Sony S350 + Onkyo 606 = no True HD sound?

[Phayze]

Just hooked up my new Sony S350 (thanks Blockbuster / Bargain forum), and was about to put it through it's paces with Iron Man, but as it started, I realised that the amp wasn't showing any of the 'fancy' lights that come up when it detects a digital input, only the PCM/multichannel info. I've checked that all the audio is set to go via the HDMI port(s), but still no joy.

Is there any quick way to tell if a cable is HDMI 1.3a compatible? Would that be the cause of the problem? I don't want to re-route everything if I don't have to.

Ta,

[Teece]

Set the S350 to 'direct' rather than 'mix' under the audio settings.

[johnrevill]

As above - I didn't think the setting was obvious in the S350 settings but it is there. I think its called "BD audio"

[Phayze]

Yeah - thanks, that solved it. It always confuses me when HD equipment is set up by default as if you're going to plug it in to a 14" portable...

[rwniel]

Providing it's hooked up via hdmi, it's just the difference between letting the S350 do the in-built hd decoding or having the Onkyo 606 do it. With Dolby TrueHD soundtracks there shouldn't be a huge amount of difference; DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks is a different matter though since the S350 is otherwise unable to decode these directly.

Robert