New blu ray player question

[warrenhewitt10]

Just a quick question,

to sum up, had a ps3 for playing blu rays, connected to amp via optical, but i will be reciving my 4th ps3 from sony tomorro as they keep breaking, and the warrenty is up in sept, so im going to sell it, and have bought myself a blu ray player.

The blu ray player does not have optical, so it is connected to the amp now via coaxial. But the sound, with films in dolby digital, sound like they have the dynamic range set to the lowest, ie no real difference in volume between things such as talking then an explosion. Whereas the ps3 with optical, when there was an explosion you sure as hell knew about it.

Is there anything i can do to fix this? does the connection switch mean anything. Avatar which is in DTS sounds the same, its just dolby ones that are quieter. Cant find any setting on the player to help

any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

its a phillips BDP3000 i belive

[gettin2dizzy]

Have you tried narrowing the problem down to a component? The amp, cables, raw signal...
Also, is there an EQ or the like maybe playing with it? It's possible you had some kind of processing running on the PS3 too.

[tigersaw]

Your blue ray player has all the right sound stuff, like true HD, DTS etc, so maybe you need to look at what your amp settings are? Coax is just as good (if not better) transport as optical, all optical gives you is isolation

[warrenhewitt10]

the amp has settings to set the dynamic range, and they are set to max, the way they wer before, so it must be something to do with the player. Its something i could live with for now i suppose. I start a placement soon so ill have much extra money, might go for a new amp with all the hdmi connectivity.

oh and btw is anyone looking a "brand new" re-manufactured 60GB ps3 with all the origional stuff for £185 haha :) will be with me 2morro

[Paul the 6th]

how come the puss3 keeps breaking?

[maxinc]

Check which of the devices is doing the DTS / AC3 decoding.

1. The player can be doing it, apply Dynamic Range Control and then send PCM signals to the AMP.
2. The player could be sending bitstream DTS / AC3 to the AMP for the later to do the decoding.

Optical vs Coax makes absolutely no difference in sound quality / performance. The signal is digital and only settings in the Player / AMP can influence it.

Edit: And you can NOT have Blu-Ray HD audio over Coax or Optical because of the bandwidth limitations. The connection to the amp has to be through HDMI.

[warrenhewitt10]

how come the puss3 keeps breaking?

wish i knew, first one got that yellow light of death, it lasted 2years, second had some sort of graphics card problem where it displayed only a few strange dots on the screen, lasted 2 weeks, this third one has stopped recognizing discs, lasted about 9months, and im waiting on the 4th to arrive at some point today, but its not getting opened, just photographed and put onto ebay.

The guy on the phone assures me its a new console....., but ive no idea why they keep breaking, they have all been plugged into a £50 Belkin PureAV surge protector with the filter on it, along with a reciver, freeview + box, sub, xbox 360 and now a blu ray player, none of which ive had a problem with...

[Paul the 6th]

sounds like the red ring of death may have jumped species from the xbox? :razz: sorry to hear you've had such a bad time with it mate. xbox 360's are mucho cheap now so it's not a total loss :razz:

[warrenhewitt10]

Check which of the devices is doing the DTS / AC3 decoding.

1. The player can be doing it, apply Dynamic Range Control and then send PCM signals to the AMP.
2. The player could be sending bitstream DTS / AC3 to the AMP for the later to do the decoding.

Optical vs Coax makes absolutely no difference in sound quality / performance. The signal is digital and only settings in the Player / AMP can influence it.

Edit: And you can NOT have Blu-Ray HD audio over Coax or Optical because of the bandwidth limitations. The connection to the amp has to be through HDMI.

With the ps3 i belive the processing was done in the amp, as the dynamic range controls on the amp made a huge difference to the sound, but now dont with the player, so it must have something to do with it. I may actually have to RTFM for once to see if the player has some sort of hidden menu system i havnt been able to find.

and the fact i no know i cant have all the HD stuff is now gonna annoy me, i may purchase a new amp in the coming months. Cheers for the info.

Im asuming with DTS the player/amp has no influence on how it sounds, hence why it is the same, whereas the Dolby Dig does, and is now different?

[warrenhewitt10]

sounds like the red ring of death may have jumped species from the xbox? :razz: sorry to hear you've had such a bad time with it mate. xbox 360's are mucho cheap now so it's not a total loss :razz:

Bought my xbox in tesco after my first ps3 broke as an impulse buy lol. But so far it is outlasted 2 playstations...

[maxinc]

It should display on the AMP's lcd one of the DTS of Dolby Digital / AC3 logos if the amp receives encoded sound other than PCM.

Since there could be many combinations and the PS3 is no longer available, probably best to get familiar with sound settings on the player and amp and try all the combinations until you find something to your liking.

[warrenhewitt10]

right found some settings, dynamic range is already set to full, which on this is night mode off, and then i changed the digital output from auto to bitstream (which in theory it should have been at already in Auto mode) and now my BOOOOOMMM is back, bring on the house shaking, cheers for the help guys

[barwel1992]

just so you know coaxial and fibre are EXACTLY ! the same as far a quality goes and what it can and cant do

glad its sorted

[warrenhewitt10]

id not owned anything that connected via coaxial before, bought myself a proper cable, but yes, im currently watching iron man on my 84" projector screen with all of my sound back, im very thankfull :)

[barwel1992]

ahh dont you just love home cinema :D

[gettin2dizzy]

Bought an HD projector for £370 2 years ago, now the same model is selling for £600 new :lol:

Soon I'll have it hooked up to an Arcam receiver, and two of these
http://www.shows.soundstagelive.com/shows/avtour2005/apr02b/wharfedale_room_1.jpg

(they're 10" woofers ;) )

[barwel1992]

are they jamo's ? look like them

[gettin2dizzy]

Wharfedale (IAG). The mids are even 3". That picture makes them look small, but they're over 4' tall and 35kg each! :lol:

[barwel1992]

cool, and rolf they are going to be a PITA to move