an active type.

Even this package at £129 will comfortably outperform the Panasonic speakers

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packag...

[24lemons]

Thanks very much for your help. Remarkably, the speakers have just crackled back into life! I won't hold my breath though so I've definitely got an eye on a replacement.

[varsas]

Sounds like a POT (potentiometer) has gone bad, probably the volume control? Does it have dials for that sort of thing or is it all buttons?

[24lemons]

Sorry to bump the thread but my head is hurting.

I cant seem to get proper 5.1 surround sound while using the Xbox one or my Virgin Tivo. Maybe the thing is broken, hence the original post but maybe someone can point out if I'm doing anything wrong.

The setup is a Panasonic SA PT 850 which I bought off a friend earlier this year. I believe it is about 7 or 8 years old.

It is currently plugged in like this;

Virgin Tivo HDMI into Xbox One, Xbox one HDMI into TV, Xbox One Optical into Home Cinema setup.

The devices are all set up to output surround sound yet I only seem to be getting stereo, I have tried almost every configuration I can think of and I'm out of ideas.



Would I be better off if I plugged the Virgin box and the Xbox in separately?

Is the Home Cinema setup too old? is it not compatible with the newer Xbox or Virgin box?

Am I better off getting a modern home cinema to replace it?

Would I need a Home cinema receiver with separate optical and/or HDMI inputs?


any help gratefully received.

[IanCress]

I haven't used an Xbox one, but I presume it's not passing through the 5.1 signal.
Does the Tivo box have an optical out? Try going straight from the Tivo to the amp using the optical cable.

[24lemons]

IanCress said:

I haven't used an Xbox one, but I presume it's not passing through the 5.1 signal.
Does the Tivo box have an optical out? Try going straight from the Tivo to the amp using the optical cable.

I will try plugging in each device separately. If that works it leaves me with the problem of having only 1 input on my receiver box. Is it possible to use an optical splitter or something?

[IanCress]

Quick Google search finds a few available for £20-£30.

[h0b0]

run the test tone and see if the system is out putting to each speaker.

[24lemons]

I have tried playing various surround sound test videos through the system and none are playing through the rear speakers. I am away now for a couple of weeks so I'll try again when I return

[h0b0]

Not videos. The amp will have a built in test tone that will run through each speaker. It could be that your amp can't out put to speakers or you have a setting that is wrong. On my amp, my 4ft floor standing fronts have to be set to small for the sub to work in some modes. It doesn't belittle the speakers it just takes the low frequencies to the sub

[varsas]

From what little I have read, the Panasonic supports DTS/DD so you should get proper 5.1 sound from DVD's and BluRay's. I don't know enough about TiVo or XBOX games to know if they output a compatible signal, you might have to live with some sort of pro-logic for those, what do they output?

Put the Panasonic into Pro-logice 2 mode, and play a CD from the xbox or whatever. This will produce sound out of the centre/rear speakers, even if the input is in stereo. If that works you know the speakers are cabled correctly, and that the amp works properly.

If you can't get the Panasonic into DD or DTS mode while playing back a DVD from the xbox one then I assume it's got to be settings on the Xbox (it's not set to bit-stream the audio) or the Panasonic (it's forced to stereo-downmix the incomming audio). Make sure the audio is actually coming from the optical cable, and isn't going via HDMI ARC (if your setup is exactly as described this should not be the case!). Easiest way to do this is to unplug any HDMI cables.

Once you've fixed that go through the same settings on the tivo (again, you want it to output a bit stream, not PCM or whatever). If you get no audio then the TiVo sound output isn't compatible with the Panasonic (which would be very odd), if you still just get stereo then either it's in a muxed format, and you need to manually select pro logic on the panasonic, or the xbox 1 is downmixing the incoming audio stream and you need to tell it not to.

Edited by varsas on Saturday 26th September 12:45