Just bought Yamaha YHT-299

[Murlidher]

Yesterday I bought another pair of HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my AVR to play flac files. Here are my queries:

1) After initial hiccups I could able to hear the sound from my AVR speakers. It was great. But after some time, when I temporarily switched off and played my TV, I found, I could no longer hear sound from my TV via AVR whose HDMI cable is connected to ARC channel.

Once I removed the new HDMI cable which I had connected in HDMI port available next to HDMI ARC port in AVR, the sound starting coming.

Is it something I missed here ?

2) Which player is best to play FLAC files from laptop to hear via YHT 299? I was using VLC.

3) If i buy media players separately will there be considerable difference in performance compared to playing via laptop.

Regards
V.S. Murlidher.

 

[sandeep.bommakanti]

Yesterday I bought another pair of HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my AVR to play flac files. Here are my queries:

1) After initial hiccups I could able to hear the sound from my AVR speakers. It was great. But after some time, when I temporarily switched off and played my TV, I found, I could no longer hear sound from my TV via AVR whose HDMI cable is connected to ARC channel.

Once I removed the new HDMI cable which I had connected in HDMI port available next to HDMI ARC port in AVR, the sound starting coming.

Is it something I missed here ?

2) Which player is best to play FLAC files from laptop to hear via YHT 299? I was using VLC.

3) If i buy media players separately will there be considerable difference in performance compared to playing via laptop.

Regards
V.S. Murlidher.

Hi Murli,

1. Sorry I did not get the second part of your first question. Did you switch off the laptop and then played TV while hdmi cable was still connected to AVR? If yes, then it should actually play from the speakers connected to AVR.

2. Try using Foobar. Its a freeware and is really good for playing FLAC files. You can install few custom plugins and you can definitely feel the difference.

3. Well I am not sure of it. If you must, try buying a Media player with video upscaling capability. Or you can buy an small entry level Blu ray player which has usb port in it. I use Basic entry level phillips blu ray player and it fits my needs. It has an usb port, it pretty much plays everything that is thrown at it. Best part is it recognizes iso files too and plays them. It has video upscaling capability. But upscaling not that great. But it still works for me.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

 

[Murlidher]

Thanks sandeep. Let me try to explain further on my first question.

My LED TV is connected to AVR through ARC HDMI port in both TV & AVR. It helps me to hear sound from USB files connected on my TV via AVR and also listen to occasional TV programs in AVR.

I tried connecting my Laptop with another HDMI cable in the port next to the existing HDMI ARC port in AVR ( i could not turn back the AVR to see whether it is HDMI 2 or what name it is given).

After doing this, I could hear from my AVR played through my laptop. That time the TV was switched off. Later, I stopped the VLC, while the laptop is still running, i switched on the TV, I could see the sound was coming from the TV and not the AVR. I then tried, pressing my remote to AV4 (which I normally do in normal times) but the sound was still coming from TV only.

Later when i tried removing the laptop cable and again pressing AV4, i started receiving the sound.

hope I am clear.

 

[sandeep.bommakanti]

Thanks sandeep. Let me try to explain further on my first question.

My LED TV is connected to AVR through ARC HDMI port in both TV & AVR. It helps me to hear sound from USB files connected on my TV via AVR and also listen to occasional TV programs in AVR.

I tried connecting my Laptop with another HDMI cable in the port next to the existing HDMI ARC port in AVR ( i could not turn back the AVR to see whether it is HDMI 2 or what name it is given).

After doing this, I could hear from my AVR played through my laptop. That time the TV was switched off. Later, I stopped the VLC, while the laptop is still running, i switched on the TV, I could see the sound was coming from the TV and not the AVR. I then tried, pressing my remote to AV4 (which I normally do in normal times) but the sound was still coming from TV only.

Later when i tried removing the laptop cable and again pressing AV4, i started receiving the sound.

hope I am clear.

