Onkyo 906 Owners Thread

[bondj303]

Originally Posted by JonStatt

I think I have over complicated things. If you can set the HDMI output to 480 (as you are in the US) using the front panel easily enough, then don't bother connecting via analog at all. Just set to the HDMI to 480 and see if you can get into the set-up screens then. I had a situation where I found I could easily get 480/576 but when doing 1080 I got sync issues with the display. A rather more expensive HDMI cable (as it was long distance) solved it.


I think you also mentioned problems directly connecting one of your players to your TV. Can you easily move them so you can use a shorter cable?

I have tried the 480 already. Didn't work. I can move the DVD player easily, but not the Onkyo receiver as: (a) it is very heavy, (b) all my speaker wires are connected there running through the attic.

May be I can try removing all the speaker wires and moving the receiver near the TV and see if it works with a short HDMI cable I have (check if I get picture & sound from the TV). If it does, than probably the 15 ft cable is the issue, if it doesn't, I am back to square one!

[JonStatt]

Originally Posted by bondj303

I have tried the 480 already. Didn't work. I can move the DVD player easily, but not the Onkyo receiver as: (a) it is very heavy, (b) all my speaker wires are connected there running through the attic.

May be I can try removing all the speaker wires and moving the receiver near the TV and see if it works with a short HDMI cable I have (check if I get picture & sound from the TV). If it does, than probably the 15 ft cable is the issue, if it doesn't, I am back to square one!

Well try the DVD player first...as that would give a clue as to whether you should go to the effort of trying to move the receiver. I know its a pain to move the receiver....believe me, I almost did my back in trying to lift into position.

[bondj303]

Originally Posted by JonStatt

Well try the DVD player first...as that would give a clue as to whether you should go to the effort of trying to move the receiver. I know its a pain to move the receiver....believe me, I almost did my back in trying to lift into position.

I have already tried moving the DVD player near the TV and connecting it with a short HDMI cable. It didn't work. With the Panasonic DVD-S52, I get an error message on the front panel saying "U 70-3" which as per the instruction manual means (i) The connected equipment is not HDMI compatible. (ii) The HDMI cable is too long. or (iii) The HDMI cable is damaged.
Note this happens with a short HDMI cable. I tried 3 short HDMI cables (3 ft and 6 ft), none worked.

Then I a different DVD player (Sony DVP-NS77H). It didn't work either with either of those 3 cables. Although the sony does not display any such error message, it did the same thing as my receiver: looped between blank screen, green screen, no signal, searching for signal, etc.

Other folks are having similar HDMI issues. Like at this forum thread:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=26662

[spit2000]

Hi

I have an optical cable out from my Freesat TV to my amp.

But whenever I am watching my TV direct and try to use the amp just for sound via my optical cable, the amp switches the TV and sound both to SKY.

I seem unable to use the amp to play sound input from my TV, although it has done it once or twice somehow.

I assume I may have a cable or setting wrong somewhere. Any help greatly appreciated.
After playing with the remote I have found that the amp will only stay on any channel that has an HDMI cable into the amp. For example my PS3 and SKY both have HDMI into the amp and I have no problem selecting them. But, for example, if I press any other button on the remote control input selector such as AUX1 or GAME/TV the sound changes for a second or two then everything changes back to either the SKY or PS3.

[bondj303]

Originally Posted by bondj303

Other folks are having similar HDMI issues. Like at this forum thread:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=26662

Update: I do not think this is an issue with my onkyo 906 receiver. I think its an issue with the HDMI input for my TV. For some reason (I think it may be due to a storm we had one night), my TV lost its HDCP settings/code for the HDMI. So HDMI signal from any HDCP enabled device is not being recognized by my TV. I am able to watch HD broadcast from my Dish Network HD-DVR via HDMI because it has its HDCP off/not enabled.
So now I am looking at solutions to restore the HDCP settings/code for the HDMI on my TV!

[wdingus]

I've read through a large chunk of this thread and searched it some, etc... If any or all of this has been asked before I apologize, I failed to find it.

I have a Samsung LCD TV attached to the 906 and a Samsung BD-P2250 Blu-Ray player. HDMI 1.3b cables, input to HDMI2 and HDMI Main out to the TV.

1) I've yet to get anything other than PCM audio from the Blu-Ray player. I press display on the 906 and it says the input source is PCM and listening mode options exclude DTS or DD even though those are the audio streams selected on the DVD/BD I'm playing.

2) Initial startup or switching anything causes the 906 to lose the input signal from the player and it takes a very long time to reagin. "Searching for Signal" for sometimes 2 minutes or more.

3) 16:9 display sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Right now I have Flash of Genius blu-ray in the player. I have the BD player set to 16:9 output and select either PCM or Bitstream(audiophile) audio output modes. The 906 is set to any of 1080p or Through or Source for monitor out. The TV is set to 16:9. I have a squished 4:3 display and the only audio modes available are stereo because it says I'm only receiving a PCM audio signal. And the movie was almost 2 minutes in before I got the first bit of video.

