Need Help with New Receiver Settings

I recently purchased a Sony STR-DG820 receiver to replace the old one that broke down on me. I know Sony isn't the most popular brand for receivers, but it was on sale for $190 which looked like a great deal. So far it works great and sounds fantastic with my PS3.

My setup is all through HDMI with my PS3 as my BD player and set to Linear PCM audio output. I haven't tried any DTS-HD MA movies, yet, but it outputs TrueHD without a problem.

Last night while playing with the display during Spiderman 3 on Blu-Ray I noticed it listed "V.Multi Dimension" as the sound field and the Pro Logic II decoder light was lit. The LPCM, light was also lit, the receiver was displaying "Linear PCM [48]" as the sound output and the PS3 showed TrueHD as the sound.

So everything looked in order and sounded great, but the receiver offers multiple sound fields and I'm at a loss as to which one should be used.

One option is to press the "A.F.D." button to select Auto, Enhanced Surround and Multi Stereo. Auto is supposed to present the sound as it was recorded without surround effects. E.Surround lets you choose an E.Surround mode. Multi Stereo outputs 2 channel signals from all speakers.

Auto sounds alright considering there's no surround sound, so I tend to use this for my DishNetwork VIP722 DVR. Multi Stereo was strange. It felt like I was in a crowded room with voices coming from every speaker, so that seemed like it was meant for music.

E.Surround offers Pro Logic II for 5 channel and Pro Logic IIx, Neo:6 Cinema, Neo:6 Music and Neural-THX for 7 channel.

The second option is to use a Movie/Music mode. For movies the amp offers A, B, C and V. Multi Dimension. A is called the "Cary Grant Theater" and a standard mode for any type of movie. B is called "Kim Novak Theater" and is supposed to be ideal for action or Sci-Fi movies with lots of sound effects. C is supposed to be ideal for musicals.

V.Multi Dimension creates many virtual speakers from a single pair of actual surround speakers.

V.Multi seems like a bad idea using virtual speakers, but it did sound great during Spiderman when I didnt realize it was on.

My gut says I should be able to make or choose a standard sound field, but I can't find the option. Which leads me to lean towards Movie mode A and B for the PS3 and A.F.D. Auto for the DVR.

Does anyone think I'll have any loss in quality of sound?

Heres a PDF copy of the manual if I haven't explained it very well (Page 57): http://www.sony.co.uk/product/hcs-home-cinema-receiver/str-dg820/tab/manual

On a side note, besides constantly using a little electricity, is there any reason to keep the receiver off at all times instead of switching it off with the remote (standby)? I'm always paranoid my electronics, even if I already know my Wii and PS3 are constantly in standby by default.

Thanks for any advice :)

I recently purchased a Sony STR-DG820 receiver to replace the old one that broke down on me. I know Sony isn't the most popular brand for receivers, but it was on sale for $190 which looked like a great deal. So far it works great and sounds fantastic with my PS3.

My setup is all through HDMI with my PS3 as my BD player and set to Linear PCM audio output. I haven't tried any DTS-HD MA movies, yet, but it outputs TrueHD without a problem.

Last night while playing with the display during Spiderman 3 on Blu-Ray I noticed it listed "V.Multi Dimension" as the sound field and the Pro Logic II decoder light was lit. The LPCM, light was also lit, the receiver was displaying "Linear PCM [48]" as the sound output and the PS3 showed TrueHD as the sound.

So everything looked in order and sounded great, but the receiver offers multiple sound fields and I'm at a loss as to which one should be used.

One option is to press the "A.F.D." button to select Auto, Enhanced Surround and Multi Stereo. Auto is supposed to present the sound as it was recorded without surround effects. E.Surround lets you choose an E.Surround mode. Multi Stereo outputs 2 channel signals from all speakers.

Auto sounds alright considering there's no surround sound, so I tend to use this for my DishNetwork VIP722 DVR. Multi Stereo was strange. It felt like I was in a crowded room with voices coming from every speaker, so that seemed like it was meant for music.

