It can't decode DTS-ES or Dolby EX (standard limitation of disc players), so when encountering those tracks it decodes the basic 5.1 track. There should be no need to downmix to 5.1 because it will only see a 5.1 track.

When we start talking about Blu-ray, things change. DTS-ES tracks are not common on Blu, and DTS-HD is a whole different animal in many respects. A 6.1 DTS-HD track would be decoded internally to 6.1 and downmixed to 5.1 in your case.

I have been doing some more testing and actually the X-men 3 BR when set to the DTS-MA ES 6.1 track, is not producing sound from the front left or the right surround speaker. When I select any other audio format, the proper speakers play sounds, DD 5.1, Dolby stereo, etc.

I also stopped at BB to pick up a couple of BR that have a 6.1 soundtrack.

Disturbia has a DTS-ES 6.1 track and when selected all speakers play sounds.

Top Gun has a DTS-MA 6.1 track and when selected, just like the X3 BR, no sound from the front left and right surround. All other tracks play sound from all speakers.

I had to hunt around a bit for this one.

Fellowship of the Ring EE was easy enough to test. Internal decoding treated it as a DTS 5.1 track and bitstream output provided the processor with a DTS-ES stream. It worked fine.

I had a harder time finding a true DTS-HD 6.1 track. I have several DTS-HD MA tracks that are listed in Blu-ray.com as being 6.1, but based on the disc cases they are actually 5.1 tracks with a DTS-ES core track. (Wall-E is this way - it's a curious discovery that we made during beta testing.) I did find one DTS-HD HR 6.1 disc. The BDP-83 identified the track as DTS-HD HR 6.1 and decoded the track to LPCM 7.1. I had to hunt to find a scene that had any surround activity, but I was able to verify that the channels were all working.

I will have to look around for a DTS-HD MA 6.1 disc to see if there's something different happening with Master Audio tracks.

I spoke to OPPO support and they were able to duplicate the no sound from the left front and right surround channels on the Top Gun BR. They said that they would be working on a firmware update, sometime in the future, to correct the problem.

OPPO stated that it appears to be an issue when using the MCA outs and the HDMI cable is connected directly to a TV. That's how I have mine setup right now. Soon to be changed since I ordered a PR-SC886P and it should be here this weekend.

I may be re-hashing earlier experiments, but have you tried setting HDMI Audio to "off"?

Last time I checked it was set to off, but will recheck tonight.

I checked again tonight and HDMI is set to off.

FYI - I tried to send you a PM, but your mailbox is full. Not sure if you knew that.

As I mentioned in above, I'm getting a Onkyo 886 and was wondering a few things. I know that you have 885, but it should be kind of similar to the 886.

Do you have a list of recommended settings for the 886 and the BDP-83?

Are you still using an SMS-1 (I have one also) in your system? If so, did you set it up before or after Audyssey setup?

If you run your HDMI cables into the Onkyo, will it pass video and audio in standby mode or do you have to power it on? I'm assuming that you would need to power it on to get it to send a signal to the TV, but I thought I would ask.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Paul

I'd bypass the video processing in the 886 with the BDP-83 (it's easier to do than with the 885, and it looks to be covered in Outlaw's setup guide). Personally, I output LPCM over HDMI from the BDP-83 most of the time, but I also bitstreamed a fair bit during beta testing. Both are equally good options. I took the SMS-1 out while getting some work done in the den (painted and had to partially tear down the system), but when I had it in the system I did the SMS-1 setup before running Audyssey. You will need the 886 on to get a signal to the TV, and you will want to have HDMI audio output on the 886 turned off.

Which worked better for you, having the SMS mixed into your system or letting Audyssey EQ the sub?