No surround sound from Blu-Ray added to Sony Dream HTIB

[ScupperFrank]

We have a Sony Dream System HTIB, about 7 years old. We like the sound it produces, especially the surround effects from movies. However, the CD/DVD player stopped working a while back, and we bought a Blu-Ray player. It works fine for video, but despite many tries with many alternative connection schemes, I cannot get it to pass surround sound from the Blu-Ray to the surround system and into the 5.1 speakers. It routes the sound solely to the twin TV speakers on our ~ 7 year-old Samsung 40" LCD flat panel.

Advice?

Surround Soundless in Miami

 

[noidea_77]

No advice without the exact type / model of the HTIB and Blu-Ray so we can lookup the inputs / outputs it offers.

 

[ScupperFrank]

No advice without the exact type / model of the HTIB and Blu-Ray so we can lookup the inputs / outputs it offers.

The Sony Dream System is a DAV-FX900W model. On the back of the receiver/amp, it has:

1) an HDMI out port

2) a TV/VCR 2 (optical digital in) jack

3) a TV/VCR 1 (digital in coax in) jack

4) a TV/VCR 1 (audio in R/L, video in) jacks -3 plug array (banana(?) plugs)
5) a TV/VCR 1 (component video in) jacks -3 plug array (banana(?) plugs)

6) a monitor out (S video/video) jack -2 plug array (a 6(?) prong plug and a banana(?) plug)

7) an AM Terminal (looks like a 2-wire clip)
8) a coax FM 75 ohm jack
9) an XM jack


10) component video out jacks -3 plug array (banana plugs?)
11) a TV/VCR 2 (audio in R/L, video in) jacks -3 plug array (banana plugs?)

12) DIT-T1 jack

13) speaker jacks (push & clip bare wire jacks -Fr, Fl, C, SR, SL, Sub)

The sub is passive.

We get our TV signals via a satellite (DirecTV) box, and the Blu-Ray is a 2 (?) year-old Samsung BD-D5700.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on our problem.

-Scupperfrank

 

[noidea_77]

According to the bd-player manual, you should get the digital sound out of it with an optical cable and into the DAV-FX900W. did you try that already?

 

[ScupperFrank]

According to the bd-player manual, you should get the digital sound out of it with an optical cable and into the DAV-FX900W. did you try that already?

Probably -but I'm not sure.

Here's the problem behind my ignorance: while I thought I'd created a diagram of the connections, I hadn't. I need to pull the media stand away from the wall and recheck the spaghetti mess of connections back there to determine where I put the optical cable -and, to recreate a wiring diagram for the entire system.

However, our stand, while handsome for our decor, and easily supportive of the flat screen and associated HTIB components, is not the sturdiest for moving about, and I need to at best incrementally inch it along. Plus, our room space is limited, and the furnishings and furniture set. I will need to beg your indulgence while I move some furniture, and then disengage the stand, speakers, components from its current position and get it to where I can crawl behind it to see what's what.

It's Monday afternoon here in Miami right now, and I'll try and get back to you by Wednesday afternoon.

Thanks a lot for hanging in there, greatly appreciate you trying to help.

-ScupperFrank in Miami

 

[ScupperFrank]

Well, noidea_77, I shifted some of the living room furniture around, moved the front speakers, the sub, and the cCD/DVD rack away, and pulled the entertainment system away from the wall. And then I dusted -it was pretty grey with dust back there...!

And then I started tracing what was connected to what. Hipbone's connected to the thigh bone, thighbone's connected to the knee bone, knee bone's connected to the shin bone... No, wait, those are the wrong connections.

HDMI IN, HDMI OUT, this that the other.

ANd lo and behold, there, limply hanging from the back of the Sony HTIB/receiver was an optical connector, still connected!

Ah-HA! I indeed did -I now recall that I connected them last year and nothing happened

So I traced it -and it wasn't connected to anything, now...

I guess I pulled it when it didn't work, last go-round, last year.

But the one, unconnected end looked rather dusty, and I wondered if the light pipe would transmit sufficient light with such a dirty end. So I unconnected the other end from the HTIB, and it was quite a bit clearer -but looked warped, like it had been bent upon insertion. I went to clean the other end, rubbing it with a bit of alcohol on a paper towel, when the WHOLE DAMN END cam off...! Huh...??? What was left was a thin tube...

So I said to myself, "Self? Do a search for optical digital cablen images and let's see what those ends are SUPPOSED to look like!"

And all the pics I saw looked just like the one I had in my hand, with the end off... And the OTHER end -the distorted one I pulled out of the HTIB? -it, too, came off! And now it, TOO, looked like the opticale endfs in the pics.

Is it possible...? Could it be...? Do you suppose...?

That I connected them with the %$$(&%$ covers still on last year and THAT'S why it didn't work?????

Well, fool, connect'em now! WITHOUT the covers!

And so I did.

And stuck in a DVD.

And so it worked.

Sound to the left of me, sound to the right. Sound in front, sound in back, sound ALL AROUND!

How dumb can one be?

I think I just answered that one...

Thanks for trying to help, noidea, greatly appreciated. Sorry I wasted your time.

No longer Surfound Soundless in Miami,

-ScupperFrank