Hi guys - very excited to be a new outlaw. Just received my 990 and 7500 this past week and I have more or less configured the system to produce sounds. That's a pretty good start for me, considering it's my first foray into 'real' audio, and HT for that matter. BTW - I'm running Polk Audio LSi15 fronts and LSif/x surrounds, and a DSW400 SW. TV is the latest 52" plasma from Samsung.

So, I guess I didn't really understand going into this that the HDMI/DVI inputs didn't decode/process audio, but simply passed the audio and video signal through. Is this correct? I mean, I know I don't hear anything from my speakers when I was connected with only HDMI, but the sound and picture made it to my TV. Once I added a digital coax cable - viola! But is the HDMI in doing any kind of video processing, or is it simply a pass through? For now I'm just running video straight to the TV.

My next question has to do with the auto setup. I had set the fronts to large, crossovers at 40hz, and rears to small, crossover at 80hz. I ran the auto setup and it said that it can't complete because i have the fronts set to small and the rear set to large. Told me to swap the speakers, power down, and start over. I powered down, but there's really nothing for me to swap as far as I know. Still getting the same results with the auto setup. So I've started to dial things in manually.

Anyway, I'm impressed with what I've heard so far. I guess I'll keep reading the forums and playing around. If anybody here is running Polk LSis and would care to share some setup tips that would be great.

Thanks a bunch...

welcome...you'll have to get answers from those smarter than me (most everyone here ) and if this is your first foray...BOY did you aim high!...enjoy!
Bill

My HDMI FAQ may be useful - DVI is an older video format that was developed for computers, then was later borrowed as part of the basis for HDMI. HDMI added audio, but it took them about four generations to get HDMI to the point that it would do what everyone wanted from it (v1.0, v1.1, v1.2, and v1,3). When the 990 was being developed, v1.1 was new on the scene and there was already a huge amount of talk about the revisions that arrived with v1.2 and v1.3. There were also some receivers appearing that had HDMI ports that did not support any audio input (not even the DD/DTS bitstreams and stereo PCM that v1.0 allowed for), which created a ton of consumer confusion. Outlaw decided that rather than do the same thing (HDMI ports that only did video switching), they would use DVI. The 990's DVI switching is purely passive (no video processing, so no on-screen display from the 990 and no transcoding of other video inputs to the DVI output) and is video only (since DVI doesn't support audio). When you use the 990's DVI switching, you must also make an audio connection to the 990.
First, I would set the fronts to small since you have a sub. The -3dB point for the LSi15 is 30Hz, so running it small and using a crossover of either 40Hz or 60Hz will let the subwoofer handle the frequencies at which the speaker is rolling off. (One drawback to the old tradition of using "large" and "small" for setting up bass management: there are lots of physically large speakers that really deserve to be run as "small". When a speaker is set to "large" that means there is no bass management provided for that speaker - in which case the crossover setting is ignored.)

I'll also suggest setting the fronts to small and then moving the front crossover to 80Hz before running auto setup. The auto setup can sometimes get confused by a low crossover setting. See if setting it to 80Hz helps, and afterward you can set it back to 40Hz or 60Hz. Also make sure the microphone is at ear height, as it's possible for some weird reflections to throw things off if it is sitting on the seat of a couch or chair.

I've run into the same problem with my older Polks. I've come to the conclusion, correct or not, that the auto setup is able to get more bass extension from the surrounds suported by the subwoffer than it gets from the mains so it concludes that the surrounds are larger speakers and need to be switched with the mains.
I've found two work-arounds,
one (as Gonk suggests )setting the mains to small with a higher crossover ( 60hz seems to work fine with my RT2000s)
I've also tried turning the subs off and seting sub-woofer to "no" with the mains set to large.You then need to hand-tune the subs.
Of the 2, I've found I prefer the first option as the RT2000s can get a little boomy when set to large but behave pretty well set to small and crossed over at 60hz.

Wow - awesome response time, guys. I must say I feel honored to be getting responses from such noteworthy contributors. Thank you all very much. gonk - I actually did read through a bunch of the faqs you have posted. Full of really good information. I'm sure I speak for so many others when i say 'thank you'. It was a real help. Of course, most of the reading I did was after I started playing around with things are realized I didn't know what I was doing.

So I will go ahead and set the fronts to small, bump up the crossovers, and rerun the auto setup.

