mijorico

I'm not sure if this applies to your Onkyo or not, but with mine the HDMI is just a passthrough for the audio. So if that's the case with yours, you'll still need the optical cable for your sound anyway.

JTH182

Since you're using an optical cable you're going to want to set your audio output on the PS3 to BITSTREAM under the audio settings.

I believe if you have it set to PCM you will only get 2.0 (uncompressed) sound.

steebo777

Believe me, the sound is not "dull" at all, it must be the settings on your PS3 and receiver. At the very least, you should have optical out to your receiver where it decodes to DD 5.1. The PS3 should be set to 'Bitstream' under the 'Audio Settings' tab on the XMB. After that, you're money.

mdc3000

This is what I thought of immediately - my PS3 defaulted to that the first time I hooked it up.

PacMan2006

Thanks guys. I'll change the settings on the PS3 tonight and post my results after work.

Jonno2006

So what are my PS3 settings should be if i don't have surround sound at all? I'm temporaraly back at my parents and there's no point in setting up my surround sound if i can't play anything loud. So for now i got my PS3 and my 2 speakers from my 40inch Series 5 Samsung LCD HDTV.
Also when i finally buy a HDMI surround sound setup will i finally be able to NOT constantly turn down the sound when music or action start and turn it way up when there's dialogue? It seems i've been plagued my whole life with that problem, i always have the remote in my hand and im constantly in need to turn the sound up and down because it's too loud or not loud enough for dialogue. I really hope HDMI surround sound doesn't have that problem anymore...
Thanks!

takingchase

Rather than starting my own thread I figured I would come here and ask. I have a onkyo receiver and it does support HDMI sound but it doesn't support the HD sound formats. Should I still be hooking my PS3's and HD-DVD players sound in through my receiver?

I also have the same problems as Jonno. I always have the remote in my hand because the sound varies so greatly. The actions is huge booming sound but the dialogue is so quiet. I'm constantly switching volumes because of this.

SoSpacey

If you receiver does support audio over HDMI then yes, you should still set it up that way. You need the PS3 to decode the sound and then send it via PCM to your receiver.

My Yamaha doesn't decode the HD audio codecs but it does handle audio over HDMI so my PS3 decodes everything for me and then my Yamaha accepts that audio and sends it to my speakers.

As for problem number 2, you need to calibrate your system better. Dialogue comes over your center speaker so I would say go into the receiver settings and turn up the center speaker.

Most receivers have some type of auto calibration built it. Try that first.

JTH182

I'd hate to recommend turning Dynamic Range Control ON for these people who need to hold their remote, but I guess that would be a solution.

I would agree with some serious calibration first though. An SPL meter could help even out the speakers.

PacMan2006

Just to update, I did what some suggested and turned the Bitstream on, and also turned Dynamic Range off. I popped in The Dark Knight and played the Hong Kong sequence, and it sounded excellent.

Thanks guys!

Dan1boy

Well, I started another thread on sound and came to these conclusions:

A.) I'm not buying an HDMI compatible receiver right now for affordability purposes..but I did buy a Monster digital coaxial and ran it to my 5.1 receiver. Audio slightly improved.
B.) I won't be watching any Blu-Ray films which only offer 5.1 TruHD sound (I hate the fact that on many of the new titles there is only one choice)...it's obviously not converting and the sound sucks like the OP mentioned. DTS is amazing. Standard 5.1 is great as well. Just not TruHD. Oh well.

Anubis2005X

Ehh...TruHD has a Dolby Digital core that will send as bitstream over optical/coaxial. Maybe you're having settings issues?

JTH182

Awesome! Glad it's working now. Was your optical connection set to PCM?

SoSpacey

I don't think you could contradict yourself more than you did in that one statement.

Numanoid

PacMan2006

Yep. It was set to Linear PCM.

Kenshiro

Any word on a Firmware upgrade that would allow the PS3 to pass the TrueHD and/or Master Audio bitstream over HDMI?

kefrank

I don't think that's ever going to happen, because it's supposedly a hardware limitation with the HDMI chip that they used.

RocShemp

And the Monster Marketing Machine claims another wallet.

rfduncan

You have to use optical to get 5.1. HMDI gets you 7.1.

HOWEVER, you will also need to enable all of the sound options for your PS3 to get the "best" sounds. I know that DTS is not enabled by default for instance. You really should read at least some of the manual that came with your PS3 before complaining about the performance! The fault lies with the installer not the installation.

takingchase

Okay, so now that I hooked my ps3's audio up through hdmi what settings should I have?

RocShemp

If your receiver can handle multi-channel Linear PCM, set the HDMI output to Lienear PCM. And remember to set Dynamic Range to off.

takingchase

how would I go about finding out if my reciever supports this?

takingchase

im going to bump this back up to see if anyone can answer my question

XavierMike

The manual should say. You could also check the forum for your reciever model at AVS.