I have an Onkyo TX-SR508 receiver, into which is connected an LG BD570 Blu-ray player. I have a pair of outdoor speakers wired to the “Zone 2” terminals on the receiver. What I didn’t realize until yesterday was that the receiver won’t convert digital audio to analog, and the Zone 2 speakers will only accept an analog signal (the Blu-ray player is currently connected via HDMI). Since I would occasionally like to listen to Pandora through the Blu-ray player via the outdoor speakers, I need to figure out a work-around.
My initial thought is to connect the component video and analog audio output from the Blu-ray to the receiver (in addition to the HDMI), and assign these connections to an input on the receiver that I’m not currently using (“Aux” or “VCR”), and use this set-up when I want to use the outdoor speakers for audio from the Blu-ray.
Any reason this wouldn’t work? I know - it would be pretty easy to just hook it all up and give it a try, but surprisingly enough, I don’t have enough RCA cables around the house to do that. Before I go pick some up, I thought I’d ask the question.
Just a guess, but it’s possible that the Blu-ray player won’t output its signal to both the HDMI and components at the same time.
Interestingly, I have a Yamaha receiver with a Zone 2 also connected to my outdoor speakers and I haven’t been able to get it to play from my HD TiVo or my Blu-ray player either. I thought the speakers had gotten frozen during the winter last year, but maybe it’s the same problem you’re having. The only time it’s ever worked was when I played CDs in my old SD-DVD player, but I never tried to play any other SD signal through them.
It certainly sounds as if your workaround is feasible, but I think there is something else going on. If your receiver has an HDMI input, and normal speaker connection, it IS converting digital signals to analog. CDs are digital signals too – have you been able to listen to CDs in zone 2?
You didn’t realize until yesterday? Did you just add one of these pieces? Is the receiver brand new and you’re wiring it in now? Is the Bur-ray the new piece of gear that you’re adding now? What has changed between yesterday and the day before yesterday?
There are lots of funny things when dealing with HDMI, Blu-Ray, and protected audio paths.
My guess is that the audio is being sent to your receiver as multi-channel audio, rather than a stereo bitstream; meaning that rather than getting only 2 channels of audio, it’s getting 8 (or 6) streams… 6 (or 4) of which are intentionally blank. The AVR won’t add processing to them because it thinks it’s got data for all channels.
Is there sound coming from any speaker, other than the main L/R speakers?
What processing mode is your AVR using?
Try using multi-channel stereo (7ch stereo) on the AVR.
Can you get any source to play through the Zone 2 speakers?
What happens with the Zone 2 speakers when you play a BD movie?
Does your AVR support HD audio (DTS-MA, DD-THD)? (this is only relevant when considering what happens with your Zone 2 speakers when playing BD movies)
Oops, you are correct, assuming the signal is going to the receiver through a pair of RCA cables. My DVD/CD player has a DVI for the video and a fiber optic link for the audio, so it is sending a digital signal, but it has RCA outs too, so it could send either. I’ve never tested it to see if it does both at once.
I have a Yamaha receiver set up for two zones, and this is likely your problem. To get around it, I have my DVD player going to the DVD input via optical, and again via analog to the CD input. Similarly, I have my cable box going to the DTV input via coax (or, maybe, HDMI, I don’t recall) and to the MD input via analog.
(Somewhat OT: Here’s an odd thing – the receiver has an HD Radio tuner. If a station is playing on both zone 1 and 2, I can switch to the second HD channel and it will play on both zones (and continue to play on either zone, even if I change zone 1 to something else). However, I can’t get it to switch to the second HD channel if the tuner is only going through zone 2. In fact, the whole system feels like HD radio was a last minute add on.)
Anyway, back to the OP – none of my equipment has any issue with sending out both analog and digital signals simultaneously. I don’t know if I’ve tried it with an HDMI output and an analog output, but it would probably work.
I’m not sure where you’re getting that. You have an analog Zone 2 **output **on the back of your receiver, but that’s for a powered pre-amp. You can utilize ANY of your inputs as your Zone 2 source at any time. Check out your user manual, starting on page 46.
Answering a bunch of questions from above:
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[li]The receiver and the Blu-ray player are both new; the outdoor speakers are not (the old receiver had a powered Zone 2 as well). Ordinarily, if I’m listening to anything on the outside (Zone 2) speakers, it’s my iPod (through an Onkyo dock) or the radio. Yesterday was the first time I had listened to Pandora at all, and consequently the first time I tried using the outside speakers with the Blu-ray player.[/li][li]Switching on the Zone 2 speakers works just fine with the iPod and radio. As an aside, one of the things I like about this receiver over the old one is that I can control the main and Zone 2 volumes independently.[/li][li]When I said, “Zone 2 speakers will only accept analog input,” I may not have phrased that entirely accurately, but I got it from page 48 of the receiver manual:[/li]
[/ul]
For some reason, it only now occurred to me to look at the manual for the Blu-ray player :smack:, where there is a note under the installation instructions that reads:
While this suggests that the Blu-ray will only use one set of outputs at a time, it doesn’t seem definitive; like it was put in there simply to avoid someone mixing digital and audio connections and confusing themselves during set-up. It seems extremely unlikely that I could actually damage the player by connecting both. Right?
While I’ve got you all here, there’s one more minor annoyance I was wondering about. My TV is a 6-year-old Sony KP-51WS510 wide screen projection TV (yeah, I know. A new TV is the next purchase). It does not have an HDMI in, but does have a DVI port, so I’ve got an HDMI cable running from the receiver to an HDMI-to-DVI adapter on the TV. I’ve also got our DirecTV receiver/DVR connected to the receiver via HDMI. Every once in a while when I power everything on, I get a black 4:3 picture on the TV (with sound out through the receiver). If I shut everything down and then power it all up again, the picture will be fine. Is this likely just something related to the age of the TV or the kludginess of the HDMI-to-DVU connection? Any common things I may have overlooked?
Yeah, I can’t imagine you’ll hurt anything by doing that. I had an older HDTV that accepted HDMI video, but required I run RCA audio. The source sent audio through both routes at the same time.
Yeah, sounds like just general klunkiness. Lots of older HDMI/DVI sets have handshake issues, which is usually hashed out by repowering everything.
Let us know how things turn out. Fiddling with an AV receiver can be a pain in the ass, but it’s a pretty satisfying project once everything turns out the way you want it.