Hi Murli,

I have never faced this issue actually. May be because I never play movies from my TV's USB. I always use the USB port of my Blu ray player.
But sometimes when I try to use the apps from the tv like Pre Installed Youtube App, I will not get sound from AVR connected speakers. Even I press AV4. I get the sound from TV. But Sometimes I get it from AVR Speakers. Not really sure why. The only reason that I thought of was that I was using cheap HDMI cables. So, I thought ARC was probably not working properly in them. So, never really gave much tought into it. Also, it is pretty rare that I use TV apps as well. So, never really Cared about. But, I have never faced any issue like this when I have connected my Laptop to the AVR. It was all fine for me.
I will try out different connections today and will let you know if I find anything.

Below are the connections that I have,

1. Set Top Box HDMI Out to AVR HDMI In
2. Blu ray Player HDMI Out to AVR HDMI In
3. Laptop HDMI Out to AVR HDMI In (I use this rarely)
4. AVR HDMI Out to TV HDMI In

Thanks,
Sandeep.

 

[Murlidher]

Thanks Sandeep.

I just realize i have cubetek Media player at home which I could have tried to play FLAC files. Today I am going to try this. Now my question is, If i connect the HDMI from Cubetek Media player to HDMI 2 in AVR (which I guess is not ARC), I would not be able to see the interface on TV, so I have to roughly guess the files in my remote to play the sound files.

I think I can connect the video port of my cubetek media player to my TV to view the interface and HDMI port to AVR to hear the sound. Will it work? i have to try these combinations to see how it works without having to remove the cables here and there.

 

[sandeep.bommakanti]

Thanks Sandeep.

I just realize i have cubetek Media player at home which I could have tried to play FLAC files. Today I am going to try this. Now my question is, If i connect the HDMI from Cubetek Media player to HDMI 2 in AVR (which I guess is not ARC), I would not be able to see the interface on TV, so I have to roughly guess the files in my remote to play the sound files.

I think I can connect the video port of my cubetek media player to my TV to view the interface and HDMI port to AVR to hear the sound. Will it work? i have to try these combinations to see how it works without having to remove the cables here and there.

Hi Murli,

You can access the listings on your media player through TV. I don't think there is a need to seperately connect Media Player and TV. Since you had already connected AVR's HDMI Out to TV HDMI In, it should work without seperate connection irrespective of ARC.
Lets say you connect your media player to HDMI 2 port of your AVR, just click on HDMI2 in the AVR using AVR's remote. This should ensure that the contents of your Media Player will be visible on TV.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

 

[m.sivaprakash]

Thanks sandeep. Let me try to explain further on my first question.

My LED TV is connected to AVR through ARC HDMI port in both TV & AVR. It helps me to hear sound from USB files connected on my TV via AVR and also listen to occasional TV programs in AVR.

I tried connecting my Laptop with another HDMI cable in the port next to the existing HDMI ARC port in AVR ( i could not turn back the AVR to see whether it is HDMI 2 or what name it is given).

After doing this, I could hear from my AVR played through my laptop. That time the TV was switched off. Later, I stopped the VLC, while the laptop is still running, i switched on the TV, I could see the sound was coming from the TV and not the AVR. I then tried, pressing my remote to AV4 (which I normally do in normal times) but the sound was still coming from TV only.

Later when i tried removing the laptop cable and again pressing AV4, i started receiving the sound.

hope I am clear.

This could be a problem in TV. Whenever you get sound from TV, check your TV settings and change it to use 'External Speaker' instead of 'TV Speaker'

 

[Murlidher]

hi Siva, thanks. Actually I saw my settings were External speakers only. May be i didn't click on the right button on my remote. I will try again this exercise later.

Hi Sandeep, thanks for your suggestion, I will try this tonight and update result

 

[Murlidher]

OK. Here are results after connecting Cubetek HD Media player.

