Old Pioneer VSX-D811S surround-sound receiver Blu Ray compatible?

Dirty Harry

Hello all. Awesome forum. I finally took the plunge recently and got a 1080P TV. Now I want a Blu Ray player. Problem is my 4-5 year-old Pioneer surround sound receiver doesn't have an HDMI connection. I'm looking at the back of the receiver now as well as reading the old CNET review and it appears to have:

A coaxial digital input.
An optical digital input and output.
DVD 7.1 CH inputs.
(It may have more inputs, it has so much stuff going on in the back it looks like a space shuttle control panel!)

Which is a good Blu Ray player to go with that will work with this receiver? I saw a few Blu Ray players at Best Buy today and I saw that they all had HDMI outputs for receivers but some did not have analog 7.1 outputs. Some had optical outputs too. I've had this $1500-$2000 or so surround sound system for about 5 years and have used it for probably 1 year of that. Now that my new T V doesn't have subwoofers built-in, I want to get my surround sound finally hooked up. Any help would be appreciated!

DH

kamspy

Sony BDP-S550 will send all the lossless audio formats to your receiver via the 7.1 channel analog inputs.

The Panny BD55 will do the same, but it's hard to find and being sold at a price that isn't worth it.




What kind of speakers are you using? Did you say you are looking for a sub?

JMS

Since I am not considering replacing my HK AVR7300 anytime soon, I also need full decoding on analog outputs in a Blu-ray.
With a little patience, I will be looking at this player:

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10137356-100.html

Could be out the door at under $200 with tax.

That is, if I don't lose my job next week....

clearday

I have a Pioneer receiver VSX-1016, which has HDMI video only and I have to use an optical cable from my blu ray into the receiver for sound. I run the HDMI straight into my tv (I like the direct connection for video to the tv), then the optical out of the blu ray into the receiver. My receiver also has a THX feature which I enable for the blu ray. Set the blu ray player to bitstream audio out and the sound is fantastic. You won't get the newest sounds available from blu ray, but the ones you will get thru optical are excellent anyway.

So don't buy any new receivers till you try out what you have. The improvement in sound from a standard dvd to a blu ray is so good you'll probably be fine with your current set up for a while.

Dirty Harry

Would the Sony BDP-S350 or Samsung BD-P1500 work with my Pioneer receiver? I can get a good deal locally on the Samsung and I keep reading good things about the Sony. (Other than the fact you can't pause it then do slow scanning). I realize that the inputs wouldn't be "lossless", but how much would I truly lose audio-wise?

My speakers I have are:

Polk RT 128's
Polk CS130
Polk FX130
Sony SA WX700 Subwoofer.

Thanks.

DH

Dirty Harry

"I have a Pioneer receiver VSX-1016, which has HDMI video only and I have to use an optical cable from my blu ray into the receiver for sound. I run the HDMI straight into my tv (I like the direct connection for video to the tv), then the optical out of the blu ray into the receiver. My receiver also has a THX feature which I enable for the blu ray. Set the blu ray player to bitstream audio out and the sound is fantastic. You won't get the newest sounds available from blu ray, but the ones you will get thru optical are excellent anyway."


Yeah, I liked my Pioneer receiver when I had it hooked up a few years back. Great sound and plenty of volume. Now that I have the better TV I want to get the whole deal going. I was thinking of using the optical cable from a Bluray into the receiver. I see the optical cables are kind of pricey, but no big deal. I wonder if I would notice the "lossless" quality at my rookie level without using the analog 7.1 inputs!

DH

clearday

I have the Samsung BD-P1400 and it outputs great sound and works well with the HDMI into tv and optical into receiver. So I would recommend the 1500.

Don't worry about what you'll lose audio wise because to get a real good HDMI receiver which passes sound and video can cost nearly $600 to $1000. So, as you have a nice set up now, try what you have and I think you'll be blown away by the sound, even with optical. It's really great.

Go to www.monoprice.com and search for an optical cable. Even locally, at Fry's, I paid less than $10 for an optical cable. Just don't fall for the Monster rip off cables, they provide no benefit except to the pocketbook of Rip Off Master Monster Corp.