I upgraded from an Onkyo TX-SV828 and separate ED-901 DD decoder and DVD player. Quite frankly at this point I'm disgusted at the rather expensive downgrade it appears that I made... I hope it's something stupid I'm doing wrong but rather doubt it's that simple. I've had no communications with Onkyo yet but net searched for "TXNR906 firmware" haven't turned up much. Is there newer code that makes this thing a bit more reliable and stable?

Thanks...

PS. Like this guy, It's also annoying how limited DLNA is. Why do I hate DLNA protocol so much ? « Ben’s Lost World - Diary of a GeeXboX developer

PSS. 16:9 has worked previously as it should. The video is amazing, when it works correctly. Audio though, I've yet to experience true surround sound with it.

[boxrick]

Originally Posted by wdingus

I've read through a large chunk of this thread and searched it some, etc... If any or all of this has been asked before I apologize, I failed to find it.

I have a Samsung LCD TV attached to the 906 and a Samsung BD-P2250 Blu-Ray player. HDMI 1.3b cables, input to HDMI2 and HDMI Main out to the TV.

1) I've yet to get anything other than PCM audio from the Blu-Ray player. I press display on the 906 and it says the input source is PCM and listening mode options exclude DTS or DD even though those are the audio streams selected on the DVD/BD I'm playing.

2) Initial startup or switching anything causes the 906 to lose the input signal from the player and it takes a very long time to reagin. "Searching for Signal" for sometimes 2 minutes or more.

3) 16:9 display sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Right now I have Flash of Genius blu-ray in the player. I have the BD player set to 16:9 output and select either PCM or Bitstream(audiophile) audio output modes. The 906 is set to any of 1080p or Through or Source for monitor out. The TV is set to 16:9. I have a squished 4:3 display and the only audio modes available are stereo because it says I'm only receiving a PCM audio signal. And the movie was almost 2 minutes in before I got the first bit of video.

I upgraded from an Onkyo TX-SV828 and separate ED-901 DD decoder and DVD player. Quite frankly at this point I'm disgusted at the rather expensive downgrade it appears that I made... I hope it's something stupid I'm doing wrong but rather doubt it's that simple. I've had no communications with Onkyo yet but net searched for "TXNR906 firmware" haven't turned up much. Is there newer code that makes this thing a bit more reliable and stable?

Thanks...

PS. Like this guy, It's also annoying how limited DLNA is. Why do I hate DLNA protocol so much ? « Ben’s Lost World - Diary of a GeeXboX developer

PSS. 16:9 has worked previously as it should. The video is amazing, when it works correctly. Audio though, I've yet to experience true surround sound with it.

Im assuming audiophile sound output is set on the samsung?

Also sometimes duff HDMI cables cannot handle higher quality of sound output so it will default to a lower quality to simply acheive a link. Have you tried different cables?

Finally im assuming you are not using any optical cables in addition to the HDMI ( something ive seen many people do! ).

Ive got a samsung bdp2500 and it works perfectly with my TXNR906 , switching takes only a few moments certainly never 2 minutes.

[wdingus]

Heh.. I'm kind of ashamed to say it, but I figured out what I was doing wrong. It seems this (and other Onkyo receivers from what I've read) disable any true surround sound modes when the option is set to output audio on the HDMI. I turned that off, TV speakers were basically muted anyway, and suddenly more audio modes become available. Crazy...

The 16:9 issue hasn't resurfaced. I checked all settings and all has been fine the past few days, hopefully that one won't resurface.

The pauses are strange. If I put in a disc and it plays a few trailers at the beginning then after each one ends and before the next one starts the receiver loses video and spends a considerable number of seconds reacquiring the signal. The longest was 2 minutes but on average any new trailer is ~10 seconds in before video and audio lock on. Not just trailers but any menu change where video goes away and comes back it loses the signal and has to "find" it again.

Thanks!

[namuk]

Hdmi handshake this.. fast on my 875 (under 30s) cheak firmwares for players..

Originally Posted by wdingus

Heh.. I'm kind of ashamed to say it, but I figured out what I was doing wrong. It seems this (and other Onkyo receivers from what I've read) disable any true surround sound modes when the option is set to output audio on the HDMI. I turned that off, TV speakers were basically muted anyway, and suddenly more audio modes become available. Crazy...

The 16:9 issue hasn't resurfaced. I checked all settings and all has been fine the past few days, hopefully that one won't resurface.

The pauses are strange. If I put in a disc and it plays a few trailers at the beginning then after each one ends and before the next one starts the receiver loses video and spends a considerable number of seconds reacquiring the signal. The longest was 2 minutes but on average any new trailer is ~10 seconds in before video and audio lock on. Not just trailers but any menu change where video goes away and comes back it loses the signal and has to "find" it again.

Thanks!

