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[MrHaugen]

I've had some time to test a new Onkyo TX-NR717. Only problem I've had with the receiver so far, is that it has to detect what input and decoder it has to use. It spends 1.5-2 seconds on this, and this gives me live video but no sound for a short period, every time the sound stops. This is annoying, as I have to rewind sometimes to find out what's being said. Things like pause, stop, skip and forward/rewind creates this problem. Anyone have some advice how to stop this? I've tried most settings on the receiver and I've searched this exact problem, but found no solutions so far. It's reported by several users. They're told that it's normal, or that Onkyo will investigate. But no response are given. My Yamaha receiver certainly did not have this problem!

I suspect this is because the receiver is capable of setting up a lot of different sound profiles. You can detect certain audio streams, and applying different settings to that type of decoder. Sort of like a equalizer for different sound streams. Good idea, but complicates things, and probably causes my delay problems. I've found no way to turn this totally off. Setting it as direct or through does not help either.

I've thought of playing something in the background continuously. Either a silent track, or a track with volume at 0, so the sound stream does not change. But I do not know if that would work. It might make the receiver unable to decode other type of audio streams? I don't know.

Anyone heard of this problem, or have some advice?

[mykillk]

Try using WASAPI or WASAPI Event Style for your audio output in MC18. These will connect directly to your sound card in exclusive mode so (hopefully) you should only see the receiver switching to the right decoder / channel mode at the beginning of playback.

[MrHaugen]

I'll try, but I highly doubt that it'll work. The receiver always goes to a sort of stand by mode when it's not receiving any sound. So, each stop in playback would probably still create the delay.

*Edit*
As I expected. It did not help. I've had it on WASAPI all along. I tried to open up MC17 and play a video with 0 sound. That sort of worked. It triggered the receiver to change the decoder, and it was set while playback as on. I tried to switch back to MC18, and play another video there. The problem is that I can't set both to WASAPI. When I tried to set MC17 to another output, a different decoder or mode was activated on my receiver. It was called "THX Games". This mode was actually present 100% of the time. Even when I paused or stopped playback. So, that is one step in the right direction. It's obviously possible to have some decoders or modes staying on even with no audio stream. Or is it that it just picks up some analogue noise? Should not be when I'm just connecting with HDMI, but I might be wrong.

With this mode activated, and MC17 playing a video with 0 volume, I tried to start a video on MC 18 again. The receiver now detected another audio stream, and changed back to the usual "THX Cinema" mode. Another decoder was probably used for this. And the same 2 second silence was added again. Each time there was a pause in the sound.

I tried to go into the setting for the reviever and set all types of codecs to use the THX Games mode, but it did not help. It changed to the THX cinema mode again. I do not know how I can get around this. I'll have to ask on the Onkyo forum I'm afraid. Though I won't exactly get my hopes up for a solution.