llsTixll Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 I have a Denon AVR-1602 receiver. I recently acquired a sound card (Aopen CMI chipset) with optical out for my cheap HTPC (pretty much an old desktop running XP Media Center that I use to play iTunes and watch 720p mkv rips of Lost with AC3. ) Here are my findings/issues: I turned on the default Windows sounds. I set my amp on the Pro Logic (surround) setting. When the machine boots up, my amp flicks over to "STEREO96K" and I hear the last part of the Windows logon sound (just a delay of my amp switching the decoders I guess). If I then play a song in iTunes straight away, the amp flicks to "STEREO". If I then play Lost, it stays as stereo...boo! I then change it to the surround settings and it flicks over to Dolby D...yay! If I then play iTunes again, it plays in surround mode no worries. Now with the Windows default sounds off. I set the amp to surround mode (Pro Logic/Dolby D) and after the machine boots, I try to play iTunes. Nothing comes out. If I play Lost, it flicks over to Dolby D and sounds fine. So the issue is somewhere during boot up where the login sound kicks the amp into the right mode or something. Weird. Anyone have experience with the Denon receivers and know what is going on here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakka69 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Sounds like a pc issue to me, unless you changed something on the AVR before doing the second test. When you say you 'change it to the surround settings' what exactly do you mean? Make sure the input mode on the denon is set to auto. Hakka. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llsTixll Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 (edited) Sounds like a pc issue to me, unless you changed something on the AVR before doing the second test. Nope, don't change a thing on the AVR. In both tests, the amp is sitting at "PL II" with the analog light on. If it boots up with the Windows sounds on, the amp clicks then shows "STEREO96K" and the little digital light comes on. If I play a Dolby Digital video file, I have to put it in surround mode for it to output Dolby Digital, otherwise it will stay in stereo mode. If it boots up with no Windows sounds, I can play a DD51 video fine and it flicks over to Dolby D. However, if I play stuff from iTunes or Media Player, it sits at "PL II" with the analog light on. It seems like my amp has issues picking up the signal for some weird reason. Funny thing is though, if I run the "Test Hardware" wizard while iTunes is playing, the music suddenly kicks in halfway through the green bar progress thing. When you say you 'change it to the surround settings' what exactly do you mean? I press the surround mode on remote until it shows "PL II" Make sure the input mode on the denon is set to auto.Hakka. Yep, input is set to auto. Is there a setting in ffdshow audio config to tell it to output stereo if no surround is detected or should it do that anyway? Is there a better decoder than ffdshow? I tried AC3filter but it gave me more grief. Edited February 24, 2009 by llsTixll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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