Marantz SR4001 No Surround on Sky

[ittim]

I've just taken delivery of a new Marantz SR4001, its my first venture into home cinema. I've set the Amp up to my PS3 VIA HDMI and it works fine. However i cannot get it to do 5.1 on my SKY HD Box. Initially i thought it may be that the 5.1 won't pass through HDMI from the sky box so i connected up the optical cable only to have the same problem. The sub seems to work as to the centers and the left and right.

The amp displays PCM on the front but no matter what i do i cannot get it to play from the rears. I used movies on SKY HD as my test since i guess i shold get 5.1 from these.

Can anyone help? I have all this lovely new kit and i'm not getting much from it

 

[Andy98765]

Correct SKYHD does not send 5.1 via HDMI.
In the sound settings on the SKY box change to Optical = Dolby D and then save settings, NOT all movies are 5.1 look at the info bar for DD.

 

[ittim]

this is what i've done, yet it still doesnt work, could it be that because i have hdmi in the amp thinks the sound should be coming via that channel? How likely is it that my optical cable is faulty?

 

[houdini_7]

Does anybody know (or rumours!) if there is likely to ever be an update to the Sky HD boxes to allow the 5.1 to passed through HDMI?

 

[Andy98765]

Have you assigned the optical input to the correct input on your AV amp? or is it still looking at the HDMI for sound?

 

[ittim]

well thats maybe my problem, not sure how i would assign it to look specifically for the optical. The Marantz manaul is absolute gash

 

[Spoonhead]

I won't hold your football allegiance against you

On the function input screen you will need to set the TV function Mode to DIG rather than auto or HDMI. You will then need to set the DIG number to the number where you have plugged in the optical cable in the back of the receiver. I think for the 4001 it can only be 1 or 2.

Hope this helps

Gazza

 

[ittim]

nothing wrong with my allegiance

I was on those settings last night, i know mine are set to Auto. I shall give that a try when i get home.

I appreciate the help. Thank you.

 

[Andy98765]

Auto is usually for detecting on a assigned input the type of signal it is recieving, DTS, Dolby Digital etc etc. Not "I have connected a source into the optical input now guess which one and connect it". The optical input must be assigned to the input.

 

[Spoonhead]

Auto is usually for detecting on a assigned input the type of signal it is recieving, DTS, Dolby Digital etc etc. Not "I have connected a source into the optical input now guess which one and connect it". The optical input must be assigned to the input.

I don't think so. The options are Auto, HDMI, DIG (dgital), ANA (analogue). Certainly on my SR7002, its for the audio input type. If set to auto it will default to HDMI (if one is connected), so it needs to be set to DIG.

The manual states:

This menu is for setting the matching the output of connected audio devices and the input jacks of this unit

Don't you just love the english?

You set auto for the sound type via the remote screen.

I could be wrong though, but that's the way I have it set-up and it works fine.

Gazza

 

[Rockboy uk]

nothing wrong with my allegiance

I was on those settings last night, i know mine are set to Auto. I shall give that a try when i get home.

I appreciate the help. Thank you.

How are you finding the amp? I've been trying to decide whether or not to get one for the last week or so....

If you get chance could you post up some impressions (and pics!), cheers.

 

[ittim]

Well bear in mind i have little to compare the amp too. it certainly has enough punch for my needs, i've been pleasnantly suprised by music when coupled through my kef 1005.

Some things of note (probably explained in the manaual if i decipher it more)

1. I had music playing from my ps3. when i turned off the tv the sound went. I wasn't expecting it to do that. If it can be prevented i'd like to hear about it.

2. The sound levels from different sources are very different. I wonder if i can even them out some way

3. Only SKy HD movies seem to give me surround sound, i always assumed that quite a lot of tv would be in surround sound, infact my parents have a built in surround sound system (very old) and they get prologic on things like eastenders and the like, i dont seem to

4. the remote works well (although its not a fantastic remote) one big anoyance though is that there are no fastext style buttons, so while i can conttol my sky from the remote i have no red, gree, yellow or blue buttons!

5. Not sure I have auto switching either, (can't recall if its meant to ) i assumed that if i turn on a source device the amp would sync to it.

In conclusion i think i need to play around with it a bit more, i think for £200 its pretty good but i would like to sort out the little niggles i have

i'll tryn and sort some pics out tommorow.

