I own a Pioneer VSX-D812 and have recently tweaked the speaker output settings to accomodate analog connection from my Toshiba HD-DVD player.

I did two things.

1) I used the HD-DVD players test signals to adjust the output level of the player channels using a sound level meter. This unit is known to have a very low subwoofer output so I left that at zero and backed down the rest of the channel outputs and used a sound level meter so that their outputs matched each other using the meter and it sounded natural.

2) I then adjusted the speaker output levels at the receiver to make the volume output more closely match my other components. The thought was that I wouldn't have to drastically lower the volume when switching from HD DVD viewing to LD viewing, for example.

It all seemed to be working well but when recently rewatching the badass car chase scene on HD DVD of the Bourne Supremacy, the receiver blinked an "overload" message on its display face and then shut itself off. It is a repeatable problem.

I suspect the problem is the boosting of the speaker outputs at the receiver but I'm not sure. I don't know if "overload" is referring to receiving to much or being made to deliver too much.

Any tips? Thanks in advance.

Hmm, I probably would have done those calibrations in reverse order. Calibrate the receiver first to get a baseline set up, with internal test tones...it has MCACC, right? Then adjust with player controls to get each device where it should be.

But either way ought to work without overload issues. Always wise to double check speaker wires when overloads occur. It shouldn't be input levels, output is what overload circuits look at.

Do you listen very loud? Or use both A and B connections for front speakers?

That's a very good point. I used to have overload issues on my first receiver, but then noticed that the speaker wires were a little too exposed, resulting in them occasionally coming into contact with each other. So, I trimmed down the amount of wire I had exposed and that pretty much took care of it.

I don't think I listen abnormally loud and I don't used both A and B connections. Yes, my receiver has MCACC. I can set the levels for each listening mode. I've already set up the base levels for my SD DVD player listening mode so I can use those same values for my HD DVD analog listening mode and then tweak the output levels from the player as you suggest.

I'll double check the speaker wires too, although I really only have noticed the problems during a few exceptionally loud scenes so this may not be the issue.

Thanks for the tips.

Maybe the wires are coming into contact when the subwoofer is booming rocking my pad. I'll definitely look into it.

Check out the volume when it cuts out with your meter. Then try it 3db lower, if it still cuts, try another 3db, etc. See if you can figure out what it's doing. But if it isn't too loud, I wonder if something might be damaged in the receiver. Still under warranty?

It is definitely cutting out at normal listening volumes now. I did as you suggested and replayed the same scene using progressively lower volumes and it kept cutting out until I got to a level that I wouldn't be happy listening at. I'm going to do some more testing tonight using other sources, like my SD DVD and LD player since the receiver has never cut out before I got my HD DVD player and started using analog connections. One other hiccup is that I've found that I can't use the MCACC when I'm set up for using the analog inputs. The receiver won't let me do it.

I'm also going to check all the speaker connections although it didn't look like any wires were close to each other when I took a quick look back there.

I confirmed that the receiver was kicking out on the DVD player as well. After painstakenly checking every connection I found that the left surround speaker had crossing wires. I trimmed them and reconnected them and the problem disappeared. I tested a couple of different sequences where the receiver had kicked out previously and it played them with no problems. Back in business. Woo-hoo. Thanks for your help.