What settings on Onkyo amp for movie watching?

Clipsey · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:45

Probably a simple answer, but what do you guys have your movie 'setting' on when watching movies? Direct, Mono, Surround Sense, PLII x, Full Mono etc :confused:

Watching 'Public Enemies' last night for instance on Blu-ray via HTPC and it sounded awesome (during gun scenes) then pretty awful during monologue (really quiet) - ended up having to turn it up and down throughout the movie to please the wife.
Comes through as DTS and have a 5.1 setup.

Thoughts?

paulh · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:50

Try putting dynamic audio on that might soften the difference in volume?

Also check your centre speaker level, mine was really low after I used the setup mic.

Clipsey · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:58

Ok, I think the center speaker is up fairly high compared to the rest, but I'll double check.
I can never quite tell what sounds best out of all the settings.
I'll test that dynamic audio out as well.
Cheers

snowdog · 26 Oct 2010 at 00:47

Direct I'd imagine if the source is 5.1... Anything else remixes it ?

TONY · 26 Oct 2010 at 01:13

Did you use Audyssey to set it up? I found that it did a good job with the levels when I set mine up and I have only had to tweak the volume on the sub as it sometimes cannot handle the LFE at the level it was set at during setup when set at THX reference volume level.

iamtheoneneo · 26 Oct 2010 at 12:03

you need to run audyssey, as it sounds like you havent.

Clipsey · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:21

No I never ran audyssey, as per usual I was in too much of a hurry getting everything set up and going

I'll give that a shot this weekend and hopefully it improves.

Reality Bites · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:28

TONY said:
Did you use Audyssey to set it up? I found that it did a good job with the levels when I set mine up and I have only had to tweak the volume on the sub as it sometimes cannot handle the LFE at the level it was set at during setup when set at THX reference volume level.

Same here.

I just let the source dictate what the amp processes.

All the modes you listed aren't true surround modes anyway.

cram · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:02

Another thing to check are your THX settings. I will check tonight but there is one that is on by default that if you use Dynamic Audio as well can result in more bass than you want. This is fine for action scenes but does result in muffled audio on dialog. I had the same problem on my Onkyo 876 and turning this off resulted in better dialogue.

Quick google: Set Loudness Plus to Off and Preserve THX Settings to No

Random Guy · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:13

I would recommend 'Theatre-Dimensional' or 'Direct' (but Direct will need you to tweak your center on the HTPC I think).