Soooo..... I'm thinking about grabbing a PS3 as by BD player..... seems that most people find that it's a pretty capable machine. Connects to the internet, has some internal storage, reads external memory devices, can stream media via wireless, etc. Any good reason why I should consider other devices? Finally, if I do go with the Sony PS3, what is the best way to connect it to the 990? Would I go HDMI straight to my TV, and run the audio to my 990? Which audio connection is best? I think I was reading something about 5 interconnects to the 990 (I have a 5 channel setup). Is the optical or digital coax not recommended? Did I read something about more sound formats being available for the separate ..... OK, I can see I have some homework to do. I'm off to Google up some answers before I waste too much more of your time asking questions I should probably be able to find the answers to.

Cheers!

Mainly just one reason: audio. The Blu-ray format includes several new audio options that provide better quality than Dolby Digital and DTS, but the only way to hear them with the PS3 is via HDMI - which isn't an option with the 990. If you go with a standalone player that includes onboard decoding of those formats and a multichannel analog output, you can use them with the 990. There's been a lot of anticipation for OPPO's BDP-83 , which is getting close to being released and will work well with the 990, or you can go with options such as the Panasonic BD55 (discontinued and possibly hard to find), Sony S550, or a couple different Pioneers that offer onboard decoding and multichannel analog output (although DTS-HD Master Audio decoding has not arrived for the Pioneers yet - it's due via a firmware update in the next month or two).

Thanks for the info, gonk -

I'm really more concerned about 2 ch audio, but I guess it can't hurt to get the best out of the player in terms of blu ray playback

I went ahead and picked up the Samsung player. Looking forward to getting it all hooked up and trying it out in a few days.

So, any recommendations on cables to connect this thing? I'm thinking of heading back to blue jeans cables and purchasing there. Maybe I can trade my unneeded HDMI/DvI cables in for some analog audio cables...

For two-channel using the PS3, I'd go with optical - I've not heard anything particularly special about the analog output, which is not surprising since it's built around the HDMI port. The 990's DAC's and analog output stage are going to be better in that regard. If you are using the Samsung Blu-ray player, I think the same would hold true: use optical or coaxial for everything you can (CD, DVD, and really everything except Blu-ray discs that offer a multichannel PCM, TrueHD, or DTS-HD Master Audio track). I'd be in support of the idea of picking up a set of analog cables from Blue Jeans for that purpose.

Thanks again, gonk -

So, can I run the optical out and analog out at the same time? If so, I assume I configure each one as a different input? For example, Input 1 = Blu Ray and audio source = 7.1 analog. Input 2 = CD Player (which is really my Blu Ray player), audio source = optical 2.

Thanks again for all the help. I think I'm so close to having this whole thing buttoned down (until I learn enough to start playing around some more).

Right. Connect optical from the Samsung and 7.1 analog from the Samsung. The 7.1 Direct input is separate from the other video inputs (selected using the "7.1D" button on the 990's remote) and will use the multichannel analog input, and then you can set up another input for optical 2 or whatever source you want. If you go back to using the 990's DVI switching, you can even assign the same DVI port to both of those inputs (assuming you don't use CD or AUX for the optical 2 connection, as those two are audio inputs and thus don't support video switching).

Almost there....

Finally got the BD player and cables over the weekend. Got to work connecting everything and getting it all set up. I have a couple of questions (surprise, surprise), that I'm hoping some of the more experienced members might help me with:

A bit of background - no center channel installed on my system yet. Looking for an LSiC to go with my LSi15s and LSif/x and Polk sub.

First of all, I connected the Samsung BDplayer to the 990 via HDMI/DVI. I then connected the analog connectors (6 in my case) from the BD player into the 990. Also connected an optical digital audio cable from BD player to the 990. Set up the 7.1 analog input on the 990 to use DVI, and also set the CD input to use DVI and optical input connected to BD player.

First thing I tried was to play a DVD (no blu ray disks in the collection yet) using 7.1. I had a strange hum (an A flat, it I'm not mistaken) coming through the whole system. Thought is was part of the music score at first, but realized it was present all the time. Almost sounded like feedback of sorts.

I switched to the CD input using the optical digital cable. The hum went away, but so did all the dialog. Had music coming from the L/R front and L/R surround, but absolutely no dialog. Remember, I have no center channel set up yet. EDIT: If I use CD input am I automatically in 2-channel mode, thus no center/dialog??