 

[Spoonhead]

Some things of note (probably explained in the manaual if i decipher it more)

1. I had music playing from my ps3. when i turned off the tv the sound went. I wasn't expecting it to do that. If it can be prevented i'd like to hear about it.

The only thing I can think of is that you have HDMI audio set to through rather than enable, but then nothing would come to the speakers. Page 27 of the manual.

2. The sound levels from different sources are very different. I wonder if i can even them out some way

Not sure it can. I don't really notice a difference in sources myself.

3. Only SKy HD movies seem to give me surround sound, i always assumed that quite a lot of tv would be in surround sound, infact my parents have a built in surround sound system (very old) and they get prologic on things like eastenders and the like, i dont seem to

You have to take the amp off auto and select a specific suuround mode. It will then give you surround sound. It is mostly the HD channels that you get dolby digital direct.

4. the remote works well (although its not a fantastic remote) one big anoyance though is that there are no fastext style buttons, so while i can conttol my sky from the remote i have no red, gree, yellow or blue buttons!

5. Not sure I have auto switching either, (can't recall if its meant to ) i assumed that if i turn on a source device the amp would sync to it.

Invest in a harmony remote. That way you can control the amp and sources/TV in one go. As you say, it doesn't have auto switching.

Hope this helps

gazza

 

[ittim]

Thanks for the reply Gazza,

You have to take the amp off auto and select a specific suuround mode. It will then give you surround sound. It is mostly the HD channels that you get dolby digital direct.

I assumed this may be the case and i went through all the modes ( i had the simpsons on sky one HD) at no time did the display show anything other than the front speakers, although the red indicator was displayed.

 

[Spoonhead]

Thanks for the reply Gazza,



I assumed this may be the case and i went through all the modes ( i had the simpsons on sky one HD) at no time did the display show anything other than the front speakers, although the red indicator was displayed.

You're right, it still only shows front speakers. The only way I know is by setting the display mode to surround.

Gazza

 

[ittim]

You're right, it still only shows front speakers. The only way I know is by setting the display mode to surround.

Gazza

So , should i be able to get surround sound of some type when watching say Eastenders?

 

[Rockboy uk]

Thanks for the feedback ittim. I take it you got it from Hi Fi Confidential for £199?

 

[ittim]

Yes, it all arrived okay. seemed like a good deal.

 

[ittim]

incidentally gazza, do you happen to know if theres a way to force music through all the speakers?

 

[Spoonhead]

So , should i be able to get surround sound of some type when watching say Eastenders?

You should be able to. It's not always a great sound though. Just re-looked at my earlier answer, and it looks a little misleading. The display mode only shows

-> surround mode -> auto display off -> display off -> input function -> surround mode....

You still have to set the surround mode via the remote/front panel as per page 31.

Gazza

 

[ittim]

what kind of surround mode should i be using? i'm very new to surround sound

 

[Spoonhead]

incidentally gazza, do you happen to know if theres a way to force music through all the speakers?

The only way I've been able to this is again by setting the surround mode in the amp. I tend to only listen to music from my Linktheatre streaming my i-tunes library from my PC. I think it does a good job, but then I'm not really a music listener indoors. Tend to go for the movies.

Gazza

 

[Spoonhead]

what kind of surround mode should i be using? i'm very new to surround sound

For TV use I use DTS neo6: cinema. For music you could try DTS neo6: music.

Page 32 gives you your surround modes available. I would suggest trying them all, and see which ones you like. MULTI CH. ST sounds like it might be what you are after for music.

Gazza

 

[ittim]

i wonder if i have it setup correctly, as with sky, i tried to play music via my ps3 (Over HDMI) and despite selecting every mode on the amp i only ever achived it through the front speakers

 

[cjaggard]

Two comments:

First, as you probably already know the receiver has to be getting a 5.1 (and up) signal to use all the speakers in auto surround mode. Sure you can force it to do 5.1 by selecting different surround modes, but the fact that it's not using your speakers correctly in auto suggests that it's not receiving a 5.1 encoded signal.

On a similar note, I had the same problem when I first setup my 4003 and came to find out my DVD player was set to PCM and not bitstream. Make sure any components attached to the receiver aren't trying to decode on their own because that'll mess things up (I was stuck in stereo and pulling my hair out till I found that setting mistake). Hope this helps!