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Post by GTPlus on Mar 13, 2017 9:16:59 GMT -5
Looking for the communities help on an issue I am having in the hopes I might be overlooking something.
I’ve had my MC-700 for a couple months now and everything, for the most part, as been really good. That is until this weekend. For some reason I cannot get my PS4’s to play the audio from disc based movies. Everything else works great; downloaded games, disc games, Hulu, Netflix, HBOGo etc…
My family usually streams movies/TV and rarely watches disc based, so the issue had not come up before last night.
Strange thing is most of the discs I tried will play the intros and previews, but once I push play from the main menu, I get a thump followed by brief static then “no audio”. My system is not complex; just the PS4 feeding the MC-700, set up as 5.1, then going to my Samsung 1080P plasma with the second output going to a Ben-Q projector.
I narrowed it down to an issue with the PS4 and my MC-700 having handshake issues. I am assuming this based on; I used a regular Blu-ray player and everything works fine, PS4 direct to the TV works fine, and two different PS4’s one Regular and one PS4PRO, both with the same results-no audio.
What I have done so far;
- multiple Blu-ray and DVD’s
- Both my PS4 Pro and regular PS4
- Multiple HDMI cables
- Used input 3 and input 6 on the MC-700
- PS4 set to PCM, Dolby and DTS. No change, but when I do change this I get brief thump static
- Rebooted MC-700 using power off switch.
- Used both MC-700 outputs, since I have a projector on output 2
- Tried switching inputs while DVD was playing to try and force a handshake.
- Power down and up while playing
So far I have not been able to successfully get my PS4 to play disc based movies.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Anyone else with a PS4 and an MC-700 have playable discs based movies?
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Post by crazycuz2k on Mar 13, 2017 10:17:10 GMT -5
I set my blu-ray player to PCM only and not bitstream.
When I get audiosync issues, it's usually an HDMI handshake issue, and so I turn my bluray player completely off then on again to reengage the HDMI handshake.
All else fails, make sure you're using premium rated HDMI cables from for all your connections. (I only use Blue Jeans Cables)
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 13, 2017 10:36:23 GMT -5
I set my blu-ray player to PCM only and not bitstream. When I get audiosync issues, it's usually an HDMI handshake issue, and so I turn my bluray player completely off then on again to reengage the HDMI handshake. All else fails, make sure you're using premium rated HDMI cables from for all your connections. (I only use Blue Jeans Cables) Thanks for the feedback. I tried PCM on the PS4, but that didn't help. I also tried several cables, but the same results. Also all of the cables were good on the Toshiba Blu-ray. Not sure what else to try. |
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 13, 2017 12:34:58 GMT -5
I set my blu-ray player to PCM only and not bitstream. When I get audiosync issues, it's usually an HDMI handshake issue, and so I turn my bluray player completely off then on again to reengage the HDMI handshake. All else fails, make sure you're using premium rated HDMI cables from for all your connections. (I only use Blue Jeans Cables) Thanks for the feedback. I tried PCM on the PS4, but that didn't help. I also tried several cables, but the same results. Also all of the cables were good on the Toshiba Blu-ray. Not sure what else to try. Unplug the projector from the back of the MC-700. Leave the projector unplugged for the rest of this test. Plug the PS4 into an available MC-700 HDMI input labeled 4-6. Power everything down (not just "standby") and turn the MC-700 off at the main switch on back. Press the Standby button on the front of the MC-700 (with the main power switch still off) and hold for 5 seconds. Wait 15 minutes with everything remaining off. After 15 minutes, turn the back panel switch of the MC-700 back on and power up the system using the following sequence.... TV (wait for it to fully power up) > MC-700 > PS4 What happens...  |
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 13, 2017 14:07:44 GMT -5
Unplug the projector from the back of the MC-700. Leave the projector unplugged for the rest of this test. Plug the PS4 into an available MC-700 HDMI input labeled 4-6. Power everything down (not just "standby") and turn the MC-700 off at the main switch on back. Press the Standby button on the front of the MC-700 (with the main power switch still off) and hold for 5 seconds. Wait 15 minutes with everything remaining off. After 15 minutes, turn the back panel switch of the MC-700 back on and power up the system using the following sequence.... TV (wait for it to fully power up) > MC-700 > PS4 What happens... Thanks, I'll try this sequence tonight. Did something similar, but not in this particular order. |
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 13, 2017 16:11:40 GMT -5
