DTS-HD MA bitstreaming bug

There is an issue on various Onkyo and Yamaha receiver/surround sound processor DSPs where DTS-HD MA tracks on certain discs can cause loud popping and can potentially cause damage to speakers when bitstreamed. The PS3 only outputs lossless tracks in PCM so no worries there but my Toshiba XA2 can bitstream DTS-HD MA. While I have not read any HD DVD specific issues, I have a German import of Terminator 2 coming that has a 7.1 DTS-HD Hi-Res track. No evidence of issues with this disc yet (only bitstreamed Master Audio tracks reported so far) but I don't want to find out the hard way.

Now the funny (or annoying - depending how you look at it) thing is that Onkyo has not issued an official fix for my 885 SSP but they have a fix for many of their recievers. Luckily, some brave souls on AVS have tried and confirmed that the DSP fix for the Onkyo recievers also works on the 885 SSP. If only all CE updates were as easy as they are on the PS3 or even my Toshiba XA2.

The short form:
For this Onkyo fix, the way it worked was that I had to obtain a .wav file from a fellow AVS member, burn it onto a CD, check that the CD player had all the correct settings and run through a careful sequence of steps on the Onkyo to update the DSPs. And this is separate from the general firmware update! That is another deal which I won't go into here.


The bloody details for those who are interested:

• First I used CDBurnerXP (thanks to Wilco for this recommendation) for my PC to burn the DSP update. I burned .wav file as an audio file.

• Then I used my PS3 for the CD playback portion of the update. On my PS3 I used the optical out and connected to optical 1 on the 885. I had the following in my PS3 settings

1) Music settings -> Audio CD output freq: 44.1/88.2/176 & bitmapping : off

2)Sound settings -> Digital optical out: 44.1kHz & 48kHz

• My 885 has FW 1.04 / 07927A and originally had the following DSP versions,

1 – 07927A
2 – 07518A
3 – 07820B

I followed the Onkyo pdf file instructions. They were pretty straightforward,

On the Onkyo unit itself (not the remote)
1) Hold "Display" and then while holding display press "standby/on"
2) press tone "+" (it's the bottom button not the top)
3) press "return" (you should immediately see "S/PDIF..."
4) I immediately hit play on the PS3 controller and the PS3 played my CD

I then saw "S/PDIF Update" then "Writing 1st DSP" then "S/PDIF Update" ...then "Writing 2nd DSP" then "S/PDIF Update" again then "Writing 3rd DSP" and then "S/PDIF Update" again. I never did see "Complete" or "Clear" as the Onkyo instructions suggest. I just kept seeing "S/PDIF Update" and after about 10 min of not seeing any change, I stopped the CD and manually power cycled the 885. I immediately checked the DSP versions and was relieved to see,

FW 1.04 / 07927A (no change to FW)

1 – 08214A (this is new)
2 – 07518A
3 – 07820B

All my 885 settings were erased and I had to run set up again. Good thing I blogged all my previous settings. Since the PS3 cannot bitstream DTS-HD MA I just did a sanity test of a Blu Ray disc outputting PCM of the DTS core track from "Live Free or Die Hard" just to make sure my Onkyo was working and things seem to be fine.

Now, the above may seem like a big deal but in retrospect it wasn't all that bad. At least I didn't have to send my unit back to Onkyo. That would annoy me much more. Back to happy listening.