Ok - so I think I have an answer for the sound saga ...
Clues here : Problems with Audio-Visual Amps
Different kit but the symptoms match. So ... I've gone back to the old cables to see how much difference it makes. I have another potential solution too - put less demand on the cables by having a slightly less pretty picture.
What's the kit ?
Sony BDP-S360 blu ray player. Was fine when it was sending picture to the telly through one wire and audio to speakers through another.
Samsung 32" series 530 telly that can do 1080p. (Translation - has more pixels for a sharper image)
Onkyo TX-SR508 surround sound amp.
Problem - the system can send audio and video down the wire but the thing that is causing the issue is Copy Protection. HDMI is a fantastic cable, it carries audio and video in super high quality with just the one lead. However ... it's so good, the moguls have demanded unnecessary Stuff be put in to protect the content. Which means, unless your gubbins can Trust your devices completely, they will limit the playback quality.
Sad. Very sad. And caused by the freeloaders who refuse to pay for the content they consume. Those pirates also make stuff more expensive for the rest of us.
What appears to be happening is that Copy Protection handshake is getting lost in all that Picture and Sound, so the "I'm a telly - TRUST ME!" message isn't getting the chance to be heard. The solution is better cable or making the signal less busy (i.e. less detail).
The answer - I've gone back to the £5 cables I got from Novatech almost a year ago, instead of the £6.50 "3d capable" super "HDMI 1.4" "4x resolution capable" cables from A N Other supplier who are now firmly on the Black List ...
I'm hesitating to think that my problem is cured ... but I think just one audio blip (which could have been the dvd layer skip) throughout the whole of Return Of The Jedi is promising. I see much more "evaluation" of the system over the next few days.
It's obligatory. And I won't enjoy a second of it. Honest ... muahaha.
Problems aside, it's been a very worthwhile upgrade. It's let me hear stuff like a sampled phone conversation on the Snow Patrol Songs for Polarbears album which says why they changed their name from Polar Bear to Snow Patrol (see "early years" in the link). The magic of proper hifi is the detail and clarity it can pull out of the source.
And the sound on the Star Wars movies (A New Hope and Empire in particular) is fantastic. The only question is "What next ?", which has 2 answers :
1 - My resolve to not open stuff until Birthday weakens and I watch some of that.
2 - Great Sounding Dvd's to watch ! Blade is looking favourite, or a blu-ray.
Like avoiding pizza until Saturday, despite my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle tendency (not so sure about Ninja but the rest fit), I'll work through my blu-rays :-)
As an update - it's not cables or bluray player ... Same audio blip was happening with different cables and different bluray player. So it's either :
ReplyDeleteAmplifier (likely as Onkyo have known issue with HDMI)
Telly (unlikely)
Anyway - dvd playback is working fine with Xbox360 -> Amp, it's just when blurays only have Dolby D soundtracks (instead of HD) where I now have a problem.