STR-DE585 plays Dolby Digital, not DTS signals.

[Pluxux]

Recently my old STR-DB830 receiver started switching off the sound after a few minutes of operation (it starts clicking before going completely silent, and after about 15 minutes of being turned off it will work again for about 10 minutes before the problem resurfaces). Because of this i switched it with a STR-DE585 receiver.

When i feed the optical or the coaxial input a Dolby Digital signal from windows 7 both receivers recognize the signal and play the sounds. But when i feed both receivers a DTS signal from the same windows 7 machine only the (defective) STR-DB830 recognizes the signal and plays the sounds, but the STR-DE585 remains silent and does not seem to be receiving the input DTS signal. Apart from not recognizing the DTS signal the STR-DE585 is working properly without any problems.

Since one of the two receivers does recognize the input as a DTS stream it seems to me there is something wrong with the STR-DE585, could this be possible or should i feed it another type of DTS signal? I would like to know how i could get the STR-DE585 to recognize the DTS signal that is output by windows 7 (Also tried with and without the AC3filter software).

[Bravia55HX]

Pluxux,

Hi,

Firstly i have the 830 and has been excellent as old as it is, it is possible that its getting warm and shutting down as its probably full of dust like mine! but its never let me down, its worth getting it looked at.

now the 585, if you can set it to Auto Format Decode then do that, if anything is being fed to it in DTS it will pick it up ( the 830 can be set to AFD ) so try that.

[Pluxux]

Thanks for your reply Bravia. I agree the 830 is an awesome machine and i do plan on trying to get it back up and running. Especially since the 585 is very short on features compared to the tricked out 830 (i especially miss the speaker hookup screws (vs the flimsy pinch grips on the 585), the wide range of digital inputs on the 830 and i think the 585 is a lot less loud, since it is humanly possible to open it up completely, and the 830 only allows me to open up to 3/4 before my head explodes and my house collapses. I will try cleaning it (since it does have 10+ years of dust in it) and i hope that will do the trick since im not sure where to go from there because it will be hard for me as a laymen to do a proper diagnostics on the machine and parts will probably be hard to come by in these parts of the world (Netherlands). The 830 does not switch off like it does when it overheats (i have had it playing on parties, and when pushed it will shut down completely when overheating). It is more that when the 830 is on it will make clicking noises at irregular intervals, and at a certain point it stops outputting sound, and after a certain while the sound returns and the cycle begins again.

Now about the 585, i have tried auto dec. on the 585 with no effect. The 830 is set to A.F.D as well and it picks up both the DD as well as the DTS signal with no problems. Whatever i seem to do the 585 only seems to like the DD signal, and as far as i know theres no DTS on/off switch on the unit so i am lost at how to get DTS working on the 585. When the 585 is fed a DD signal and i put it to 2ch it will play the sounds in 2 channel mode (without the blue digital light glowing). When i feed it a DTS signal it won't do 2 channel either, silence ensues. Could it be possible the 585 only accepts a specific type of DTS signal (im not sure if there are different standards within the DTS signal)?

[Pluxux]

I have dismantled and cleaned the 830 with a can of compressed air but the unit is still clicking and losing sound after a few minutes.

[Bravia55HX]

Thats fine, it was a shot in the dark anyway, since you are keen to hang on to it perhaps it will be a good idea to find a Sony technician to take a look at it, i know i would!.