bryanb wrote:
My main problem is the user interface is so convoluted, and I can’t seem to get any surround to work when using digital coax or optical from a LD player.
The problem w/ most of today's AV Receivers (well... not a problem for me
) is that each input is set to remember what decoding mode it was set on. For example, when you listen to the radio, it's preferred to just keep it on two channel mode and the receiver will do that if you left it that way. Once you switch to a DVD input, in most cases it will fire up all the speakers because that was the setting you left it in but it may also switch to surround automatically if it detects a Dolby Digital or DTS codec (but not PCM).
So in regards to LaserDisc, the type of sound coming out of the coax or optical output is always going to be PCM (or DTS). And because it's PCM, the AV Receiver usually assumes it's two channel audio (because that's what it is). At this point, you need to hit the "Stereo" and "Program" buttons on the AV Receiver to manually force it to decode Pro-Logic or some other DSP surround mode (usually avoid the DSP surround mode as they are just gimicky attempts to mimic different room environments).
Quote:
I have two, a cld-59, and a dvl-700. A cheap Costco special blue ray player has no problem getting surround. I’ve been through that Yamaha setup several times and it never seems to detect the surround from a LD.
That does make sense because your Blu-Ray will be outputing either Dolby Digital or DTS so the AV Receiver knows to activate "discrete" surround. Once again, you need to force the AV Receiver to a surround mode for PCM sources.
Also as an FYI, remember that some LaserDisc titles will not have "digital sound" encoding. These are usually older titles and when you play them to your AV Receiver you will still need to connect the white and red (Left and Right) analog audio outputs of the LD player to the Receiver as well.
Here is the manual for your AV Receiver as a reference....
https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/o ... r-5730.pdfDefinitely a bare bones unit that should suffice for now but you'll definitely want to upgrade @ some point.