Concerned, I pulled the analog cables and figured I would start with one connection at a time. So, playing the DVD using the CD input (DVI and optical 1), everything seemed to work as it should. No hum, dialog present in L/R speakers. Seemed to be getting 5.1 surround.

Tried playing a music CD to check sound quality. Even though I set surround mode to either stereo or upsample, I had music from fronts and surround. I didn't think I would have the surrounds playing. Also, wasn't blown away by the sound. Movie sound tracks sound great, and I was really hoping the 2-channel sound would be even better.

I notice there are settings on the BD player in addition to the processor. I think I have waded into a mess here. There is a speaker set up, and also a few choices for audio set up, including switching between PCM, bit stream (re-encode), and bit stream audiophile (no endocde?). Then there is an option for down sampling, compression, etc.

I played around a bit. I think with just the optical audio cable connected I have the audio setup to use PCM, I think I have down sampling on (default, compression off). I have all speakers set to small on BD player, no center, sub present. I have the 990 set to small fronts with x-over set at 40, and LFE only to the sub. Sound is better, but I still feel like some thing is missing.

Any guidance for setting the BD player options for the best sound? Any guesses about the hum via the analog channels. Could I simply have had a loose connection? Maybe This afternoon I'll pull the optical cable and go with the analog and see what I get.

Cheers -

There's a lot going on here and my morning's a bit crazy here, so this may be a little disjointed...
No. Each input (except for 7.1 Direct) has access to all of the 990's surround processing modes, and if the source is multichannel the 990 will preserve that. Additionally, the 990 will redirect center channel information from the center speaker to the fronts when there is no center speaker in the system.

I think you have missed a step in the 990's setup. Go back into the 990's setup menu and go to the menu called "SPEAKER SIZE." Fronts and surrounds should be "Small", center and surround back should be "None", and sub should be "Yes". Also, have you done any calibration (either the auto setup or a manual with SPL meter and the internal test tones)?

You may have been using 5 Stereo, or there may be some other issue going on. Stereo and Upsample modes with a standard CD would only be two-channel, no surrounds engaged.

First, I'd bump the crossover up to 60Hz, but that's just fine-tuning. Also check to make sure the fronts are small, as it should not be possible to select "LFE Only" for the sub if the fronts are small.

I'd have to get the manual for the player to answer that, especially since I've not used any Samsung players. Which Samsung do you have?
Sounds like a ground loop or similar interference. I'd start by checking to see how the analog cables are being routed - if they are parallel to a power cord, they are likely picking up some 60Hz noise from the power line.

OK - I've been doing a bit more searching and found a few interesting tidbits on setting up the BE player with analog outputs.

I see that if I set the speaker size to small, the LFE signal is dropped by 5db, this in addition to an already low (-10db) recording for LFE. I think that the 990 has a setup option that is something like 'analog offset for subwoofer'. I suppose that here I would dial up the subwoofer input for when I am listening to analog inputs? Perhaps I'll play with large/small setting on the BD player for my 7.1 input.

Also, I see that I have to move away from PCM to bitstream/encoded.

Hmmm... I can see I have another afternoon of re-connecting wires and playing around with things.

With the 990's 7.1 analog input, you will want to set the player up with the speakers all "Large" (or off, in the case of the center) and the sub "On" - it's not the typical advise, but the 990 provides digital bass management of this input.
Not necessarily. You want the player to decode internally because you can't deliver a raw bitstream of TrueHD or DTS-HD to the 990. The coaxial/optical output need to be set to bitstream for the same of standard DVD's, but for Blu-ray you need that internal decoding.

Wow - thanks so much for your time and your patience. I'm sure I will work my way through this, mostly because of your help. I just want to clarify a couple things:

Are you saying that I should tell the BD player that my speakers are 'large', sub 'on', center and surround rears 'off'. But I tell my 990 that my speakers are small, with sub 'on'? BTW - I have attempted the auto setup a number of times, but usually it ends with the 990 telling me that my fronts are set to small, but rears to large so it can't do it's thing (they are not set this way, of course). But generally while the setup is in progress I make note of the calibration parameters it wants to use for distance and db offset and apply them manually. For HDTV movies, I think I have things dialed in pretty well. Very happy with the sound. Better than I thought it would be.

