QUESTION: Per Tweaking an ONKYO TX-NR616 Configuration

[BonzaiDuck]

My "specialized knowledge acquisition" spreads out in so many directions -- it isn't specialized. Let's face it -- I putter around. But here on the forums, I'm a bit of a lazy info-vampire -- sucking up second opinions or insights.

Here's my starting scenario.

My computer and Media Center feed HDMI video and audio set up in MC as "5.1" to my ONKYO, which feeds a JBL 5.1 surround with floor-woofer speaker system.

In turn, the ONKYO provides a feed to my LG 42" LCD-LED HDTV.

The HDTV is, in turn, set up to offer 2.1 output to your commonly-built 2.1 computer speakers.

I'm rather sure that I can change the ONKYO to allow "Passthrough" in Standby mode to the TV -- and therefore, the speakers.

I don't want to fiddle with the Media Center 5.1 settings. But the ONKYO draw 620W in its SPEC. I want to give it (and the electric bill) some RELIEF.

The 2.1 arrangement with the HDTV was put in place so I could switch from "HDMI-1" to "HDMI-2" and feed the HDTV with my Charter Set-Top-Box (STB).

But if the TV is set to HDMI-1, and the ONKYO is properly configured for standby, the audio feed would pass through the TV to the 2.1 speakers.

1) If the ONKYO SPEC for "Power Consumption" says "620W," "Standby 0.2W," what is the meaning of that spec? For instance, if I run the speakers on the ONKYO (5.1) at 50% volume, would that mean I'd have a constant ~310W of power consumption? Would this be continuous, or depend on the amount and volume of audible sounds? Or does this depend on the strength of the setting at the PC in MC for volume as well?

2) I assume that making this change "on the fly" will simply pass through the 5.1 signals to the TV, which will output them to the 2.1 set. There should be no effect on the PC Windows and Media Center configuration. This should be easy enough to do with the AVR remote, scrolling through the AVR's menus. Is there anything wrong or inaccurate about this scenario as I've stated it?

 

[Automaticman]

1) If the ONKYO SPEC for "Power Consumption" says "620W," "Standby 0.2W," what is the meaning of that spec? For instance, if I run the speakers on the ONKYO (5.1) at 50% volume, would that mean I'd have a constant ~310W of power consumption? Would this be continuous, or depend on the amount and volume of audible sounds? Or does this depend on the strength of the setting at the PC in MC for volume as well?

The amount of power being drawn will be related to the volume and frequency of the sound being output. It is not a linear relationship however, but logarithmic. This means that as you increase volume, the amount of power required will drastically increase. On the output side of things, getting a 3db increase in volume requires doubling the output power. If you want to double your volume (10db increase), then you need 10 times the power.

Now this is on the output side of things. The amp will draw more power on the input side, depending on how efficient the amp is (and what class of amp it is, class D amps are more efficient that class A/B).

The bottom line will be that, if you connect a power meter on teh plug of the receiver, you would see the needle bouncing around with the volume of sound being played, and how many channels the sound is coming through. I would expect that most of the time you will be far below that 620w mark.

If you really want to find out, you can try plugging in a Kill-A-Watt meter

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The amount of power being drawn will be related to the volume and frequency of the sound being output. It is not a linear relationship however, but logarithmic. This means that as you increase volume, the amount of power required will drastically increase. On the output side of things, getting a 3db increase in volume requires doubling the output power. If you want to double your volume (10db increase), then you need 10 times the power.

Now this is on the output side of things. The amp will draw more power on the input side, depending on how efficient the amp is (and what class of amp it is, class D amps are more efficient that class A/B).

The bottom line will be that, if you connect a power meter on teh plug of the receiver, you would see the needle bouncing around with the volume of sound being played, and how many channels the sound is coming through. I would expect that most of the time you will be far below that 620w mark.

If you really want to find out, you can try plugging in a Kill-A-Watt meter

I think I'm going to order a Kill-a-watt meter. It would have been quite handy for similar issues over many years.

Nobody answered the other question, and I need to make another attempt. someone had told me that losing the audio on the Onkyo or similar with PC input would only require switching to another HDMI channel and back again.

So my recent experiment with this inconclusively suggests to me that I need to reconfigure the MEdia Center and PC audio output to 2.1 before putting the ONKYO on standby and passing through the audio to the TV and the 2.1 speaker set. That would be prohibitively inconvenient. [And there's another thread here, about the finicky nature of PC/MC-AVR connections and configurations).

It doesn't seem logical though. I should be able to use the PC's 5.1 output "as-is" -- run it through the AVR (at most switching the surround to "stereo"), and get output to the TV speakers. This time, after making selections on the AVR's menu, video continued but audio stopped. AND THE THING IS -- I had done this successfully before. Like I said -- I"ll have to putter around . . .

The idea is: If I can do this quickly and reliably even if wielding two remote-controls, I can reduce power consumption, save the expensive equipment for "special broadcasts" etc. . . . so on and so on . . .