Hello everyone,

Just hooked up my receiver (Onkyo HT R530) to the Toshiba A1 HD DVD and my receiver cuts off at a minimal audio level (35). The dialogue in the film is muffled and any attempt to boost the signal is greeted with a shutdown. I am thinking about picking up the Yamaha 7.1 receiver in this week's ad @ BB just to correct this problem. Of course, I'd rather fix what I have before I go shopping. If anyone can help me fix the problem, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

How are you hooking it up?

I'm running components to the set with an optical line to the receiver.

Are there any analog inputs on the receiver?

yes. Should I use them ?

Yes.

I recently had a problem with my receiver shutting itself off. The problem ended up being that my speaker wire leads were touching on one of my speakers. The leads were too long and the wire had twisted around so they were physically touching. When the volume got to a certain level, the reciever would kick off. Worth looking into to if you haven't checked yet.

I've jacked in my analog plugs and am still getting an overload shutdown. I did not remove my optical line. Should I? Chente,I'll check my connections as well. That's one thing I had not done. THanks. Also, what's a good db level & crossover frequency to establish? in the "set-up" mode for the Tosh it asks for those bits of info.

Chuck

I have an Onkyo receiver and have had no problems. Not sure if it's the same model or not.

Yea, I'd vote for that as the most likely problem.

Make sure the speaker wires are not touching each other (at the receiver and the speaker ends). Also make sure that the speaker wires are not touching anything but the speaker posts (for example, not touching the rear of the receiver). And make sure that the polarity is right on all the speaker cables (+ on the receiver goes to + on the speaker terminal, and likewise with -).

The optical vs. analog should not make any difference with the shutdown problem (the amp is being overloaded).

Analog gets you DD+ and TrueHD 5.1 (with firmware 2.0). Optical out would convert the DD+ to DTS (at I think 1.5 Mbps) and no TrueHD.

The db levels should be adjusted so that all the speakers sound like they are at the same volumes when playing the test tones (use an SPL meter if you have one). If your receiver lets you adjust the levels of the speakers on the 7.1 analog inputs you can use a test disc and adjust the speaker levels there (instead of on the A1).

The crossover freq would depend on the size of your speakers-- small speakers would mean a higher crossover. Larger speakers mean a lower crossover point (like 80Hz or below -- can't remember how low the A1 lets you go). If you know where the bass "drop off" is on the frequency response curve for your speakers, that would be around the frequency to set the crossover to. You can experiment on this and see what sounds best on a bass heavy scene.

A round of applause and a round of drinks (maybe a tad early for the last bit) for you all!!!

I checked my connections and it was my center connections. They were pulled out farther than they should have been and were touching each other hence the clipping/shutdown.

I've boosted the audio level to only 45 and everything is playing perfectly!

Thanks again everyone.

Chuck

I think that's 3 in the last month with this problem. Maybe we should all go home and check our speaker wires.

I know how you feel. I was seriously bummed out until I figured it out.

The sound level meter is a great suggestion. I bought one recently at Radio Shack for around $40 and have been very happy with it. One other item, I would recommend using the test tones from one of the DVDs with the THX optomizer (Aliens, Incredibles, etc) instead of the test tones on the Toshiba HD-A1 player. The test tones on the player seem to be off.

Good information to have. I'll look into the audio level meter. Thanks alot for all the great info. Should I have any other hiccups, I'll be sure to stop here first!

Chuck