1) I could see the interface on TV (success)
2) I could hear the FLAC audio files I played on the media player on AVR (Success)
3) I could hear it only on 2.1 speakers i.e. only left/right & SW were activated (Failure)
4) Out of 6 FLAC files, though the player were showing it is playing, only 3 files I could hear the audio. Rest there were no sound from the AVR though the media player were showing the progress of music play (Failure)

Could you please guide where it have gone wrong ?

i just checked the Audio output method under cubetek media player settings. There were 3 options i) Normal ii) SPDIF LPCM iii) SPDIF RAWDATA. By default it is Normal, I tried changing to other two but no sound came

Update:

1) I tried playing all these files through my laptop via AVR. Though all the channels are now lighted up upon straight, I listen sounds only from left/right/SW. So can I assume these FLAC files are coded only for these 2 channels hence, other speakers are silent.

I was wondering why does a 50 MB FLAC file of 5 minutes audio will be encoded only for 2 channels ...

2) I played the same files I played yesterday which gave me surround sound through my laptop on my cubetek media player. It only played through 2 channels on straight.

So i can conclude that my cubetek media player cannot play surround sound in straight mode? Well, that's how it looks to be. In that case I could have invested on AXUS mini player instead of this cubetek player.

Regards
V.S. Murlidher.

 

[sandeep.bommakanti]

OK. Here are results after connecting Cubetek HD Media player.

1) I could see the interface on TV (success)
2) I could hear the FLAC audio files I played on the media player on AVR (Success)
3) I could hear it only on 2.1 speakers i.e. only left/right & SW were activated (Failure)
4) Out of 6 FLAC files, though the player were showing it is playing, only 3 files I could hear the audio. Rest there were no sound from the AVR though the media player were showing the progress of music play (Failure)

Could you please guide where it have gone wrong ?

i just checked the Audio output method under cubetek media player settings. There were 3 options i) Normal ii) SPDIF LPCM iii) SPDIF RAWDATA. By default it is Normal, I tried changing to other two but no sound came

Update:

1) I tried playing all these files through my laptop via AVR. Though all the channels are now lighted up upon straight, I listen sounds only from left/right/SW. So can I assume these FLAC files are coded only for these 2 channels hence, other speakers are silent.

I was wondering why does a 50 MB FLAC file of 5 minutes audio will be encoded only for 2 channels ...

2) I played the same files I played yesterday which gave me surround sound through my laptop on my cubetek media player. It only played through 2 channels on straight.

So i can conclude that my cubetek media player cannot play surround sound in straight mode? Well, that's how it looks to be. In that case I could have invested on AXUS mini player instead of this cubetek player.

Regards
V.S. Murlidher.

Hi Murli,

Straight mode does not manipulate anyway with the audio codec of the source. Say, you are playing a video file for which audo is encoded as 2ch. Then in Straight mode you will be able to listen audio only from FL and FR speakers only. If you play anything with 6ch source then it will give you proper 5.1 audio experience.

Speaking about FLAC files or any audio files for that matter, most of them are usually encoded only for 2ch audio. So, in Straight mode they will be playing only in FR and FL Speakers. If you are looking for sound in all the speakers then I would suggest you to go for 5ch Stereo mode instead of straight. You will get audio in all the speakers in that Case. You will find that mode by pressing Music button.

The easiest way to guess the numer of channels that your source file is encoded with is to go with Option Button. Press Option / Signal Info. This will give you details like Format, Channel, Bitrate etc.. For all 6ch Sources Channel will will be 3/2/0.1 and for 2ch sources it will be 2/0/__ .

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

 

[Murlidher]

Thanks sandeep. I was aware of the fact of pressing Music to change the mode from 2ch to 5 channel. I was under the impression that these FLAC files would be coded in 6 channels by default and so was looking for sounds from all speakers in straight mode.:lol:

One thing I could make out was my cubetek media player cannot produce 5.1 surround sound in straight mode as I tried playing few movies too through it and it was in 2 channel mode in straight mode, while the same goes to 5.1 in straight mode, if I play it via my LED TV USB.

So already uploaded a ad on olx to sell it so that i can go for AXUS Mini hoping it can output surround sound.

