I just set up my Onkyo 770 home theatre (6.1 system) and have the Onkyo 802 DVD player (DVD plays SACD & DVD-A discs) I am using an optical cable from the receiver to the DVD. I bought a DVD-A and several SACD's. The DVD-A disc plays, but the SACD will not play at all. I have the receiver set on multi-channel. Can someone explain to me what I may be doing wrong? I am getting frustrated and want to enjoy my new system!. Thanks so much!
To play the hi-res formats (DVD-A and SACD)you need to connect the player to your receiver via the analogue connections with at least [6] reasonable quality audio interconnect cables. 2 for the front left and right, 1 for the center, 2 for the rear surrounds and 1 for the sub for optimum 5.1 surround. There will also be some set-up options on the DVD player manual. This should be in your instruction manual, though granted, they can be confusing or often don't have enough info. Hope this helps.
Arlene: Rantz is right - SACD only plays back in Analog, not digital, format. The opotical cable will NOT carry SACD signal. It's one of those "I'll do everything I can to prevent you from copying the disc" anti-piracy issues with Sony/Philips. Makes life a lot more difficult for the consumer, of course! So - out you go to get cables. Good ones, we hope, but not sky-high priced ones, please! Setting your receiver on "multi-channel" would bring in the SACDS - IF you had the analog cables. PS - get only enough cables to connect the speakers you have. In other words, if you don't have a center speaker, don't bother buying and hooking up that cable! Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.
Arlene, Of course these two old dogs are correct in what they're telling you as they always give top notch advice. One thing worth noting though since you may be wondering why the DVD-A "seems" to be playing. On DVD-A's, (at least all the ones I've seen), there is a hi resolution layer, playable only through the analog connections; but also a DTS or Dolby layer, usually in surround, which can be played through a digital connection. On most discs the hi-res layer sounds much better, you should notice a huge difference. Happy listening!!
Thank you, Sem - I fergot about dat! Since I don't listen to DVD-A I tend to overlook that "side" of my player. The Brave New World of hi-res sound gets complicateder and complicateder all the time. Hope that, among us three, you have found some, if not all, of the answers you require. Again - post your reactions once you get all "hooked up." If it still doesn't work, then we've failed - and we all HATE to do that! (grin)
OH, BTW - I "assume" that your receiver has 5.1 analog inputs? If it does not, then you can't play the discs, anyway.
My Rantz, Sem and Larry R - Thank you so much for your sage advise. I went out and bought good analog cables and will install them tonite. Yes, my receiver has 5.1 analog inputs. I now understand what was going on with SACD and why the DVD-A played, and I can't wait to hear it when newly connected! I will keep you posted. I'm sure it will work perfectly now. Arlene
just purchased the Onkyo 802 dvd and am trying to hook 2-ch audio direct to HDTV (bypassing receiver). No surround hookup yet as I don't have the speakers. hooking to coax outs under the '1' column but my '2-channel' option in audio setup menu is grayed out so I'm afraid the tv is reading it like multi-channel, so on movies some tracks (like score music) play but dialogue is missing. Anyone know why this would be?