Unplug the projector from the back of the MC-700. Leave the projector unplugged for the rest of this test. Plug the PS4 into an available MC-700 HDMI input labeled 4-6. Power everything down (not just "standby") and turn the MC-700 off at the main switch on back. Press the Standby button on the front of the MC-700 (with the main power switch still off) and hold for 5 seconds. Wait 15 minutes with everything remaining off. After 15 minutes, turn the back panel switch of the MC-700 back on and power up the system using the following sequence.... TV (wait for it to fully power up) > MC-700 > PS4 What happens... Thanks, I'll try this sequence tonight. Did something similar, but not in this particular order. Please keep in mind that what we're trying to do in the first "step" is to flush out any erroneous EDID information and force a reset. Therefore, it's important to not skip any part of this. I believe there might also be some EDID read conflicts (or confusion) as a result of having your projector connected as a second display. So, for now, let's leave it out of the chain. The second step involves powering up the components in the correct "read" order. The correct HDMI power-up sequence has always been "Sink (Display)" first, then "Source". Since you have an active switching device in the chain, your sequence would be "Sink (Display) > Switch (MC-700) > Source". It seems many of the newer HDMI 2.0 chipsets are very robust and quick on the draw. They want the EDID information quickly. Getting the sequence in the right order, and making sure there's enough time in-between for each component to become fully "responsive", eliminates many handshake related issues. Hoping this helps...  |
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 13, 2017 19:59:14 GMT -5
Well got a chance to go through the sequence. Unfortunately it did not work, still no audio on discs. I did finally discover one more piece of information though. I tried a bunch of different DVD's and BR's; as I went through them I noticed some of them would play audio at the menu and on previews, but only on the older ones. It got me thinking that it might be the audio format of the disc. So I went through my DVD's looking for an older one. Found one that was only stereo, one of my kids old Elmo movies. Sure enough it worked.
So it seems to me that if the PS4 is playing a disc with anything above stereo, the MC-700 looses the audio. But only on discs, 5.1 works fine on Netflix/HBOGo.
Not sure if this is a bug on the MC-700 or not. Will have to talk with Emotiva tech support.
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 13, 2017 20:50:09 GMT -5
Well got a chance to go through the sequence. Unfortunately it did not work, still no audio on discs. I did finally discover one more piece of information though. I tried a bunch of different DVD's and BR's; as I went through them I noticed some of them would play audio at the menu and on previews, but only on the older ones. It got me thinking that it might be the audio format of the disc. So I went through my DVD's looking for an older one. Found one that was only stereo, one of my kids old Elmo movies. Sure enough it worked. So it seems to me that if the PS4 is playing a disc with anything above stereo, the MC-700 looses the audio. But only on discs, 5.1 works fine on Netflix/HBOGo. Not sure if this is a bug on the MC-700 or not. Will have to talk with Emotiva tech support. It doesn't sound like a problem with the MC-700, but rather a problem with the PS4 configuration. There are two areas (hardware and software) to check to ensure that you're actually passing the bitstream directly from the disc to the AVR or processor for external decoding. The first setting is within the PS4's main settings. First, go to Settings > Sound & Screen > Audio Output Settings. Once there, set "Primary Output Port" to “HDMI OUT" and "Audio Format (Priority)" to “Bitstream (Dolby)". Now, it's not well documented that Blu-ray playback is also performed through an app on the PS4, but there are crucial settings here as well. So, while a disc is playing, press the "Options" button on the PS4 controller, select "Settings", then set "Audio Format" to “Bitstream (Direct)". See if that corrects the issue. |
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 13, 2017 23:51:21 GMT -5
Well got a chance to go through the sequence. Unfortunately it did not work, still no audio on discs. I did finally discover one more piece of information though. I tried a bunch of different DVD's and BR's; as I went through them I noticed some of them would play audio at the menu and on previews, but only on the older ones. It got me thinking that it might be the audio format of the disc. So I went through my DVD's looking for an older one. Found one that was only stereo, one of my kids old Elmo movies. Sure enough it worked. So it seems to me that if the PS4 is playing a disc with anything above stereo, the MC-700 looses the audio. But only on discs, 5.1 works fine on Netflix/HBOGo. Not sure if this is a bug on the MC-700 or not. Will have to talk with Emotiva tech support. It doesn't sound like a problem with the MC-700, but rather a problem with the PS4 configuration. There are two areas (hardware and software) to check to ensure that you're actually passing the bitstream directly from the disc to the AVR or processor for external decoding. The first setting is within the PS4's main settings. First, go to Settings > Sound & Screen > Audio Output Settings. Once there, set "Primary Output Port" to “HDMI OUT" and "Audio Format (Priority)" to “Bitstream (Dolby)". Now, it's not well documented that Blu-ray playback is also performed through an app on the PS4, but there are crucial settings here as well. So, while a disc is playing, press the "Options" button on the PS4 controller, select "Settings", then set "Audio Format" to “Bitstream (Direct)". See if that corrects the issue. Thanks for your help doc1963. That last bit seemed to work. I had already tried the audio settings in the sound & screen settings, but not the "Options button" settings while playing. It was set to linear PCM and not Bitstream (Direct). |
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Post by andyman on Mar 14, 2017 9:53:52 GMT -5
Wow doc. Sounds like you know your stuff !