 

[Nero9]

Thanks sandeep. I was aware of the fact of pressing Music to change the mode from 2ch to 5 channel. I was under the impression that these FLAC files would be coded in 6 channels by default and so was looking for sounds from all speakers in straight mode.:lol:

One thing I could make out was my cubetek media player cannot produce 5.1 surround sound in straight mode as I tried playing few movies too through it and it was in 2 channel mode in straight mode, while the same goes to 5.1 in straight mode, if I play it via my LED TV USB.

So already uploaded a ad on olx to sell it so that i can go for AXUS Mini hoping it can output surround sound.

have you checked audio settings of your media player for the option 'bitstream output' ?

if it was there, put the player in 'Bitstream output' mode. so that your AVR will decode the audio.

 

[abhijitsingh2305]

Hi Murli,

I have never faced this issue actually. May be because I never play movies from my TV's USB. I always use the USB port of my Blu ray player.
But sometimes when I try to use the apps from the tv like Pre Installed Youtube App, I will not get sound from AVR connected speakers. Even I press AV4. I get the sound from TV. But Sometimes I get it from AVR Speakers. Not really sure why. The only reason that I thought of was that I was using cheap HDMI cables. So, I thought ARC was probably not working properly in them. So, never really gave much tought into it. Also, it is pretty rare that I use TV apps as well. So, never really Cared about. But, I have never faced any issue like this when I have connected my Laptop to the AVR. It was all fine for me.
I will try out different connections today and will let you know if I find anything.

Below are the connections that I have,

1. Set Top Box HDMI Out to AVR HDMI In
2. Blu ray Player HDMI Out to AVR HDMI In
3. Laptop HDMI Out to AVR HDMI In (I use this rarely)
4. AVR HDMI Out to TV HDMI In

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Hi Sandeep,

Thanks for the DTH Box answer there was a setting in Airtel HD box to choose between Stereo or Dolby Digital now getting 5.1 on HD channels.

Adding in the quoted discussion, I attached a Bandridge audio optical cable between TV optical port and AVR optical 4 port and changed the input mode to AV4 from HDMI1.

Then attached USB hard disk with TV to play movie and i was able to get sound from AVR speakers however no sound from center/surround L/R speakers.

So wanted to understand if its necessary that in order to get 5.1 sound our movie files should always be blue ray or same sound [5.1] can be achieved with normal 1080P HD movie files without using a blue ray disk/player via TV USB ??

Do you think that a Blue Ray player with USB port can provide 5.1 sound on 1080P HD movies ? As per my understanding dolby digital/dts audio compression are inbuilt only in blue ray files and if the same is not there in the file the AVR wont be able to produce 5.1 sound in case of normal 1080P HD files.

Please clarify as my understanding is very limited in the audio world

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh

 

[sandeep.bommakanti]

Hi Sandeep,

Thanks for the DTH Box answer there was a setting in Airtel HD box to choose between Stereo or Dolby Digital now getting 5.1 on HD channels.

Adding in the quoted discussion, I attached a Bandridge audio optical cable between TV optical port and AVR optical 4 port and changed the input mode to AV4 from HDMI1.

Then attached USB hard disk with TV to play movie and i was able to get sound from AVR speakers however no sound from center/surround L/R speakers.

So wanted to understand if its necessary that in order to get 5.1 sound our movie files should always be blue ray or same sound [5.1] can be achieved with normal 1080P HD movie files without using a blue ray disk/player via TV USB ??

Do you think that a Blue Ray player with USB port can provide 5.1 sound on 1080P HD movies ? As per my understanding dolby digital/dts audio compression are inbuilt only in blue ray files and if the same is not there in the file the AVR wont be able to produce 5.1 sound in case of normal 1080P HD files.

Please clarify as my understanding is very limited in the audio world

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh

Hi Abhijit,

Which TV do you have? Not all TV's send 6ch audio out to the avr via optical cable. I would suggest to just search over the forum and a bit of googling to see if your TV supports 6ch audio out when movies are played through USB.