E.Surround offers Pro Logic II for 5 channel and Pro Logic IIx, Neo:6 Cinema, Neo:6 Music and Neural-THX for 7 channel.

The second option is to use a Movie/Music mode. For movies the amp offers A, B, C and V. Multi Dimension. A is called the "Cary Grant Theater" and a standard mode for any type of movie. B is called "Kim Novak Theater" and is supposed to be ideal for action or Sci-Fi movies with lots of sound effects. C is supposed to be ideal for musicals.

V.Multi Dimension creates many virtual speakers from a single pair of actual surround speakers.

V.Multi seems like a bad idea using virtual speakers, but it did sound great during Spiderman when I didnt realize it was on.

My gut says I should be able to make or choose a standard sound field, but I can't find the option. Which leads me to lean towards Movie mode A and B for the PS3 and A.F.D. Auto for the DVR.

Does anyone think I'll have any loss in quality of sound?

Heres a PDF copy of the manual if I haven't explained it very well (Page 57): http://www.sony.co.uk/product/hcs-home-cinema-receiver/str-dg820/tab/manual

On a side note, besides constantly using a little electricity, is there any reason to keep the receiver off at all times instead of switching it off with the remote (standby)? I'm always paranoid my electronics, even if I already know my Wii and PS3 are constantly in standby by default.

Thanks for any advice :)


1st where did you get it for only $190,
2nd this is a great receiver i got it a few weeks ago to replace my onkyo 604.
now on the settings its best to use A.F.D it gives you the best surround option,when your playing music use multi st.,as far as your ps3 i'm to sure as i have a sony s350,but i'm pretty sure the ps3 does'nt decode all hd formats so what ever it does'nt decode you will see it light up LPCM 48khz

I got it for 190 on Amazon during Black Friday. The PS3 does decode all codecs, so it displays LPCM because it decodes and then steams it as uncompressed LPCM.

Imagine the PS3 is out of the equation. By letting it do the decoding I am able to get everything including DTS-HD MA. It works just like the S350.

When you say A.F.D. is the best for surround, do you mean E.Surround or do you mean A.F.D. Auto?

Any advice on how best to utilize the receiver is appreciated :)

Thanks for the advice!

I got it for 190 on Amazon during Black Friday. The PS3 does decode all codecs, so it displays LPCM because it decodes and then steams it as uncompressed LPCM.

Imagine the PS3 is out of the equation. By letting it do the decoding I am able to get everything including DTS-HD MA. It works just like the S350.

When you say A.F.D. is the best for surround, do you mean E.Surround or do you mean A.F.D. Auto?

Any advice on how best to utilize the receiver is appreciated :)

Thanks for the advice!

I mean the a.f.d auto

Thanks :)

I'll try out A.F.D. tomorrow night. I just setup the new AV cabinet, rearranged the furniture and placed the speakers in better positions, so I'm due for another movie night. We'll see how it sounds.

Thanks for the advice. It is a great receiver, so I wanted to get the best out of it.

as far as your ps3 i'm to sure as i have a sony s350,but i'm pretty sure the ps3 does'nt decode all hd formats so what ever it does'nt decode you will see it light up LPCM 48khz

Sopraono,

You have it backwards. The PS3 decodes everything to multi channel LPCM, so your display on the AVR will indicate PCM (the format is already decoded so the AVR has no idea what format it came from). The PS3, due to a Hardware HDMI chipset used, can not pass the un-decoded high resolution codec over HDMI (Bitstream HD codec). The PS3 decodes everything, so this doesn't matter sound wise and gives the customer a firmware updatable decoder and full access to all Bluray's advanced secondary audio options. Other players like the 350 can only add the secondary audio with the lossy sound tracks (When you have the 350 in Mix mode it is decoding a lossy audio track.)

On your 350 when you set it to direct it isn't decoding but passing the raw codec to the AVR for decoding and that is why you display on the AVR shows the format like Dolby TRUE HD or DTS HD MA.