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 14, 2017 10:15:15 GMT -5
Wow doc. Sounds like you know your stuff ! Just an old propellerhead who doesn't mind helping another enthusiast out of a tough spot... |
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 14, 2017 10:36:34 GMT -5
After reading up on this more, I am still somewhat disappointed as a consumer that this even has to happen. Almost entirely at Sony, but still a little at Emotiva.
Sony should be slapped for having two places to change from Linear PCM to Bitstream. Especially one that is very poorly documented and deeply hidden in a menu. BTW for others, once you push the option button, while in playback, you need to scroll over to see the added menu item "Settings".
I am still not sure why the MC-700 can't play the Linear PCM out of the PS4 though. So I am not convinced the MC-700 is completely innocent in all this. IMO it should not go unlooked at by the team as a bug.
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 14, 2017 15:20:42 GMT -5
After reading up on this more, I am still somewhat disappointed as a consumer that this even has to happen. Almost entirely at Sony, but still a little at Emotiva. Sony should be slapped for having two places to change from Linear PCM to Bitstream. Especially one that is very poorly documented and deeply hidden in a menu. BTW for others, once you push the option button, while in playback, you need to scroll over to see the added menu item "Settings". I am still not sure why the MC-700 can't play the Linear PCM out of the PS4 though. So I am not convinced the MC-700 is completely innocent in all this. IMO it should not go unlooked at by the team as a bug. I totally get your frustration, but, trust me, this is 100% a "Sony thing". It's very frustrating to get configured "correctly" and, worse, one persons configuration doesn't necessarily work for someone else. Basically, it all boils down to this... The audio settings in the PS4's "main" setup menu are intended for games and apps. The audio settings for disc based playback of "movies" (Blu-ray/DVD) are selected directly in the media control app that automatically launches as the disc is recognized as such. You choose these settings directly on the PS4 controller. This is how the PS4, remembering it's a game system first and foremost, is designed to work. To rule out your MC-700 and give you some peace of mind, try this... - In you PS4's main settings menu, go to "Settings" > "Sound & Screen" > "Audio Output Settings". Keep your "Primary Output Port" as HDMI, but change "Audio Format (Priority)" to LPCM. Now, go back to the area where you've chosen the " audio formats supported by your display or receiver" and uncheck everything except "Linear PCM 5.1 48 kHz" (or 7.1 if your system is a 7.1 configuration). The PS4 will now decode everything internally and send Linear PCM to your processor. Remember, this setting only applies to "games and apps", so pick a game that you know has 5.1 surround audio and throw it in. Or, if you don't have a game handy, play a movie through Neflix. Either way, your MC-700 should report that it's receiving "Multi-channel PCM" and you should certainly hear the audio as such. If so, the MC-700 is working correctly. Next, pick a Blu-ray that you know has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Throw it in. When it begins to play, press "Options" on the PS4 controller, then select "Settings" > "Audio Format" > "Bitstream (Direct)". Your MC-700 should now indicate that it's receiving DTS-HD Master Audio and you should hear it as such. If so, then, again, your MC-700 is working properly. Hope all that makes sense... |
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 14, 2017 18:04:18 GMT -5
I totally get your frustration, but, trust me, this is 100% a "Sony thing". It's very frustrating to get configured "correctly" and, worse, one persons configuration doesn't necessarily work for someone else. Basically, it all boils down to this... The audio settings in the PS4's "main" setup menu are intended for games and apps. The audio settings for disc based playback of "movies" (Blu-ray/DVD) are selected directly in the media control app that automatically launches as the disc is recognized as such. You choose these settings directly on the PS4 controller. This is how the PS4, remembering it's a game system first and foremost, is designed to work. To rule out your MC-700 and give you some peace of mind, try this... - In you PS4's main settings menu, go to "Settings" > "Sound & Screen" > "Audio Output Settings". Keep your "Primary Output Port" as HDMI, but change "Audio Format (Priority)" to LPCM. Now, go back to the area where you've chosen the " audio formats supported by your display or receiver" and uncheck everything except "Linear PCM 5.1 48 kHz" (or 7.1 if your system is a 