Also, make sure that you download 6ch sources specifically. Just check the description before going ahead with the download and check if the audio channel is 6ch. If you are playing from 2ch source, then you can use predefined surround codes like PL II Movie or Neo Movie which will give you virtual 5.1 output.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

 

[abhijitsingh2305]

Hi Abhijit,

Which TV do you have? Not all TV's send 6ch audio out to the avr via optical cable. I would suggest to just search over the forum and a bit of googling to see if your TV supports 6ch audio out when movies are played through USB.

Also, make sure that you download 6ch sources specifically. Just check the description before going ahead with the download and check if the audio channel is 6ch. If you are playing from 2ch source, then you can use predefined surround codes like PL II Movie or Neo Movie which will give you virtual 5.1 output.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Hi Sandeep,

I am a proud owner of Sony Bravia W700B model.Sony website has no specification on the same.Just mentioned Speaker Config :: 2 Channel...that's it.

Now digging the forum for the same:sad:

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh

 

[gurujee]

if a tv has optical out, then it will definitely output 6 (5.1) channel audio through it. But your source need to have 6 channel audio as well.

I had a sony led 2 years ago, basic model, and i was able to get 5.1 output through the optical out.

 

[sandeep.bommakanti]

Hi Sandeep,

I am a proud owner of Sony Bravia W700B model.Sony website has no specification on the same.Just mentioned Speaker Config :: 2 Channel...that's it.

Now digging the forum for the same:sad:

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh

Hi Abhijit,

I have the same tv . I like it actually. As I have stated in my earlier posts, I never really play from the USB port of my TV. I always play it from my Blu ray Player. So, never really noticed that issue. I will try to connect an optical cable from my TV to AVR and try it out.
I think there are no issues with the TV. It will be passing 6 ch audio out for sure. Can you just check the source file that you are playing. If the Source file has a 6ch out, then it should work with Optical cable connected between TV and AVR.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

 

[Nishabfss]

Hi,

First of all don't buy it from snapdeal or any online website because sometime they ship a piece which is already used in demo and you wont be able to judge by the packing and it was my personal experience,specially with snapdeal.

Secondly there is no major difference in YHT 299 and 2910.Just couple of new features with a new name.

Yesterday i bought YHT 299 in Gurgaon.While auditioning i checked 2910 too but there was no difference with respect to sound and the dealer was also agreed on the same.

So i suggest you to get the cheaper 299 and invest in good Speaker/HDMI/Sub cable instead of spending extra money on 2910.

Rest your decision.

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh

Whats the price u paid and where in Gurgaon plz Hows quality from music perspective

 

[abhijitsingh2305]

Whats the price u paid and where in Gurgaon plz Hows quality from music perspective

Hi Nisha,

Hope your name is Nisha ,well i bought it from Bass Punk in MGF Metropolitan Mall Gurgaon Rs-34000/- which is fine as per my price research in Delhi/NCR.

I played David Guetta remix,Limp Bizkit and some tracks of Slipknot.And it performed well for the kind of music i like.At the same time its surround effect is very good while watching movies on HD Channels/BR Disks.

Let me tell you that earlier i was going with Onkyo but some how that brand lacks in music but very good for movies.

So if you want both for music and movies then go with 299 otherwise specifically for music there are other better brands in the market like Wharfedale or Boston Acoustics.

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh

 

[abhijitsingh2305]

Hi Abhijit,

I have the same tv . I like it actually. As I have stated in my earlier posts, I never really play from the USB port of my TV. I always play it from my Blu ray Player. So, never really noticed that issue. I will try to connect an optical cable from my TV to AVR and try it out.
I think there are no issues with the TV. It will be passing 6 ch audio out for sure. Can you just check the source file that you are playing. If the Source file has a 6ch out, then it should work with Optical cable connected between TV and AVR.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Hi Sandeep,

How cool is that you have the same setup.As per my research it's possible that the file i played was not having 6ch source however it was written in the Torrent Name when downloaded:sad:
Yet i have not observed a single site that provide 5.1 Channels compression files music/movie torrents....If you have any then do share may be in a PM

Thanks,
Abhijit Singh