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Drum_Phil Author

Level 1

20 points

aTV, 5.1 and a Sony Receiver......no blue light!?!

First and foremost, what a fun couple of days. What a great forum too! So many knowledgeable folks willing to share their know-how.

So, my question is this, anyone else out there with their aTV hooked-up to a Sony receiver that's not getting the blue-light on the main display to indicate true 5.1?

Maybe I'm worrying needlessly here as perhaps the audio signal will only be a true 5.1 when HD content is rented. Last night I watched a few of the HD Trailers and was kinda expecting to get the blue-light during those trailers. But nope, it did seem to be pretty decent sound quality, but it almost seemed like it was a "fake" 5.1. Dunno though. Also, I did have a couple issues of "buffering" while I was watching the trailers. The trailer would load completely with the blue bar filling completely and then during the play of the trailer it would suddenly stop and the bar would have to fill again. But it did fill much more quickly (say five seconds or so).

Also, under Audio Settings, I DO have the Dolby Digital Out set to ON. (I'm using component and optical(Toslink) cables for the hook-up. My preference is always HDMI but that's not possible here as I only have two HDMI inputs on my Panny plasma and I'm using them for my HD Cable box and Sony PS3.

The new UI for aTV is not baaaad, but could've been so much better. I actually think that the UI from the prior version was much more visually pleasing with those large, sharp, flying eye-catching graphics. I don't know if Sony would throw a hissy-fit or not, but the aTV should adopt a UI menu like that of the PS3 where the icons are stretched horizontally on the display with the user then being able to scroll up or down within that icon to access that sub-menu. IMHO, that would be much cleaner and more visually pleasing.

And on a sidenote and for clarification, one does not need AirTunes to be able to control their aTV from iTunes on their PC. I was under the impression that I wouldn't have the option to do this as I don't have AirTunes or Airport Extreme. I was VERY happy to see the COMPUTER button on the bottom right part of my iTunes giving me that control. I now won't have to change the input on my HD display to access the UI(thusly disrupting whoever's watching a program pm the TV) to change tunes. (I might've misunderstood some of the recent posts on this though. Maybe what was actually being inferred was that an aTV only need to be AirTunes "capable" to do this.)

Geez Phil, ramble much? lol

Carry on.

Commodore 64, Windows Vista, ASelectors, 50" Plasma

Posted on Feb 13, 2008 11:31 AM

Best reply

ProfGHDorr

Level 1

110 points

Posted on Feb 13, 2008 11:36 AM

I have a Sony receiver as well and the "Blue Light" does come on and you get 3/2-1 (5.1) when you view a HD movie that has 5.1. (Some do not) The previews do not appear to include 5.1. I suspect you are previewing the non-HD version.

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22 replies

Drum_Phil Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 19, 2008 2:38 PM in response to ProfGHDorr

Ok, we'll check-out Hairspray to test.

It just might be time for me to go receiver shopping. They've come down so much in price now it's crazy.

Thanks Rich for all your assistance.

Cheers!

Drum_Phil Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 19, 2008 2:45 PM in response to ProfGHDorr

RichSolNuv wrote:
I never indicated that I watched Superbad.

As the kids say, "My bad" as it was actually "Mark Jacobson": http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6605220#6605220 .

Drum_Phil Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 20, 2008 11:38 PM in response to Drum_Phil

Correction....make that the Sony STR-DE897
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-g2H1KZk7N2L/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=158STD897S &tp=179
(Not that it matters, but mine is black as I'm not a fan of the silver.)

The close-up of my actual receiver:
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/products/2004/158/x158std897b-b.jpeg

Mar 8, 2008 6:44 PM in response to Drum_Phil

Phil, how do you get the souns from your AppleTV to the a/v receiver? My Sony STR-DG800 does not support audio over HDMI, so I use an optical TOSlink cable. To get the DD 5.1 you'll probably need an optical TOSlink cable as well.

Drum_Phil Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 8, 2008 7:00 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

I'm using TOSlink(optical) to my Sony receiver and component cables to my plasma.

From what I can tell at this point, I've just got to dial-in the settings on my Sony receiver for the input my aTV is on (ie MD/TAPE in my case). At first I thought that maybe part of my problem was that I was using an input on my Sony receiver that didn't support DD. But my very knowledgeable audio consultant said that it did and that the light should indeed be coming on.

Mar 8, 2008 7:11 PM in response to Drum_Phil

I think your audio consultant is correct.

If I remember correctly I had to assign the appropriate audio/video inputs on my receiver to Video 1 to get everything to work correctly with my AppleTV.

Drum_Phil Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 22, 2008 6:52 PM in response to Drum_Phil

Ok...so here was the deal. My audio tech who had set-up my system was unaware that both audio analog(stereo L + R) and fiber optic outputs could be used simultaneously. So, unbeknownst to me, he'd only hooked-up the analog so that that signal could be sent to my secondary Yamaha receiver which powers my whole-house audio. Technically speaking, analog y-splitters were used off the aTV analog outputs with one set going to the Yamaha for my whole-house audio and the other going to my Sony(living room).

In another question posted just yesterday, I'd inquired about these outputs being used simultaneously. Alley_Cat promptly answered yes.

So once I simply ran the fiber-optic from my aTV to my primary(Sony) receiver, the blue light came right on when I watched the Dolby trailer(helicopter theater fly-by).

This also allowed me to take the analog audio(L + R) that previously was connected to my Sony and move them to the back of my Panny plasma. This is kinda handy in that we now don't have to turn-on the Sony receiver to hear aTV tunes in the living room, but just the TV volume. I was surprised how decent the aTV's sound was coming from my Panny.

So it's a no-brainer why the light never came on. Only analog stereo was running to the Sony. The Sony was forcing that signal into a pseudo-5.1, but it obviously wasn't nearly as clean or impactful(not a real word, but fits here) channel-wise. The wow factor is really there now.

aTV, 5.1 and a Sony Receiver......no blue light!?!