7.1 configuration). The PS4 will now decode everything internally and send Linear PCM to your processor. Remember, this setting only applies to "games and apps", so pick a game that you know has 5.1 surround audio and throw it in. Or, if you don't have a game handy, play a movie through Neflix. Either way, your MC-700 should report that it's receiving "Multi-channel PCM" and you should certainly hear the audio as such. If so, the MC-700 is working correctly. Next, pick a Blu-ray that you know has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Throw it in. When it begins to play, press "Options" on the PS4 controller, then select "Settings" > "Audio Format" > "Bitstream (Direct)". Your MC-700 should now indicate that it's receiving DTS-HD Master Audio and you should hear it as such. If so, then, again, your MC-700 is working properly. Hope all that makes sense... hmmm... not sure I agree it is 100% Sony. So you are saying the MC-700 is not supposed to play Linear PCM? It worked on my UMC-1, just never knew about that setting because I have never needed to. The only change was to the MC-700. The PS4 does not have a setting audio formats supported by your display or receiver, that I am aware of. The only options are - Linear PCM, Bitstream[Dolby], and Bitstream[DTS]. But MC-700 works fine with any of the three for games and apps; just not discs. I had to force Bitstream Dolby in the player, because Linear PCM didn't work with the MC-700. I am not trying to be argumentative, because I really appreciate the help you have given, but I believe this is something that should be looked into further. Since I am sure I am not the only guy in the world who will face this issue. |
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 14, 2017 18:46:15 GMT -5
I totally get your frustration, but, trust me, this is 100% a "Sony thing". It's very frustrating to get configured "correctly" and, worse, one persons configuration doesn't necessarily work for someone else. Basically, it all boils down to this... The audio settings in the PS4's "main" setup menu are intended for games and apps. The audio settings for disc based playback of "movies" (Blu-ray/DVD) are selected directly in the media control app that automatically launches as the disc is recognized as such. You choose these settings directly on the PS4 controller. This is how the PS4, remembering it's a game system first and foremost, is designed to work. To rule out your MC-700 and give you some peace of mind, try this... - In you PS4's main settings menu, go to "Settings" > "Sound & Screen" > "Audio Output Settings". Keep your "Primary Output Port" as HDMI, but change "Audio Format (Priority)" to LPCM. Now, go back to the area where you've chosen the " audio formats supported by your display or receiver" and uncheck everything except "Linear PCM 5.1 48 kHz" (or 7.1 if your system is a 7.1 configuration). The PS4 will now decode everything internally and send Linear PCM to your processor. Remember, this setting only applies to "games and apps", so pick a game that you know has 5.1 surround audio and throw it in. Or, if you don't have a game handy, play a movie through Neflix. Either way, your MC-700 should report that it's receiving "Multi-channel PCM" and you should certainly hear the audio as such. If so, the MC-700 is working correctly. Next, pick a Blu-ray that you know has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Throw it in. When it begins to play, press "Options" on the PS4 controller, then select "Settings" > "Audio Format" > "Bitstream (Direct)". Your MC-700 should now indicate that it's receiving DTS-HD Master Audio and you should hear it as such. If so, then, again, your MC-700 is working properly. Hope all that makes sense... hmmm... not sure I agree it is 100% Sony. So you are saying the MC-700 is not supposed to play Linear PCM? It worked on my UMC-1, just never knew about that setting because I have never needed to. The only change was to the MC-700. The PS4 does not have a setting audio formats supported by your display or receiver, that I am aware of. The only options are - Linear PCM, Bitstream[Dolby], and Bitstream[DTS]. But MC-700 works fine with any of the three for games and apps; just not discs. I had to force Bitstream Dolby in the player, because Linear PCM didn't work with the MC-700. I am not trying to be argumentative, because I really appreciate the help you have given, but I believe this is something that should be looked into further. Since I am sure I am not the only guy in the world who will face this issue. Nope, I'm not saying that at all. The MC-700 (which I do not own, but have owned every incarnation back to the UMC-1) absolutely supports Multi-Channel PCM and should auto detect it if, in fact, that's what it's receiving. Have you tried scrolling through the available modes on the