Yesterday I received a Blu-ray player produced by a very highly regarded UK company, which shall remain nameless. This is not a cheap Blu-ray player.<\/p>\n
But oddly it seemed rather deficient on the HDMI audio output front, not having anything like the range of output options you’d expect. I soon discovered that one setting provided only the original bitstream, while the other switched off the audio entirely, in favour of the analogue outputs.<\/p>\n
I emailed the local distributor, who in turn emailed the UK manufacturer. This morning I received a reply. The manufacturer’s Senior Engineer’s only suggestion was that maybe I had it plugged directly into a TV. Here’s my reply (I omit the photos which would give away the product):<\/p>\n
Ah, the home office! I do love the way the engineers back in the old country think we’re complete effin idiots out here in the colonies!<\/p>\n
So to make it clear:<\/p>\n
\n
- the Blu-ray player is plugged via HDMI into a Yamaha RX-A1000 receiver. The receiver is in turn plugged into a 52 inch Sharp Quattron TV.<\/li>\n
- in the HDMI settings for the receiver I have ‘Audio Output’ set to ‘Amp’, with both ‘Out1’ and ‘Out2’ (the two HDMI outputs) set to ‘Off’.<\/li>\n
- also in those HDMI settings, I have switched all HDMI control functions off<\/li>\n
- according to the manual, three major settings are supposed to be available under the ‘Audio’ menu in ‘Setup’:<\/li>\n
\n
- PCM Downsampling<\/li>\n
- Digital Output<\/li>\n
- Dynamic Range Control<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- With the above-described setup, only two options are available on the review unit:<\/li>\n
\n
- HDMI Output<\/li>\n
- Dynamic Range Control<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Instead of the range of six choices stated in the manual for ‘Digital Output’ (all of which the receiver supports, of course), the HDMI Output setting offers only two options:<\/li>\n
\n
- On(Auto)<\/li>\n
- Off *Speaker<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- With the first option selected, the unit bitstreams out the original audio format over HDMI — for example, as I demonstrated, DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. With the second option selected there is no audio output from the unit’s HDMI output. There is no option for PCM or any other output.<\/li>\n
- The Oppo BDP-83 and Panasonic DMP-BDT300 Blu-ray players which are also plugged into the receiver are not so constrained, and all their various output options operate correctly. Indeed, that is the case for the other forty-odd Blu-ray players I have reviewed (except for a couple of the very early ones and the phat PS3 which lacked bitstream output).<\/li>\n
- I’ve attached photos of the unit’s Audio menu display to show precisely what I am seeing on screen.<\/li>\n
- And before our English brethren start blaming the Yamaha, I’ve just plugged the unit into a Marantz NR1601 which I cracked brand new from the box especially for the occasion. It has ‘HDMI Audio Out’ set to ‘Amp’ and ‘HDMI Control’ set to ‘OFF’. Results: identical to those with the Yamaha.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Perhaps you can pass this back to the UK and see if they want to have another go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday I received a Blu-ray player produced by a very highly regarded UK company, which shall remain nameless. This is not a cheap Blu-ray player. But oddly it seemed rather deficient on the HDMI audio output front, not having anything … Continue reading