Dirty Harry

Yeah, the new Vizio sounds good. I wonder if it does the "24-frame" function I keep seeing for the best quality? And I know what you're saying about having a job. I've been out of work in Michigan for 13 mos. now. I went back to college and am lucky they keep extending unemployment. (Although that may end soon). I'll be OK. I guess I should have different priorities than getting a big HDTV setup with a Bluray and surround sound! I did already have the surround sound setup from way back though. (I guess I have too much time on my hands now so I might as well enjoy some Blurays while I'm off!) Hey, I worked steady for like 25 years so I'm not feeling guilty. I sold my 4 year-old, huge big screen and got an awesome deal on a 60" Mitsubishi WD-60735. The TV was 2 months old, came with a nice black glass stand, AND comes with a 3 year extended warranty all for $1050! I didn't necessarily want the Mitsubishi, (I was leaning towards a new 61" Samsung), but the deal was too good to pass up and the picture quality blows my old 65" 720 Toshiba out of the water. So much clearer and brighter and SMALLER!

DH

Dirty Harry

Well, I was just getting ready to go get a used BD-P1500 for $165 and went to Best Buy's website to read the reviews. I guess it's a bad thing when the first set of reviews have 3 players not playing discs after 2 months and others failing within 6 months.


The search goes on....

Thank God for reviews!

DH

clearday

Harry, All the blu ray players require you to upgrade their software every few months as the studios alter their security encoding. And if people don't do the upgrade, disks don't work. The thing I like about the Sammy is you can plug it into your internet connection and update it online. Others may require you to burn a cd or something. Tho I get no commission from Samsung, so check out the blu ray review section here at the forum for many other opinions:

http://www.highdefforum.com/blu-ray-players-65/

JMS

Audio quality via optical/coax on a Blu-ray disc is signifacantly improved over the audio heard on DVD. Any BD player will send a 1.5 Megabit-per-second core stream embedded the DTS-HD Master Audio (lossless) track on its optical/coax output. DTS on standard DVD has always been limited to 768 or less kilobits-per-second. In the case of Dolby TrueHD, 640 kbps goes out on optical/coax. This compares to 384 or 448 kbps for Dolby Digital on DVD. These higher bitrates are clearly audible even on modest audio systems.

Even with the higher bitrates over optical/coax, it is still a long way from lossless digital sound. However, the actual improvement lossless delivers obviously depends on the equipment used and the listener's ears. As clearday says, you may be perfectly happy with the bitstreams available on SPDIF.

Dirty Harry

Well, I got a Sony Sony BDP-S350 and all I can say is WOW! What a picture. I rented the new Indiana Jones in Blu Ray and was blown away by the detail in the caves, the vivid colors, etc. I have to do some research on the settings for the TV and the Blu Ray player though. I could never get the picture while watching the movie to fill up the whole screen. Now before I get jumped all over for not knowing the basics, I am a 1080P-surround sounding newbie that used to be an auto tech and am still learning the ropes! I thought that if you had a 1080p, widescreen TV and a Blu Ray, it would fill the whole TV screen up by not stretching it out. Plus I'm waiting on my speaker wire and optical cable to get the full effect of the Blu Ray and the TV. I can hardly wait! Thanks all for the help!

DH

BoardBabe

I have this same reciever and are planning to connect a Sony BDP-S760 to the analog 7.1 inputs on the VSX-D811S and achieve true DTS HD and DD HD. However I am having an issue with the subwoofer output that I hope you can help me with.

I have large Dali Blue series speakers front, center and rear as well as a new Dali 12" active sub 250w. The speakers are great and work perfect, however I can only get sound from the sub when I set all speakers to SMALL. And when I set all speakers to SMALL they sound like satelites made of paper if I turn down the sub. Set it to Large and they sound great however the sub is inactive. i have tried setting SUBWOOFER to PLS however it did not help.

Any idea how I can maintain some bass in the main speakers as well as send the growling and lots of bass also to the active sub?

JMS

There are three subwoofer activation settings on the Pioneer: ON, OFF, and PLS.

From the manual:

You can then adjust the LFE attenuation setting from 0 to +10 on the receiver until the desired amount of bass is achieved. You can also adjust the master volume on the sub itself. I would also turn the crossover setting on the sub (if there is one) up to its highest lavel.

Finally, there could be some setup issues in the Sony BD player itself concerning the analog outputs, specifically with the sub or LFE output. Check the owner's manual for this.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

BoardBabe

Thank you for the welcome and information.

I will try setting to PLS, LFE10 and X.OVER200 and see if it helps.

As of right now I am only connected to a Pioneer DVD player with an optical spdif cable. I am planning to get a Sony blu-ray with analog outputs if I can get the sub working properly. I will then experience true HD sound correct?