Little help here, wanting sound only from HDMI on a PS3

[Pacfanweb]

Here's the deal:

Bought a Pioneer VSX 1120-K this week, used. Seems in great condition. I replaced my B&K Reference 20 Series 2 that was frequently locking up, due to numerous power surges here, I guess.

I needed preamp outs, and since I'm going to get a new TV soon with HDMI, I figured I'd get one with HDMI 1.4's since the new TV is going to be 3D.


So....my current TV does not have HDMI. The PS3 is connected by component. Sound was though the optical. But you don't get the lossless that way, and I want it, now that I have a receiver that can do that.

According the the receiver's online manual, you can run a Blu Ray player through it with component for video, and use either optical or HDMI for audio only.

I can't get the receiver to see there's an HDMI hooked up, though. I went in the settings for the PS3 and enabled sound output through HDMI. Had to manually choose the type of sound codecs. Went into the receiver settings, where you choose which input to use, and HDMI is grayed out...it's not an option. So the receiver apparently isn't "seeing" the HDMI is live.

I'm thinking that maybe it isn't, and there's something else I need to set in the PS3 to get it working, but after some surfing I can't figure out what.

Any ideas?


Cliffs:

Receiver, Pioneer VSX 1120-K
PS3
Want to get sound-only through HDMI from the PS3 to the receiver, can't figure out how.

 

[NutBucket]

Pretty sure that what you want is impossible. There's no loss of fidelity between decoding in the PS3 vs the receiver. The only thing you lose is the receiver's LCD displaying DTS HD-MA or whatever.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Pretty sure that what you want is impossible. There's no loss of fidelity between decoding in the PS3 vs the receiver. The only thing you lose is the receiver's LCD displaying DTS HD-MA or whatever.

Yes, but from what I read, the optical can't carry anything more than Linear PCM 2-channel only.

So you have to use HDMI to get multi-channel lossless, no matter if the PS3 is decoding it or the receiver.

I don't see why you can't just connect the HDMI cable and only use the sound, and let the video go from component. The manual for the receiver has a diagram that shows just that.



Just need to figure out my settings in the PS3 to allow that.


edit: Found a site that had the settings for the PS3, and it said that what I want to do IS possible.

Set them, then set the Sound to HDMI and chose "Automatic" as it instructed. That didn't work, it said there was an error with the HDMI configuration and to check to see if the cable was connected and the device on. Setting the outputs manually didn't work, either.

Not sure which is to blame, here.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Okay, I think I got it.

I used the exact instructions for setting the PS3 that I found in several places around the web.

Kept getting the connection error, "make sure the cable is connected and device turned on".

So just for the hell of it, I tried a different HDMI input on the receiver....nothing. Then I tried another....and suddenly, the automatic config on the PS3 works, and says it's configured.

Got a Blu Ray in there right now, an HDMI light on the receiver, and a PCM light on the receiver, too. Hit display on the PS3 and it says DTA MA or whatever the lossless format is.

Too bad the wife is asleep and I can't rock it to see if it sounds much better. Tomorrow.

I'm guessing this means I have a couple of bad HDMI ports on the receiver. No problem, really, it has like 5 inputs in the rear, and one in the front. Most I'll ever need is 2. 2 didn't work. I didn't try the rest after I found one that did. Maybe I'll look into how much it'd be to fix that, but it's good for now.

 

[NutBucket]

Huh. For your sake I'm glad I'm wrong