Surround Sound

[Doug Nathan]

I'm new to the forum and new to Surround Sound. I just bought a Yamaha RX-A800 Receiver. It has SS 7.1.I have a Sony CD/DVD player DVP-CX995V (it holds 400 disks) is NOT a Blue Ray player. I have a Samsung Blue Ray player in the living room with the big TV.
I have 2 pairs AR 17 book shelf speakers, 1 pair AR 58s, a pair of AR 5s, a pair of Klipsch towers whose model number I can't recall. I also have a pair of Boston Acoustic book shelf speakers
So, I am looking for how SS amps work generally and I was hoping to find some answers here.
My disk player is 5.1. I assume it's put out 5.1 through the HDMI, Toslink, (fiber optic) and the RCA outs. It was new in 2005.
My Receiver; I just bought from a guy on CL. It came with ALL the original packaging and antenna, manual on CD, the mic Yamaha uses to balance the speakers...notta scratch, notta mark on it. Even the display is scratch free! It's Yamaha's better line "Aventage". The copy right on the CD/manual is dated 2010; so it's an older model. It sold for $800.00 when new, considering it looks like it's hardly been used and I paid less than $100.00 (it seems the going rate for it on line is between $80.00 and $150.00 I think I did ok) and the guy brought it out loaded in the original box with all the packing....
The receiver has a lot of sound models, different famous clubs around the world, modes for movies, Sci -Fi, sports events, game, 7.1 surround... etc. When I first turn it on the display says "OPPO"; what ever sound model I select (when playing non surround sound media I am not sure if I have a 5.1 disk or I haven't found one in my collection of over 600 disks of movies and music) the display changes to "OPPO" The term does not appear in the manual. Can some one help me with this term please?

 

[charles 1973]

"Oppo" probably refers to the input. It may have been programed into the unit by the previous owner. I suggest you reset the unit to its factory settings. The user manual will tell you how, or Google it.

 

[BillyBatts]

Oppo was a digital electronics manufacturer. They shut down manufacturing operations three or four years ago. Perhaps the previous owner of your receiver set the input to his OPPO DVD player or DAC and labeled it as "OPPO" on the display, or the receiver recognized the input automatically and marked it as OPPO by default. That's my guess. I don't know your receiver, so I am just speculating.

Surround sound can be tricky. I just went through a heck of a time with my 50" Westinghouse HDTV with optical out to a 1998 series Pioneer surround sound receiver. The receiver only has RCA inputs, but will decode some surround playback. No matter which DAC I tried to convert Optical to Analog, all I got was a buzzing "motorboat" sound. This is typical when you are using a DAC that can't DECODE the optical input. I have a 40" Westinghouse HDTV hooked up to a Kenwood surround receiver (same 1998 ish manufacture) that I could use a standard simple Optical to Analoc DAC device. Optical Output coding varies from set to set, even with the same manufacturer because you never know whom is actually making each tv set, even under the same brand name.

I tried a higher quality DECODER/DAC that was spec'd to work up to Dolby 5.1, but there is a warning that it will NOT work with 7.1. It did work in part, but for some reason, it would only decode OTA channels, and not pass anything you were trying to stream from the TV. I know that the Optical Out on this TV is OK because I can stream to a Roku soundbar with it. I finally realized that the problem was probably the Roku Soundbar that was causing the issue with only OTA channels being decoded. This was because the Soundbar takes over the HDMI ARC input and captures control of all audio output, and that's the ballgame for output on Optical from the TV set EXCEPT for OTA channels that are ported to the optical output by default. That's why the Roku soundbar has an optical IN from the TV, so you can port OTA channels to the soundbar as well as streaming channels from Roku that are ported through the HDMI ARC input on the TV.

I finally gave up and hooked up an ATT TV (now called Direct TV Stream) streaming box that has an optical out port, and problems solved. I just have to watch everything on the ATT streaming box or I do not get surround sound. The problem can even be compounded further if you have a receiver that can automatically decode a direct optical input, like my Sony STR-DE575 5.1 surround receiver. It has an AFD (Auto Format Direct) input setting for automatically decoding surround. Nothing I have works with this except my ATT TV streaming boxes. And believe me, I have tried everything I have. AFD is only decoded via those streming boxes.

I guess I'm lucky to have the streaming boxes, because they just work with everything via optical out. And since they are basically Google TV boxes with Direct TV streaming running in the foreground, I can load just about any streaming app I want on them, and not just stream my Direct TV subscription channels. I can't load Apple TV or the Roku channel. For those, I have to go back to the soundbar and forget about surround sound. On my smart TVs, I normally would not use the streaming boxes. I'd just put the Direct TV STREAM app on my TVs and call it done. But then I would not get surround sound on two of my three surround receivers. That Kenwood on the 40" Westinghouse is the only combination that works with a basic TV optical out to a simple DAC that delivers true surround with no muss, no fuss.

 

[soundboy]

Oppo was a digital electronics manufacturer. They shut down operations three or four years ago.

Oppo is still around to provide not only customer care for its universal players, but also factory repairs/updates.

 

[needforspeed]

I'm new to the forum and new to Surround Sound. I just bought a Yamaha RX-A800 Receiver. It has SS 7.1.I have a Sony CD/DVD player DVP-CX995V (it holds 400 disks) is NOT a Blue Ray player. I have a Samsung Blue Ray player in the living room with the big TV.
I have 2 pairs AR 17 book shelf speakers, 1 pair AR 58s, a pair of AR 5s, a pair of Klipsch towers whose model number I can't recall. I also have a pair of Boston Acoustic book shelf speakers
So, I am looking for how SS amps work generally and I was hoping to find some answers here.
My disk player is 5.1. I assume it's put out 5.1 through the HDMI, Toslink, (fiber optic) and the RCA outs. It was new in 2005.
My Receiver; I just bought from a guy on CL. It came with ALL the original packaging and antenna, manual on CD, the mic Yamaha uses to balance the speakers...notta scratch, notta mark on it. Even the display is scratch free! It's Yamaha's better line "Aventage". The copy right on the CD/manual is dated 2010; so it's an older model. It sold for $800.00 when new, considering it looks like it's hardly been used and I paid less than $100.00 (it seems the going rate for it on line is between $80.00 and $150.00 I think I did ok) and the guy brought it out loaded in the original box with all the packing....
The receiver has a lot of sound models, different famous clubs around the world, modes for movies, Sci -Fi, sports events, game, 7.1 surround... etc. When I first turn it on the display says "OPPO"; what ever sound model I select (when playing non surround sound media I am not sure if I have a 5.1 disk or I haven't found one in my collection of over 600 disks of movies and music) the display changes to "OPPO" The term does not appear in the manual. Can some one help me with this term please?

You can label sources in the menu as others have said, You can reset the receiver to default and start over with your players, My old Elite AVR was the same
OPPO Digital was a company that built excellent DVD multi players and accessories