Free Studio Time to anyone who can help me solve my delimma
Anonymous
Posted on
I've got a 16 track digital (audio) project studio. No cabeling or sound problems there. In fact I get paying customers in here all the time to have me engineer and produce demos for them.
You'd think I could hook up a 5.1 Surround system, but for the past three nights, this thing has had me pulling my hair out. If you can help out, I'll barter studio time or whatever other production audio needs you may have.
I have digital cable [Motorola box], a DVD/VCR combo [Sanyo], a Magnavox MFX-450 Surround Receiver and an RCA F32650 TV.
The MFX Receiver sounds awesome when listening to the radio - however the Satelite speakers [rear] sound like they've been run through three chorus effects units (like they're underwater). When I move the selector switch on the MFX to TV, I get nada on the audio, other than from the TV itself. Moving the selector switch to the VCR allows Surround sound only in the "Hall" mode, but with only the Sub woffer and two front speakers working. Same thing if I select SA (which is what I have the digital cable biox hooked to). The weird thing is, if I disconnect the DVD/VCR audio cable (either left or right) from the MFX aidio in, I get surround. WTF?
Here's how it's cabled up: TV Audio outs l&r and video to the MFX ins DVD/VCR audio l&r and video outs to the corresponding MFX ins Digital cable box audio l&r and video outs to the corresponding MFX ins The coaxle cable comes from the wall to the Cable Box, Cable box to DVD/VCR, DVD/VCR to TV.
I've checked the speaker connections to make sure I'm not out of phase. Have not attempted to play a CD thriough the player, but suspect I'd get the same result as with the stereo (maybe a bad assumption).
I've been to circut city twice and spent two hours on the phone with magnavox tech support - god they're lame.
Somebody, can you steer me in the right direction?
Garp
Derek
Posted on
You should set the Magnavox MFX-450 to Dolby Surround or Dolby Pro-Logic. You should hear something with all sources (except TV).
With the TV in Video mode you wont hear anything by switching to TV on the receiver. In that mode, the TV is looking for a signal from the receiver and the receiver is looking for a signal from its source. In that case it would be the TV. It's a visious circle and wont work. Try tuning to a regular TV station on the TV. That should work.
The surround that happens when you disconnect the VCR/DVD sound like you have and output connected to another output or something's crossed. I would start with the receivers test tone and make sure all the speakers are working as they should and again stick with Dolby decoding of your sources.
Every time I set up a system, I do the same thing:
1. Connect ALL the speakers (including the sub) to the receiver first, making sure polarity is correct. Don't connect ANY other component. Run the receiver's test tone to verify that all speakers are working properly and generally in relative balance. If you don't make it this far, something's wrong.
2. Try to standardize the video connections--personally, I tend to settle on S-video for everything since most components (even VCRs) now have S-video outputs. Yes, component video is slightly better, but it's almost unheard of on VCRs and cable boxes. Using S-video for all the components allows the receiver to do all the switching for video AND audio--whatever source you pick on the receiver is what's displayed on the screen, and there's no way the sound can be mismatched.
2. Next, add in the TV stuff. The most important question is, "Where is the TV's audio coming from?" In your case, it comes from the cable box hopefully via a digital connection--either coax or fiber. (If you don't have digital outputs on the cable box or if your receiver doesn't have digital inputs, then go with the standard RCA outputs). This audio feed goes into the receiver, as does the video feed from the cable box (again, standardizing with S-video.) So now you have TV audio (hopefully digital) and the cable box's S-video happily entering your receiver.
3. Now connect the receiver's main video output (again, S-video) to your TV's S-video input. At this point, you should have working audio and video. Forget about "Hall" and the other settings--go right to ProLogic first. You should hear dialogue anchored in the center channel, and if the source material is ProLogic encoded, you'll hear surround sound. Don't worry if you don't hear surround yet--remember, in the first step, you confirmed that all the speakers are set up properly.
4. Connect the DVD/VCR outputs to the receiver, again using (you guessed it) S-video and digital audio if possible. (I'm not that familiar with combos--are there separate audio/video outputs for the VCR and DVD? Or are they combined for ease of use? If they're combined, and the audio output isn't fiber or coax digital, your hope for Dolby Digital 5.1 just evaporated.)
For now, forget about the combo's inputs. Test the system with a VHS tape. Then try a DVD that has a promo at the beginning for surround sound (like Monsters, Inc.) Assuming you have digital connections, you should have Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, and it should obvious--clear as a bell and full-range.
Assuming you want to use the VCR to tape shows, you'll need to feed it a signal from the cable box or your receiver. In this case, go with composite video (yellow RCA jack) and RCA audio since it won't make any difference when it comes to standard VHS.