MC-700 to see if it's an available option? If it is, have you tried a "forced" mode selection and does that produce any audio...? My PS4 was replaced by an Xbox One S, so I'm doing my best to work from memory, but I'd be more than happy to pull it back out and go through the setup options. I do remember an area where you set the "pass through" options. This particular setup option told the PS4 what your receiver (or TV) was capable of decoding and those formats would be passed through "as is". Anything else would be decoded internally and sent as LPCM. But, again, this only applies to games (which are already encoded as LPCM) and apps. Selecting the bitstream option for disc based (movie) playback can only be set through the controller. No, that doesn't make sense, but that's how it works. If you set your PS4 the way I have described in my later post above and your MC-700 does not detect an incoming LPCM multi-channel stream from a game or from Netflix (or any other installed app), then yes, by all means you should contact Emotiva. |
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Post by doc1963 on Mar 15, 2017 0:04:47 GMT -5
Okay, so I pulled my PS4 back out of the storage closet and swapped it with my Xbox One S to do some testing (because I'm just too curious) and here’s what I found:
First, the settings I previously referred to as “audio formats supported by your display or receiver” I believe I was getting mixed up with how it was referred to on the PS3 and I apologize for the confusion. However, those settings are still there (PS4), but are under "Primary Output Port” when you choose “Optical”. Here, you have the options of Dolby Digital, DTS, AAC and Linear PCM. By default, Linear PCM is checked. All others are unchecked.
Since we are not using “Optical” as an output port we’ll assume that these settings have no bearing on your issue. However, it is interesting to note that when you choose “Optical” as the primary output, you still get audio over HDMI. More on that in a moment (*).
With my PS4 settings configured as "Primary Output Port > HDMI Out” and "Audio Format (Priority) > LPCM”, my XMC-1 reported:
PS4 “menu music” as PCM 7.1 (correct)
Game playback (assuming LPCM 5.1 encoding) as PCM 5.1 (correct)
Streaming from Vudu (Dolby Digital Plus) as PCM 5.1 (correct)
Streaming from Netflix (Dolby Digital) as PCM 5.1 (correct)
Streaming from Amazon Prime (Dolby Digital) as PCM 5.1 (correct)
With my PS4 settings configured as "Primary Output Port > HDMI Out” and "Audio Format (Priority) > Bitstream (Dolby)”, my XMC-1 reported:
PS4 “menu music” as DD 5.1 (correct)
Streaming from Vudu (Dolby Digital Plus) as DD+ 5.1 (correct)
Streaming from Netflix (Dolby Digital) as DD 5.1 (correct)
Streaming from Amazon Prime (Dolby Digital) as DD 5.1 (correct)
Since all Blu-ray and DVD’s obtain their settings from the media control app, the settings for those will always be “last used” (either LPCM or Bitstream {Direct}) My Blu-ray playback was exactly as expected. The “LPCM” setting results in PCM 7.1 (original soundtrack dependent) reported by my XMC-1 and “Bitstream (Direct)” results in whatever is encoded on the disc.
(*) Now, here’s what’s interesting… If you set "Primary Output Port” > Optical, you still get audio over HDMI. However, it will be PCM 2.0 REGARDLESS of what you do to get it to be otherwise.
So, I would call these “main” settings correct for the PS4:
"Primary Output Port” > HDMI Out
"Audio Format (Priority)” > LPCM
For gameplay and streaming, it really doesn’t matter where the actual format decoding is done because its all must convert to Linear PCM before hitting the DAC anyway. These setting “should” make life easy and, again, have no bearing on Blu-ray disc based audio.
So, if you absolutely cannot get your MC-700 to respond to an LPCM data stream whether by “automatic detection” or by you manually selecting a corresponding mode, I would most definitely call Emotiva. My XMC-1 has no problem, whatsoever, detecting the incoming stream and it instantly switches to the correct mode.
I sincerely hope this helps…
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Post by GTPlus on Mar 15, 2017 7:40:25 GMT -5
Thanks Doc,
Did not get a chance to play around with this last night. But the MC-700 does work much like the XMC-1, though it does not give a good way to see what type of signal it is getting without watching it right at the beginning. I'll have to try what you did and write down what the MC-700 reports.
But there is one thing different:
If I set the media app to LPCM, I get "No Audio". That is unless it is an older stereo DVD, or some previews on 5.1 discs. Only when I turn this to Bitstream (Direct) will I get audio. This happens regardless of what I set on the main audio output settings for apps and games.
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