Volume Question

[VA Supremacy]

What causes the volume to randomly lower or cut off during a movie or game without changing the volume setting?

Pioneer Receiver VSX-1019AH-K
Polk Audio RM670 5.1 Speakers
Wii (component cable)
PS3 (Video component cable, Audio TOSlink/optical)
DVD (a/v cable)
HTPC (Audio HDMI, Video DVI to Samsung 19inch Widescreen SyncMaster 940BW)
Sanyo DS32225 32" TV

 

[ambientZ]

My receiver has audyssey dynamic volume which adjusts the volume automagically to compensate for quiet/loud scenes (if i have it enabled). If the incoming audio stream glitches and cuts out for a split second (say poor hdtv reception) then the dynamic volume resets to a quiet level until it recovers over a few seconds.

I see yours has mcacc, i don't know if that has a similar function with regards to dynamic volume.

If its happening across all your sources, and your receiver isnt showing anything wonky going on with your input through the display, and your power is stable, im guessing the receiver is going bad.

 

[VA Supremacy]

It mainly happens to PS3 and the Toshiba DVD Player, HTPC HDMI audio is the most perfect and unproblematic on the receiver side

I've had this happen before with a Sony STR-DE310, Speakers: Sony SS-MB200H/KLH Audio 970A which prompted me to upgrade.

Could the problem be the wires?

 

[Demon10000]

It's probably not in the wires. It's digital audio, so if you had a bad cable you'd get no data. You would probably get pops or weird noises, or possibly even nothing -- but it wouldn't impact the volume. The fact that the audio is getting played means your cable isn't dropping the connection.

It's possible with the DVD player if you're using composite, but I'd expect it to get scratch or "grainy". You're probably doing Dolby Pro Logic on this and, well, it's crappy and probably working like it's supposed to. Two channel is horrible audio for movies -- the volume always gets messed up. I remember when I had pro logic and it was more like a video came than a movie. Loud explosion, turn the volume down -- people talking, turn the volume up, people talking with an explosion in the background -- game over.

What type of output are you doing from the PS3? BluRay? What audio format is it sending the audio as?

 

[VA Supremacy]

It seemed to be the speaker wires as 3 of them were pulled loose and about to come off. I've watched some movies and played a bit and so far no problems.

I probably should get some new speaker wires with some Banana plugs.

There is a popping when using the Toshiba SD-1700U DVD Player though that depends on the disc. Sometimes it happens during a layer change or a menu that is static but of course that depends on the disc.

PS3 [Optical out] settings are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, Linear PCM 2.0 44.1 kHz, Linear PCM 2.0 48 kHz. I've not looked at the manual to see if it handles the other 3