Home Theater Set-Up Help...Almost there!?

Question

I hooked up my new Sony HT-7000DH Home Theater (HT) System last night. This HT receiver has "HDMI Passthrough" so I routed separate HDMI cables from both the Direct TV HD Receiver and a DVD Player. One HDMI Cable then goes from the HT to the TV. Per the HT instructions I also routed Optical Cable from each of the components into the HT. Just to get the system working I used the included wiring. I plan to upgrade the wiring this weekend.

Problem: Whether watching HD TV or playing a DVD I have sound in the left front surround speaker and the subwoofer but no sound from the center speaker or the right front surround. I haven’t hooked-up the rear surround yet to minimize my confusion. I’ve reconnected the wire several times and the HT receiver displays that sound it routing to all of the front speakers but again it’s not. I’ve tried the various settings on the HT Receiver and I never get sound from the center or right.

Any thoughts?

I will run the DVD set-up tonight to make sure but I believe I manually set it up to use the digtal connections.

Since the DirectTV and DVD inputs give me the identical issue of sound only in the left front and subwoofer that makes me believe it is an issue/setting with the receiver. I can't believe it would be a wiring issue but I will check those as well.

Answer 1

Stop messing around with it. Use the microphone that came with it, and follow the instructions for your Digital Cinema Auto Calibration. You know the front left and sub work. You hooked those up right. Your problem is in your settings (which your auto calibration routine will cure for you) or your wire. If your music or movie sounded tinny and crappy, then it is your settings. If it sounded pretty good, it may be your wire, but I doubt it.

Hook up the rest of the speakers - you are doing fine - and run that auto calibration routine and you will be enjoying DVDs in HD upscaling in no time.

Page 31 of your manual, dude.

Answer 2

It sounds as if the HT controller (receiver) is set to mono mode, or you are playing a mono source. Go into the setup and see if you can find a setting to enable surround decoding. And hook up the rest of the speakers, it will only help troubleshoot the problem.

Answer 3

Could be several problems in your set up either your DVD player or your receiver.
Make sure you told your DVD player in the set up for audio that you are using either the HDMI cable or digital cable.
Make sure in your audio set up for your receiver that your speaker connections are correct. On most newer receivers there is a set up for speakers to balance them, it should play a pink noise through all your speakers, if you still don't get any sound through the center and right speaker, your speaker connections are still incorrect.