I've tried all sorts of options for the setup. Seems that speakers set to 'large' sound the best. My latest experiment was to set the fronts to small with the 40hz xover, thinking this would get the most sound out of the LSi's and still route the low frequencies to the sub. I do know that with fronts set to 'large' and sub set to L/R + subwoofer, there is waaaaay more bass going on than I would ever want or need.

So, I played with the optical digital cable from the BD player yesterday. Maybe today I will remove it and go with just the analog interconnects. BTW - any reason not to use the analog setup for listening to CD music? Or do I need to use a digital source for that?

I did have the interconnect harness running close to the power cord for the 990. I'll try to get some separation between these and see if I can get rid of the hum.

Thanks again for all the help....

-c

Exactly. The 990 will provide bass management for all inputs, including the 7.1 Direct input, so you don't want the player doing bass management in series with the 990.
If you don't have an SPL meter handy, try bumping your front crossover up to 80Hz and re-run the auto setup. You can always adjust it later without any ill effect.
That scenario is creating an "intentional" double bass condition (perhaps not your intention, but the intention of the processor when configured that way).
The 990's analog section is going to be better than the Samsung's. As a result, you are probably better off using optical for all sources that allow it (DVD and CD), and only use the multichannel analog for Blu-ray.

Thanks again, gonk - I think all of this info is slowly starting to sink in. In fact, some of it's even making sense. That's scary.

Regarding the auto-setup, I've done it many times with different configurations. I've set all speakers to small, fronts to large and back to small, crossovers at 80hz and above. I either get a message saying I have the fronts set to small and rears to large, please reconfigure.... or I get a message saying I have no front speakers installed, please reconfigure..... NOTE - this occurs when I have the mic at ear height on my couch. I have set it on a box, on a pillow, and held it in my hand. Now, if I simply lay the mic on the couch, the setup works just fine. Don't understand it. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the overall balance I've been able to get from the system by applying the distances and gains that the autosetup is displaying while in progress, dialing in a few things by hand after the fact.

One strange thing - I've heard others mention this, too. My remote will absolutely NOT turn on the 990. I've pressed the 'tnr' button. Just won't respond to the remote. It will turn off fine. All other functions seem to work.

Tonight I have the house to myself so I get to play with all the connections and experiment with the sound (read: crank the system and scare the neighbors!). Can't wait. I'm thinking since I understand how everything connects together now, I'm gonna take it all apart and put it back together nice and neat, tie up loose cables, etc. Wish me luck!

The POWER button is a discrete OFF command. The input commands (DVD, Video1, Video2, CD, Aux, Tape, 7.1D, etc...) are also discrete ON commands. This lets you create macros on a universal remote that automate things nicely. Just pick whatever input you want to start using and the 990 will turn on.

Seriously? That's pretty cool!

Oh, yeah. It's one of those things that's been very handy in programming my universal remotes (especially in efforts to make a very complex system easy for the family to use).

Good morning -

OK, well I pulled everything apart last night, tidied up a few things, rerouted a few cables, switched around a couple of inputs, etc. Also managed to get all the analog hookups connected between the 990 and BD player. I'm glad to report that everything still works.

Even better, I'm glad to report that I think I've found the magic combination of settings that bring the CD audio alive like I was hoping for. I guess I should probably write them all down now, eh?

One of the problems I was having is that I had renamed my DVD input the Bluray CD and my CD input to Bluray CD. I think somewhere along the way I got the two mixed up. Remember I was saying that for some reason I was hearing 5 channel music when playing CDs, even though I had selected a 2 channel mode? Well, that's 'cause I had to inputs labeled the same (one audio and one video). I also told the system I had surround rears configured (which I don't), and when I changed that to 'none' the audio sound was suddenly changed much for the better.

Set the speaker size for the LSi15s to small, even though I think they can handle full range sound. Experimented with the xover frequencies, and it seems I get just the right mix of low end going to my sub at the 60hz setting. I'll have to experiment with movies to see how this works out.

Anyway, I'm almost there. Sitting listening to some Steely Dan, Michael Franks, Chic Corea, and a few others last night really brought a smile to my face. Followed up that listening session with a little hi-def hockey action, some Irish beer (it was St Pats day after all), and life was good...

Thanks for all of your help, gonk. Couldn't have done it without you.