Hope this helps. I find it helpful to conceptualize the whole thing first, settle on cabling standards, and hook things up one component at a time. For me, it's always S-video and digital fiber optic audio. That way, the receiver does ALL the D/A conversion for audio and all the video switching. If the components don't offer these connections, then it's either time to upgrade the equipment or accept the fact that things will be more complicated as well as sonically and visually inferior.
OK, most of this I've done most of this. The receiver doesn't have S video, but that shouldn't effect the audio - should it? I'm wondering, since the receiver doesn't have any digital audio how can it reproduce 5.1 surround sound from external sources that only alloe R&L audio?
The ONLY (yep, ONLY) way you can get Dolby Digital 5.1 surround is with a true digital connection from your source component. That means it MUST have either fiberoptic or coaxial outputs. If it has only R & L audio, it's not possible.
However, these connections will still work for Dolby Pro Logic (assuming the source material is encoded for it) because this older technology uses analog signals from a stereo source. Even if the material isn't specifically encoded for Pro Logic, you should still have some basic degree of surround sound--voices in the center, ambient noises generally from the rear. Remember: While Dolby Digital delivers six channels of discreet sound (that is, all independent channels as the recording engineer produced it--L, R, Center, Surround L, Surround R, and LFE/subwoofer), Pro Logic only provides L, R, Center and matrixed surround that's identical in the L and R surround speakers. And that's only if the source material is encoded for it. If not, Pro Logic generally tries to extrapolate voices for the center, everything else for the mains, and matrixed surrounds.
Sounds to me like it could be time for a receiver upgrade. It'll make things both easier and better for both your audio and video feeds.
OK, I just looked at a PDF of the manual for the receiver you have, and according to the diagrams, your model has BOTH coaxial digital AND fiber optic digital. Is that the case? Or are we miscommunicating here?
Every time I set up a system, I do the same thing:
1. Connect ALL the speakers (including the sub) to the receiver first, making sure polarity is correct. Don't connect ANY other component. Run the receiver's test tone to verify that all speakers are working properly and generally in relative balance. If you don't make it this far, something's wrong.
2. Try to standardize the video connections--personally, I tend to settle on S-video for everything since most components (even VCRs) now have S-video outputs. Yes, component video is slightly better, but it's almost unheard of on VCRs and cable boxes. Using S-video for all the components allows the receiver to do all the switching for video AND audio--whatever source you pick on the receiver is what's displayed on the screen, and there's no way the sound can be mismatched.
2. Next, add in the TV stuff. The most important question is, "Where is the TV's audio coming from?" In your case, it comes from the cable box hopefully via a digital connection--either coax or fiber. (If you don't have digital outputs on the cable box or if your receiver doesn't have digital inputs, then go with the standard RCA outputs). This audio feed goes into the receiver, as does the video feed from the cable box (again, standardizing with S-video.) So now you have TV audio (hopefully digital) and the cable box's S-video happily entering your receiver.
3. Now connect the receiver's main video output (again, S-video) to your TV's S-video input. At this point, you should have working audio and video. Forget about "Hall" and the other settings--go right to ProLogic first. You should hear dialogue anchored in the center channel, and if the source material is ProLogic encoded, you'll hear surround sound. Don't worry if you don't hear surround yet--remember, in the first step, you confirmed that all the speakers are set up properly.
4. Connect the DVD/VCR outputs to the receiver, again using (you guessed it) S-video and digital audio if possible. (I'm not that familiar with combos--are there separate audio/video outputs for the VCR and DVD? Or are they combined for ease of use? If they're combined, and the audio output isn't fiber or coax digital, your hope for Dolby Digital 5.1 just evaporated.)
For now, forget about the combo's inputs. Test the system with a VHS tape. Then try a DVD that has a promo at the beginning for surround sound (like Monsters, Inc.) Assuming you have digital connections, you should have Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, and it should obvious--clear as a bell and full-range.
Assuming you want to use the VCR to tape shows, you'll need to feed it a signal from the cable box or your receiver. In this case, go with composite video (yellow RCA jack) and RCA audio since it won't make any difference when it comes to standard VHS.
Hope this helps. I find it helpful to conceptualize the whole thing first, settle on cabling standards, and hook things up one component at a time. For me, it's always S-video and digital fiber optic audio. That way, the receiver does ALL the D/A conversion for audio and all the video switching. If the components don't offer these connections, then it's either time to upgrade the equipment or accept the fact that things will be more complicated as well as sonically and visually inferior.