Setup new home cinema system!

Barks · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:48

So finally got my Pioneer VSX 921-K AV Receiver and 5.1 Diamond 10.x package setup on Xmas eve. I have literally been blown away. Call Of Duty MW3 is immersing, Blu-Ray Band of Brothers is insane etc. Even watching Sky HD with Dolby Pro Logic II is unbelievable. I have some questions though:

Important: My Sky HD box is in the living room next to another HD TV. My HD TV (and AV receiver setup) is upstairs in my bedroom. I use an HDMI splitter so that one HDMI cable is connected to my living room TV, and another 10 metre cable is wired upstairs along with an old fashioned RF cable and a Magic Eye for remote control purposes.

1) There is no optical cable and thus no DD 5.1 so I am having to make do with the 2.0 audio via HDMI. What is the best setting to use on my AV receiver, is it Pro Logic II or DTS Neo 6? From my own tests PL II seems to work incredibly well indeed. In fact I'm watching the beginning of the Kings Speech as we type and the echoes are blasting around the room!

2) I have an HDMI splitter downstairs which simply doesn't get on with the AV receiver. It keeps flicking on and off as if it's trying to connect and in the end neither the TV downstairs next to the box or mine work whatsoever. The only way to get around it is to plug the HDMI cable right into my TV and use my TV's optical out port wired to the AV receiver. Any ideas? What is funny is before I had the AV receiver, if I had another HDMI appliance plugged into my bedroom TV and active (e.g. PS3) then the HDMI splitter would go mad and start flashing red LEDs and Sky HD was useless on either TV.

I wonder if anyone could recommend a decent splitter where this problem does not occur?

Many Thanks

Barks · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:51

P.S. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to a normal TV now. Watching a Blu Ray in full 5.1 DTS is an incredible experience. One of my close friends came over yesterday afternoon and we watched American History X. He is a technophobe and hates gadgets/computers/anything geeky but even he was blown away by it all!

Cheers for all the previous advice on here which lead me to buying the kit I've ended up with!

Raymond Lin · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:55

Can't help you with your splitter problem as I don't have Sky but yes, where have surround sound been?!! I just got mine set up and even without a sub, i am loving it !

Barks · 26 Dec 2011 at 01:35

The dedicated bass channel for the sub is one of the things that has impressed me the most. Bass never kicks in unless it is needed and when it does the room shakes ridiculously. I'm glad someone else is sharing my excitement!

MissChief · 26 Dec 2011 at 02:26

scott212 said:
The dedicated bass channel for the sub is one of the things that has impressed me the most. Bass never kicks in unless it is needed and when it does the room shakes ridiculously. I'm glad someone else is sharing my excitement!

Would that be your neighbours?

iamtheoneneo · 26 Dec 2011 at 11:39

scott212 said:
The dedicated bass channel for the sub is one of the things that has impressed me the most. Bass never kicks in unless it is needed and when it does the room shakes ridiculously. I'm glad someone else is sharing my excitement!

On a more serious more if your bass causes your room to shake then you have it way to high and you should turn it down. Bass in movies its supposed to be subtle and to give sound depth,, not kill your friendly neighbourhood squirrel.

10 metres is a long travel distance even for hdmi, and whilst the same analogue problems don't occur like they used to id still wonder if it was the cable causing the issues especially if it isn't a high speed one?