Hello all, fresh to the site with a question!

 Just picked up a Yamaha YSP-40D today, since my old system packed up a while back, and have wooden floors already laid and true surround system will have to wait until they are relaid, which could be years!

Anyway, got it all hooked up to the V+ box and my Toshiba HD-DVD player, now with DVD's all is good as the 5.1 sound is pumped over the HDMI cable to the bar and saounds really rather nice (hooked up the old active sub, as it gives the sound that extra depth we like) however when i play a HD-DVD the EP30  can't send the HD sound tracks down the HDMI and falls back to 2 Channel! Now it does have an optical out with drops the HD tracks down to standard 5.1and I have connected that up to the soundbar and it works fine, except to hear that sound i need to set the bar to Aux 1, at which point I loose my picture from the HDMI connection, changing back to DVD brings back the picture but the sound flips back to the 2Channel mode.. anyone with experiance with either a 40D or EP30 know of a way around this? i.e. get the picture from the HDMI and sound from the optical input on at the same time.. or any other ideas on a way around this??

Hi Steve,

This sound bar on HDMI out to TV HDMI is analogue only, in TV  menu change HDMI input to analogue or auto,  -( if your TV HDMI input is digital only - run HDMI cable direct from DVD to TV).

Now, have you got version 1.3 HDMI cable from HD DVD to sound bar if not you will need one, to get full 5.1/7.1 

Have you updated your DVD firmware on line ? there is an update from september version 4.0 link:

http://www.toshibahddvd.co.uk/supportpage_uk.html

Hope you understand me ? let us know how you get on.  ...Carl.

Also in the menu on the sound bar settings, set sound inputs to auto.   

AND- - Welcome to the forums. 

Hi guys, thanks for the responses. I have the firmware on the tosh updated, as for the cable between the DVD and the sound bar.. not sure will take a look if I can tell! Do they have a habit of labeling the cables as such? I'll try swapping a few around if not.

I guess if I can't then the DVD direct to TV and digital out to soundbar would indeed work, just obviously not quite as 'nice' Which isn't much of a problem, but the wife, despite being a real gadget fan and always supportive when it comes to buying, doesn't like to have to think to much just to watch some TV

This is a hdmi port ~

hdmi connection

Just buy one steve

1.3 are well cheap these days

ebay hdmi

Hi Steve,

Should be printed on cable ?

Manual, EP30, see sound spec: Plays True HD sound,

http://www.superfi.co.uk/extras/Toshiba/Toshiba_EP30_brochure.pdf

I think it can read the True HD, but internally coverts it.. which sounds a bit odd.. but I see explenations like this around:

The EP30  handles 1080p, internally decode HD audio and send LPCM over HDMI (DTS-MA you get the core track )
EP35 also has the multi-analogues out and can bitstream all HD audio to a HDMI 1.3 amp.

So it looks liek EP30 is in some odd middle-ground where it can handle the HD Audio data, but won't let it out! Why it actualy outputs this as just two channel Audio over the HDMI and not the same 5.1 it will send down the optical in Bitstream I can not say!

Unless.. it's auto selecting DTS-HD and so I only get the core track, and I need to manual select True HD.. something to check out tonight when I'm home!

Yam review

Happens with a lot of amps that actually. A LOT do their own decoding, but not the playing of HIDEF PCM. That appears to do neither! Kind of makes me wonder why they even bothered with HDMI inputs!

Unlucky Steve

Indeed.. I think my best option then is HDMI the HD-DVD direct to the TV, and use the Optical out on it to the Yamaha, as the EP30 will bitstream 5.1 from a TRUE-HD or DTS-HD source over that as well as the none HD audio of course. No biggy really.

What I might have a look at is the upscaling.. says it can upscale to 720p/1080i from analog sources.. so I'll through the Wii at it! That should be a tester!!

Well thanks for all the help guys, all your input has kept me checking back to make sure I got things in a nicely usable state. Found I could take the image from the HDMI whilst picking up the sound from the optical for the HD-DVD, the Virgin V+ is just on pure HDMI, and the Wii is connected on the component with upscaling to 1080i ! All in all pretty nice, other than having the devices on connections other than those they are labelled as (i.e. DVD is on Aux1 rather than the named DVD button, but at least I can rename what is displayed on the readout)

Plus the new HDMI leads, when they arrive will neaten the whole lot up as they at 1m where as my current set are all 2m at least so nothing wasted there, not at that price anyway.

And in terms of the actually sound from this unit, I'm really rather impressed. Whilst I'd be hard pressed to say you hear too much from behind you, although I am in a terribly shaped room for this to be fair, it certainly provides a very wide sound stage with a real feeling of having 180 degrees of sound, which for a single box is really rather impressive. I would have to concur that it's a solid alternative for those of us without a good way of having a true separate speaker setup.

Try to make the speaker as SOLID as possible steve. I dont know what its sat on but it would almost certainly benefit from placing it on blu tack! Its down to how solid the BASE is really. My centers on a proper atacama hifi rack (really solid), main speakers are on concrete blocks!

Is the Wii ACTUALLY upscaled? I would have thought it produces TRUE 1080 (dependant on the game)? You might find its actually better displaying 720P (Really depends on your display). Progressive means the tv doesnt need to convert anything (except maybe 'scale' it), whilst 'interlaced' means the tv has to 'morph' the 2 segments together before being displayed.

I actually have a PS3 whihc uses LOTS of different sources. Ive found that in general ~ the best selection is just to play it at whatever the SOURCE is. So games will be their native 720 or 1080 (game dependant), blu rays at full 1080P and dvds none scaled (so the tv does). It also plays AVI files etc which DO look fanatastic upscaled (almost as good as a dvd at times!)

Which tv do you have Steve? (make and model)

The soundbar is on a glass shelf on the TV stand, however it barely fits so it's held in place pretty solid. I was worried it would rattle against the glass of the shelf above, but it seems to be find so far. Yet to watch a full movie in Anger (might redo transformers this weekend for a good test) The sub (from older Philips system) is on the shelf below and I have that stood on some cushioning Velcro pads which may or may not be ok.

The Wii, not trying to compete with the PS3/Xbox 360 on graphics runs in what it calls EDTV, which is a 480/576 line mode. Thus I figured a bit of upscaling would be good. Seems to look OK. I did experiment with the 720p/1080i settings, and found I couldn't tell the difference on the screen in games. The downside to this I have is I can't set it only for the Wii connection, and it will also be active when the HD-DVD is in use. Really I would be better having the HD-DVD connected directly to the screen, but that would make it more confusing to use for my other half If I'm planning a HD-DVD session I probably will move the cable before hand. For DVD playback I guessing it won't have much effect whether the Yamaha is upscaling or the Toshiba HD-DVD is, but I might try out both methods. My guess is without being able to see them side by side I'll not be able to decern a difference.

TV is a Samsung 40" LCD .. I forget the model number right now, had it for a while now though, was one of the early 1080P screens they did. Cost us just under two grand at the time.