No Audio When Playing DVD

[Calicoks]

I have a Roku RCA TV and have been trying to play DVD's with a connected Sony DVD player, but only get video and no audio. I have previously watched DVD's with this player on this TV, so am not sure why I can't get audio now. I am thinking a setting needs to be changed, but not sure which one.

The DVD player is a Sony HBD-E770W and was originally part of a surround sound system. I no longer have the surround sound speakers, but was still able to get the audio through the TV speakers. I can no longer do this and am not sure why.

Any help/advice???

[LightFoot]

Hi @Calicoks   Try changing the Audio Output to PCM in the Settings.

[royabrown2]

@Calicoks 

Here is the manual for the E770W (I think of BDV and HBD, one refers to the whole thing, and one just to the player specifically).

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/213349/Sony-Bdv-E770w.html?page=52#manual

Audio Output

The system cannot output multi-channel sound

from both the HDMI OUT jack and system's

speakers simultaneously.

[Speaker]: Outputs multi-channel sound from

the system's speakers only.

[Speaker + HDMI]: Outputs multi-channel

sound from the system's speakers and 2-channel

linear PCM signals from the HDMI OUT jack.

[HDMI]: Outputs sound from the HDMI OUT

jack only. Sound format depends on the

connected component.

Note

• When you set [Audio Output] to [HDMI], the

SOUND MODE, "D.BASS," "NIGHT MODE," and

"SUR.SETTING" functions are disabled.

• When the System Audio Control function (page 44)

is activated, this setting may change automatically

So you need this Settings/Audio value to be HDMI; then the player will know to put the audio on the HDMI Out, rather than just putting out the video, and playing the sound on its own speakers, possibly not connected, or not even present any more.

I have no idea whether System Audio Control, or a factory reset maybe, has changed this setting, but I suspect it has defaulted (back) to ‘Speaker’ and you need it to be ‘HDMI’.

[Calicoks]

Thanks @royabrown2. I did try switching to HDMI for the output setting on the Sony player and still no audio. I even changed HDMI cables an still no luck. Could it possibly be a setting on the Roku TV instead? I know this worked before, so am just so confused why no audio. At one point, we were messing with all the settings, trying to get this to work and somehow did finally get audio, but then there was no picture. It seems to not want to do both anymore. Might be time to throw away, perhaps?

[Calicoks]

Thanks for the reply, but I do not have a PCM setting option.

[LightFoot]

---

@Calicoks wrote:

Thanks for the reply, but I do not have a PCM setting option.

---

Hi @Calicoks   Please see page 36 of the Manual

I would also check out Page 54 [Audio Output] to ensure sound is being output to HDMI.

[royabrown2]

@Calicoks 

Throwing it away and getting something modern is the sensible approach, but we don’t like kit defeating us. Better to get it working, and then decide you want something better 😛

I think the joker in the pack is System Audio Control; as far as I can see from the manual, helpfully supplied by @LightFoot above, this puts the device in a mode that doesn’t support audio output over the HDMI Out, and it gets turned on by various apparently unconnected things, such as having One Touch Control set on, or Theater. And it possibly turns off that HDMI  setting we are trying to use 😢

I think you might be able to defeat it by turning off Bravia Sync on the unit; this might mean you have to turn the unit on and off independently of the TV, and so on, but it should mean that once you have selected ‘HDMI’ for the audio output, this will stick.

The basic problem with having this unit, that once had speakers, is that its natural state is playing the audio, its own and the TV audio, over its own speakers, so trying to play the audio over the TV is rather swimming against the current, so to speak.

But it can be made to support it, with that HDMI audio setting, and you can even stop it grabbing the TV audio over ARC, by turning that off on the unit.

I haven’t asked which HDMI input on the TV you have the BDV connected to - make sure it isn’t the input which supports ARC, though, as that would bring yet more complications.

Once you have (hopefully) got it working, you could try turning on the Bravia Sync on the BDV again; though if that kills the audio again, as I suspect it might, you will have to put the BDV back on audio out ‘HDMI’, and leave Bravia Sync turned off going forward.

NB: my browser can do this ⬇️ and yours probably can too; it’s a powerful way of searching a document, set here to step through the 12 mentions of ‘system audio control’ in the online BDV manual, to see what each one says:-

[royabrown2]