Extender volume doesn't do anything.... is this normal?

[farscapesg1]

I got one of the new HD200 units and noticed something the other day. My extender is connected to my RCA reciever via optical and on some of my videos the volume control on the extender doesn't do anything. I can turn the volume completely down or completely up but the only way to actually adjust the volume is with the reciever.

I just noticed this on a DVD I encoded with Handbrake to a .MKV file with AC3 audio. Is this normal operation for AC3 audio? Should I instead be encoding to AAC or some other audio format? The last thing I want to do is have to find the reciever remote to adjust the volume when watching a video.

[Chriscic]

The HD200 can only control the analog volume, not the volume going out optical. I believe this is the same for any device; my PC does the same thing; you have to adjust volume via your receiver/speakers.

I don't think there's any way to pass volume info. over the digital stream, whether it be DTS or AC3.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

The HD200 can only control the analog volume, not the volume going out optical. I believe this is the same for any device; my PC does the same thing; you have to adjust volume via your receiver/speakers.

Not quite correct. You can adjust the volume going out optical, but the extenders passthru AC3 and DTS, so their volume cannot be controlled. There was something that changed on the DTS side recently, but I can't recall what it was.

John

[farscapesg1]

Hmm... well, since my MP3 collection works fine with the volume control on the Extender adjusting things, I may try encoding my videos using MP3 for the audio format. Not ideal of course, but at least it should give me the ability to adjust the volume. The wife is never going to be happy with using seperate controllers for the volume than from pausing/playing/etc. the video.

I guess I could always ditch the optical connection and just use stereo, since I'm only using three speakers (Left, right, center) and a sub for my entertainment center, but I'd hate to run into this issue again if I upgrade my sound system to surround sound

[stanger89]

Well if you convert to mp3, you lose 5.1 audio for your movies. So if you upgrade to surround, you'll be stuck with expanding stereo instead of passing 5.1 to your AVR.

A better solution is to get a programmable/universal remote (or maybe an MCE remote) that will control volume on your AVR will sending the rest of the buttons to the HD200.

[tedson]

The thing that blows about that is my stereo won't show me the current volume on the TV screen and Sage will. So I have my remote set to change the stereo volume but I have not idea what it is set at until it comes blasting out really loud (gee thanks kids.)

I've been thinking about creating a plugin that would fake it. Basically, have it respond to the same volume commands my stereo does and display a fake volume bar. But I'm sure it would always get out of sync.

[farscapesg1]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Unfortunately, my current speaker system is pretty old and the LCD on the front is completely unreadable unless you are 4 foot or less from it. So I could see my self adjusting the volume on the reciever for the movie to be loud enough, only to find out the volume is already cranked on the Extender when I go to play another movie and wake up the neighbors.

Of course, if you could control the volume on the extender without playing a video, then I could just turn it down, start the movie, and turn it up to where I need it to be. Oh well, I guess there are some nice benefits to using a client PC after all

I did play around with another encoding and if I encode to use AAC instead of AC3 the movies work. For the time it isn't a big loss if I only get stereo becuase I am starting with our children's movies and so far they've all been stereo only anways, but when I get to better stuff I don't want to be shooting myself in the foot for future upgrades.

So, my next question is if I use the stereo outputs instead of optical, I should be able to control the sound, correct? A new remote isn't really an option at the moment (too little money after the holidays and already have a small list of things that need to be purchased first). Maybe I can get my wife to live with changing remotes

[Beefcake550]

People...after some work on my own part, I have found that:

If your audio out is set to "digital Bitstream", you can't change the volume when passing through AC3 or DTS. I believe other PCM sources can be adjusted, but don't quote me on that.

If your audio is set to "digital PCM", then you can change the volume under all conditions.

This is the intended function. If you want untouched, bitstreamed audio, you get it. If you want some processing (volume, convert to PCM) then you get it.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[Chriscic]

Interesting... wonder if it affects the sound quality? Does this mean the HD200 is doing the audio decoding vs. my speakers?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

If your audio is set to "digital PCM", then you can change the volume under all conditions.

But you won't be able to play DTS soundtracks as (last I knew) the HD200 doesn't decode DTS. You also lose multichannel audio (at least over S/PDIF don't know about HDMI).

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Interesting... wonder if it affects the sound quality? Does this mean the HD200 is doing the audio decoding vs. my speakers?

Probably, the HD200 is limited to 16bit (maybe 24bit over HDMI) PCM output, so reducing the volume, possibly considerably, will reduce the bit depth, lowering the SNR and increasing the noise floor. In theory your AVR/SSP can do a better job with volume control, either doing it in 24bits or maybe 32bits, or ideally in analog. Of course that's really all just academic, in practice most people wouldn't know the difference.

The real, "big" quality drop is losing DD/DTS and thier discrete multichannel audio.

[Chriscic]

Ah, I should have figured that. No DTS/AC3 = worthless for me.

[Beefcake550]

Chriscic -

I output over HDMI and I can say that AC3 (didn't try DTS) works fine (albeit not bitstreamed) to my AVR when I have my output set to "Digital PCM".

-B

[stanger89]

But you just get stereo then right? I think that's the issue, you lose 5.1 when you select Digital PCM (to get volume control).

[tedson]

When I set it to PCM I lose the discrete back channels. It still does surround sound but it doesn't sound near as good.

[Beefcake550]

I'm not sure, but I've only noticed that audio is coming out of all 5 speakers and sub. Not sure about it being "correct".

I've set it to bitstream and haven't looked back.

[Eckwell]

I am having an issue with sound on the HD200 that seems related to this discussion. Maybe someone here has a thought on my predicament? I just wan to figure it out!

See my post here...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38392

Thanks in Advance for your thoughts!

THis is a frustrating one...

I record video via the Server in the basement and the HD-PVR from a DirectTV H21-200. Works great, no real problems to speak off... until the 6.5.5 BETA. Strangely, the videos are still being recorded... and I can play them on the server CLIENT, AND the HD100 I have, with no problems. But when I play them via the HD200 with the most recent BETA firmware I can not hear the audio. I have it set to output audio/and Video via HDMI.

Here is the kicker... if I surf to the file location on the HD200 via Stand Alone mode, it plays flawlessly.