[bondj303]

Still no word from Samsung support. I talked with them again today and they are forwarding my issue to their main support office, whatever that means.

Anyway, in the meantime, I am assuming the worst case scenario that my TV's HDMI issue will not be fixed. I really don't want to buy a new TV at this time. In that case, I am wondering that if I connect my DVD player and HD-DVR via HDMI cables to the HDMI imputs on my onkyo 906 and gives component video out to my TV via component cable (red, blue, green); will I get high def video output on my TV and high def audio out through my speakers connected to onkyo?

I really would like to use the HDMI since my perception was that I got both better video & audio when I had everything connected via HDMI of my onkyo (& when my TV's HDMI was working). I can probably live with component video, but the optical audio output from the onkyo doesn't seem to be in the same class as the audio I had when connected via HDMI. So I would like to have at least the audio from HDMI. But then will my onkyo allow HDMI video signal inout to be output as component to my TV?
Any thoughts?

[Tim Itus]

I have a 7.1 setup for my 906 and have a few sound processing questions. I would be grateful for advice.

When playing stereo sources in stereo mode all the appropriate speaker / channel indicators are present but only the FL and FR are "filled in" with FL and FR designations. I assume this is correct. I get sub output even though the sub indicator is not "filled in" with LFE. When I change to Pure Audio I lose my sub output which I assume is correct.

When playing BD (blu) sources with HD sound the SBL and SBR boxes remain empty but all other appropriate boxes are designated. There is no sound from the SBL or SBR speakers when processing is set to TrueHD or DTS-HD but there is sound from the surrounds and fronts.

Which is the best processing to get 7.1 from TrueHD and DTS-HD? Is it THX EX in both cases? TrueHD and DTS-HD processing only gives 5.1.

When do the SBL and SBR boxes get designated with SBL and SBR?

Some SD (DVD) sources encoded in Dolby Digital do not give much output from the surround or surround back speakers when using THX EX but are more dramatic in Neural THX. Which is the best processing option?

Thanks for advice.

[spit2000]

Originally Posted by spit2000

Hi

I have an optical cable out from my Freesat TV to my amp.

But whenever I am watching my TV direct and try to use the amp just for sound via my optical cable, the amp switches the TV and sound both to SKY.

I seem unable to use the amp to play sound input from my TV, although it has done it once or twice somehow.

I assume I may have a cable or setting wrong somewhere. Any help greatly appreciated.
3.

Have discovered the problem is the Viera Link setting between the amp and my panasonic TV, which is supposed to enable various joint functions. On disabling this function on the amp everything now works.

[Majoreyeswater]

Originally Posted by wdingus

Heh.. I'm kind of ashamed to say it, but I figured out what I was doing wrong. It seems this (and other Onkyo receivers from what I've read) disable any true surround sound modes when the option is set to output audio on the HDMI. I turned that off, TV speakers were basically muted anyway, and suddenly more audio modes become available. Crazy...

hiya, could you explain how you "turned that off" ?? i've been searching for some audio modes that don't seem to be available (DTS, trueHD etc.) while watching blu ray on ps3 that is set to bitstream...i've got hdmi selected for video and i'm using optical cable for the audio... but i've been unable to find these modes. sorry still learning. any help would be appreciated

[Bal]

Originally Posted by Majoreyeswater

hiya, could you explain how you "turned that off" ?? i've been searching for some audio modes that don't seem to be available (DTS, trueHD etc.) while watching blu ray on ps3 that is set to bitstream...i've got hdmi selected for video and i'm using optical cable for the audio... but i've been unable to find these modes. sorry still learning. any help would be appreciated

The PS3 cannot bitstream the HD formats but rather converts them to PCM and then sends them. You will still be getting lossless HD but unfortunately will not see the pretty icons light up on the Onkyo display. BTW pretty sure you need the sound via HDMI to get HD Audio unless someone knows different.

Only way to get them is to invest in Blu-Ray player that sends the actual bitstream without converting it first.

HTH

[Life_Saver]

I got the following problem :

Components :
- Onkyo 906
- Epson Projector (HD Ready)
- 100ft HDMI Cable
- 6ft HDMI Cable
- LG HD Ready LCD
- Panasonic 30 BluRay
- Pioneer 610 DVD


Problem :
- When I connect my Amp to the projector using Component, everything works fine (sound from bluray and dvd via digital connections)
- When I connect my amp to projector using 100ft HDMI cable, I don't get any signal on projector (No signal) and the OSD of the amp keeps fluctuating between TrueHD and No Signal (Signal seems coming but not steady).
- When i use same 100ft cable with BluRay directly to projector or laptop to projector, it works PERFECTLY fine ..
- When i connect Amp to TV using short HDMI cable, it works FINE which means HDMI output is not faulty in AMP ..


Thought:
- Seems that the HDMI signal of Amp is little weak .. unlike the laptop and BD player which are OK ..


Needed from people here :
HELP