Can anyone post how I should set up the Panny 55k blue ray player (thru its set up menu) while using the analog outputs to the 990?

Thanks

Also....it doesn't look like the 990 is doing anything (according to the front panel). Are you guys sure the 990 takes into account speaker levels and distances?

If you are using the 7.1 Direct input and have speakers set to small, the 990 will do speaker levels, distances, and bass management. As for the other, I'll have to grab the manual and look through it - will try to do that later this evening.

I read earlier that you need to have the speakers set to large or the panny will do xovers and distance.

When using the 7.1 input should I see anything on the front panel of the 990 aside from all speaker graphics lit up and a red symbol to the right of 7.1CH DIRECT?

Yes, the speakers should be set to large on the BD55, and all distances and channel levels should be left at zero.

When you're in 7.1 Direct mode, there's no surround processing happening so there aren't as many indicators lit up as at other times - what you describe sounds right.

thanks Gonk. The system does sound dialed in. I just wanted to confirm that all was well.

It sounds like you've got it pretty well dialed in. Set the downmix to 5.1 or 7.1 (depending on how many speakers you have), all speakers to large, sub to on, and leave delays and trims to zero.

ruh roh....i keep reading that i need to adjust delays and speaker sizes in the blue ray player:

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/How_To...s_And_Why.shtml

Where do you see that the outlaw does this when using 7.1 analog inputs?

Thanks

That doesn't apply to the 990, as the 990 provides those adjustments for the 7.1 analog input (something that most other receivers and processors - including the 1070/970 and 950 - do not do). Keep your existing settings, as they are the right choice for the 990.

WildWolf,

There's a footnote at the bottom of that article that basically re-iterates gonk's point:
-John

Thanks again for the replies. I did see the footnote but I could not find anywhere in the 990 manual where it states that the 990 will adjust distances for the 7.1 input.

Again- the system does sound great! Is there a way to increase the bass for just one input on the 990?

Not really, although if the input in question is the BD55 then you could try adjusting the trim on the sub channel at the player.

thx- will try that!

I am glad that I found this thread while looking for updates on the 997. I got the Panny 55 over a month ago and just followed the Panny manual for setting it up through the analog outs. I went into the set up for the Panny and adjusted everything with my sound meter from the test tones from the Panny. So, I am assuming I should go back into that set up and set all the levels including the distances back to O. Please correct me if that is wrong. And thanks for the info..

You are correct - you can zero it all out and set all speakers to "large" since the 990 is handling things.

Thanks Gonk. Greatly appreciated.

On a BD55 related note, I have a question.

Let's say I have a 7.1 system. I connect the BD55 to the 990 via the 7.1 analog inputs. I also setup the 990 do speaker/bass management and disable this in the BD55.

What happens when a play a disk that only has 5.1 Dolby Digital, whiuch I think just about all of them do. Will the player fill in the rear 2 channels (matrix???)or will they be silent?.

Thanks

I'm not sure on this one, but I think that the BD55 just outputs 5.1 for 5.1 TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, or PCM tracks. I haven't heard anything about expanding the audio to 7.1, but I haven't heard much of anything about the nuances of the BD55's decoding.

For those of you with 990's how may of you are just waiting for the new Oppo or getting this Panny as opposed to getting the new 997. I'm sure the 997 will be incredible but is there a big difference in whether or not the 997/Oppo does the decoding. It would save many of us at least 700.00 if we got the Oppo or 800.00-900.00 if we got the Panny. I have been considering selling the 990/7125 and getting the Pioneer sc05 to get all the new codecs but have yet to commit to selling (I really like the 990)

Not to hijack the thread, but I am happy with the 990 despite not having HDMI or the advanced audio. Of course, I would love a new 997, but I am one of those unfortunate souls whose job was recently outsourced, so funds are now scarce for this type of cash outlay.

The newer BD players that support analog out are a good segway into the relam of blu-ray. I have an old Panasonic AE900 as my projector and it is only a 720p. It seems that standard DVD's are getting the back shelf treatment at the local establishments now. I have a Pioneer DV59-AVI that does a decent job of upconverting DVD's to the higher resolution of the projector. I have a 990/770 combo with 7.1 setup. I enjoy the pseudo 7.1 and I am concerned about the newer BD only doing 5.1 and losing the rear two speakers, despite the 7.1 analog outputs. I hear there are more DTS movies that have true 7.1 out than Dolby, so I am sure as time gos on, this will not be a problem..

Apologies again for getting a little off topic

Matrix processing to expand 5.1 sources to 7.1 is a weakness in current Blu-ray offerings, at least as far as I am aware. I haven't heard anything about the BD55 or S550 offering any sort of internal solutions to expand 5.1 to 7.1. I've also not seen much attention paid to 6.1 setups with players' multichannel analog outputs. And since 7.1 tracks are still pretty spotty for DTS-HD, TrueHD, and multichannel PCM tracks (the latter of which has largely disappeared from new releases), that is something that manufacturers ought to start thinking about.

On page 12 of the BD55 manual, it shows how to hook up the unit for 7.1 audio. Once you activate the unit for 7ch, it configures the normal L/R outputs as the L/R Back Surrounds. So, if you are playing a 7.1 soundtrack the Backs should then be active.

Most of us with just 5.1 systems will use the 2ch(Downmix) + 5.1ch configuration.

So, the question now is:
If I configure the BD55 for 7ch mode, run all seven cables into the 990, and the 990 only has 5.1 speakers configured, will the 990 downmix the 7.1 inputs to the 5.1 speakers configuration?

So it looks like we have 2 situations here with using the analog out of the newer blu-ray players:

1) 7.1 channel out w/7.1 speakers, but only 5.1 material sent.
2) 7.1 channel out w/5.1 speakers, but 7.1 material sent.

So the $64K question is how do players that do the processing, handle these situations? My situation is that I have really come to enjoy my rear speakers and don't want to "y" connect them to the side channels if only 5.1 material is available. That is what I did to play my SACD's when I used to listen to all 3 of them :^)

Like Gonk, I don't believe that the players have advanced this far yet with the processing to simulate or deal with these two issues. I guess I don't know enough about the 997 to see how it would deal with this either.

(sigh) isn't this hobby wonderful?

If you only have a 5.1 setup, the situation is simple: don't connect the rear surrounds, and tell the player that you only have a 5.1 speaker setup. The player should downmix 7.1 tracks to 5.1.

The real question here is what can be done when the system is 7.1, the player is connected via 7.1 analog, and the source track is only 5.1. The hook-up scheme that Lee mentions for the BD55 doesn't address this aspect. It is just a workaround for the fact that they didn't build in a dedicated 7.1 output and had to take over the stereo output to get the extra two channels. I couldn't find anything in the BD55 manual about processing that would achieve any sort of matrix processing to expand 5.1 to 7.1.

For what it's worth, this shouldn't be an issue when using the HDMI audio output with a reasonably current receiver or processor. The 997 should be able to provide Pro Logic IIx processing to expand a 5.1 track (be it TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, or multichannel PCM) to 7.1 just like the 990 does now with 5.1 sources.

The workaround on the Pannys has been to lower the other speaker levels in the player's speaker setup menu, since there is no way to adjust the sub settings louder in the same menu. Usually a -3 or -4 setting should do it.