Damaged Optical Cable?

[urbanlegend]

Hi All,

Wondering if you could help me out.

I have a PS3 connected to my Panasonic SC-HT920 which supports DTS.

The PS3 is set up for Optical Out with DTS and 5.1 selected. BD/DVD Setting have Bitstream also selected.

I pop in a Superbit DVD (XXX or Resident Evil) and choose DTS sound, the receiver is showing ERROR and then shows D-IN flashing back and forth. If I switch the audio to 5.1 the audio kicks in fine and the receiver shows D-IN with 5.1 sound.

Do you think the Optical Cable is damaged? I picked it up from Blockbuster for $2 Canadian. Or do you think the PS3 output is messed up?

If I change the BD/DVD Settings to LPCM then the DTS gives me 2CH sound but the receiver doesnt show me DTS.

Any suggestions PLEASE? I am thinking of buying a $50 cable from BestBuy Canada later today.

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by urbanlegend

Hi All,

Wondering if you could help me out.

I have a PS3 connected to my Panasonic SC-HT920 which supports DTS.

The PS3 is set up for Optical Out with DTS and 5.1 selected. BD/DVD Setting have Bitstream also selected.

I pop in a Superbit DVD (XXX or Resident Evil) and choose DTS sound, the receiver is showing ERROR and then shows D-IN flashing back and forth. If I switch the audio to 5.1 the audio kicks in fine and the receiver shows D-IN with 5.1 sound.

Do you think the Optical Cable is damaged? I picked it up from Blockbuster for $2 Canadian. Or do you think the PS3 output is messed up?

If I change the BD/DVD Settings to LPCM then the DTS gives me 2CH sound but the receiver doesnt show me DTS.

Any suggestions PLEASE? I am thinking of buying a $50 cable from BestBuy Canada later today.

I would suspect the cheapo optical cable before the output. Before I upgraded my receiver, I used the optical out on the ps3. It worked great. There could be a problem somehow with the output, but I would look to the cable first. Though I don't know if you have to spend $50 for a new one.

[urbanlegend]

Thanks for the response ganthc! I dont think I will have to spend that much either .. but I am thinking lets give it a try, BB has a good policy to return items anyhow and I will have peace of mind knowing its not my new PS3.

Will reports my findings ..

[esc]

Originally Posted by urbanlegend

Thanks for the response ganthc! I dont think I will have to spend that much either .. but I am thinking lets give it a try, BB has a good policy to return items anyhow and I will have peace of mind knowing its not my new PS3.
Will reports my findings ..

I bought a couple of optical cables from a dollar store and they are great. It is very possible that the cable got bent too much and snapped somewhere inside. If you're dealing with cable that cheap, go out and pick up another one and see if that is your problem.

[sub780lime]

yeah, if you pinched it or bent it along the way that could royally screw the cable because it needs to pass light evenly. I would go and buy a decent cable, doesn't have to be $50 US, but go spend $25 and just test it. If it still doesnt work return the cable.

[Sehnzeleid]

Or go to Monoprice and spend less than $10.

[Sycho]

Or try a different player, because I bet the PS3 is at fault.

[sub780lime]

Well if he doesnt have another player it is probably cheaper to buy the cable and test that before buying a player and testing it.

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by sub780lime

Well if he doesnt have another player it is probably cheaper to buy the cable and test that before buying a player and testing it.

It's not the cable

If I change the BD/DVD Settings to LPCM then the DTS gives me 2CH sound but the receiver doesnt show me DTS.

If the cable is passing LPCM, then it will be able to pass dts. dts has approximately the same bandwidth requirment as 48kHz 16bit LPCM

[ganthc]

Hmm, maybe he hasn't done all the updates for the ps3. I remember there was one bug where it was having difficulty with dts at one point.

[urbanlegend]

Originally Posted by Sycho

It's not the cable. If the cable is passing LPCM, then it will be able to pass dts. dts has approximately the same bandwidth requirment as 48kHz 16bit LPCM

I bought another cable, Philips High Grade for $30 at Walmart and it is doing the same thing

Originally Posted by ganthc

Hmm, maybe he hasn't done all the updates for the ps3. I remember there was one bug where it was having difficulty with dts at one point.

I have firmware 1.70, the latest firmware Are there any other updates as well?

I have a sneaking suspicision that maybe the HT might be able to input DTS sound Strange, but its possible no? It cant decode the DTS input and can only intake 5.1. Has anyone ever heard of this?

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by urbanlegend

I bought another cable, Philips High Grade for $30 at Walmart and it is doing the same thing

Exactly the reason I said wasn't the cable. Return the new one, and just enjoy the movie with Dolby Digital. There is absolutely nothing wrong watching the movies in Dolby Digital.

[urbanlegend]

Originally Posted by Sycho

Exactly the reason I said wasn't the cable. Return the new one, and just enjoy the movie with Dolby Digital. There is absolutely nothing wrong watching the movies in Dolby Digital.

I ordered Ice Age: The Meltdown, which has DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 surround track, will this work with my surround?

Also if anyone can tell me if they have heard of these combo dvd player/receivers that have optical cable input but cant decode DTS? Will only play DTS if this disc is inserted into the player itself.

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by urbanlegend

I ordered Ice Age: The Meltdown, which has DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 surround track, will this work with my surround?

I'm unsure the whole Blu-ray players transcoding thing, but with HD DVD you get standard DTS 5.1 from DTS-HD MA 5.1 via optical. Since no Blu-ray and HD DVD players can decode DTS-HD MA, you'll get transcoded standard DTS 5.1 or "core" DTS.

Will only play DTS if this disc is inserted into the player itself.

DTS/DTS-ES are formats a receiver or processor takes from a source (like a DVD player) and decodes the signal to for DTS playback. DTS needs to be on a disc in the DVD player to send the signal. DTS has an "artificial surround" mode, Neo:6, that be applied to things like CDs if the receiver has Neo:6 support.

[urbanlegend]

Originally Posted by Sehnzeleid

DTS needs to be on a disc in the DVD player to send the signal. DTS has an "artificial surround" mode, Neo:6, that be applied to things like CDs if the receiver has Neo:6 support.

I tried Superbit versions of XXX and Resident Evil both which had DTS, also DareDevil Director's Cut which had DTS as well. All three were played in the PS3 w/optical link to my Panasonic HT, therefore PS3 DTS out to HT DTS in and nada

[ganthc]

Do you have a regular dvd player that you can try testing the dts on for your receiver? Perhaps the player is not recognizing the codecs somehow, but test on a regular dvd player whether the dts issue is with the ps3 or with the receiver.

[urbanlegend]

Originally Posted by ganthc

Do you have a regular dvd player that you can try testing the dts on for your receiver? Perhaps the player is not recognizing the codecs somehow, but test on a regular dvd player whether the dts issue is with the ps3 or with the receiver.

Thanks ... will try that tonight when I get home

[urbanlegend]

I tried my Panasonic DVD Recorder which had Optical Out and guess what the receiver gave the ERROR message again

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by urbanlegend

I tried my Panasonic DVD Recorder which had Optical Out and guess what the receiver gave the ERROR message again

So it's sounds like the receiver is messing up. Check your manual to see if there are possibly any settings that need adjusting. Or see if there is a firmware update for your model. Sorry that happened to you, urban.