I bought a new Sony home theater from an authorized Sony shop. I was about to buy the Sony BDV-E980 but the shop assistant told me they have a new home theater setup that is better and almost the same price. I already had a blu-ray player so i was open to the idea off a proper component system. I requested a demo and the sales guy after saying no several time agreed, the sound was indeed better than the BDV-E980. So much so was the difference in low and high volume that i agreed to get to get the HT-M5 instead.
I asked the sales person about supported formats he said everything that BDV-E980 supports the HT-M5 also supports. After bringing the system home hooked everything up and played a DVD of Saving Private Ryan which had DTS audio and it played great. Next i tried a bluray of District-9 that i bought from ebay.in for around 500 bucks well the Sony HT did not pick up the DTS-MA and all that was displayed in the screen was DTS 3/2.1 not DTS-MA 3/2.1. I did not think much of it at the time thinking the Blu-ray was crap and the DTS-MA option was a false one.
Then about 2 days back i bought Thor Blu ray from music world and played it on the blu ray player again the HT-M5 did not pick up the DTS-MA i got super crossed tried everything to get DTS-MA but could not, the system only picked up the DTS CORE not the DTS MA. After searching online i could not get much info on HT-M5, the manual i got with it does not say much about the supported formats.
Called up customer care they had no clue about the supported formats. I hooked up the system to the computer via the HDMI and still did not get DTS-MA or for that matter DD-TrueHD. When i used bit streaming for DTS MA i got DTS CORE and for Dolby TrueHD the decoder gets stuck.
The store is not ready to exchange the HT-M5 with the BDV-E980 even though the HT-M5 is more expensive
Bad experience very bad did not expect HT's in this range not to support simple DTS MA.
UPDATE: Mr.Vipul from Sony Delhi called up today on behalf of the branch manager and after i explained the whole thing he said that they are sending an audio engg to have a look at the system and the problem. Now Mr. Vipul did not seem very versed in the audio jargon and well an audio engg will be a good start. I pushed hard for exchange with Sony BDV-E980 to which he said let the engg first see if there is an work around.
He will arrive by evening straight from Delhi, oh well i hope something comes out of this all
UPDATE2: Its done the engg switched the Blu ray player to LPCM 5ch mode instead of pass through and well everything seems good the blu ray player decodes the HD formats from the blu ray and then sends it via HDMI to the system in 5ch surround and the result is marvelous. You can notice the instant depth compared to the likes of DTS core.
The engg called up his superior at 8PM and told them the work is done. Then i had a chat with his superior and he asked if i still wish to change my system i off-course said no. He also apologized for the sales person and said since this was a new system the sales team did not know the head and tail of it, also the system was not meant for sale so soon and it was their fault. The bass seems even more profound now will do a write up soon.
I asked the sales person about supported formats he said everything that BDV-E980 supports the HT-M5 also supports. After bringing the system home hooked everything up and played a DVD of Saving Private Ryan which had DTS audio and it played great. Next i tried a bluray of District-9 that i bought from ebay.in for around 500 bucks well the Sony HT did not pick up the DTS-MA and all that was displayed in the screen was DTS 3/2.1 not DTS-MA 3/2.1. I did not think much of it at the time thinking the Blu-ray was crap and the DTS-MA option was a false one.
Then about 2 days back i bought Thor Blu ray from music world and played it on the blu ray player again the HT-M5 did not pick up the DTS-MA i got super crossed tried everything to get DTS-MA but could not, the system only picked up the DTS CORE not the DTS MA. After searching online i could not get much info on HT-M5, the manual i got with it does not say much about the supported formats.
Called up customer care they had no clue about the supported formats. I hooked up the system to the computer via the HDMI and still did not get DTS-MA or for that matter DD-TrueHD. When i used bit streaming for DTS MA i got DTS CORE and for Dolby TrueHD the decoder gets stuck.
The store is not ready to exchange the HT-M5 with the BDV-E980 even though the HT-M5 is more expensive
UPDATE: Mr.Vipul from Sony Delhi called up today on behalf of the branch manager and after i explained the whole thing he said that they are sending an audio engg to have a look at the system and the problem. Now Mr. Vipul did not seem very versed in the audio jargon and well an audio engg will be a good start. I pushed hard for exchange with Sony BDV-E980 to which he said let the engg first see if there is an work around.
He will arrive by evening straight from Delhi, oh well i hope something comes out of this all
UPDATE2: Its done the engg switched the Blu ray player to LPCM 5ch mode instead of pass through and well everything seems good the blu ray player decodes the HD formats from the blu ray and then sends it via HDMI to the system in 5ch surround and the result is marvelous. You can notice the instant depth compared to the likes of DTS core.
The engg called up his superior at 8PM and told them the work is done. Then i had a chat with his superior and he asked if i still wish to change my system i off-course said no. He also apologized for the sales person and said since this was a new system the sales team did not know the head and tail of it, also the system was not meant for sale so soon and it was their fault. The bass seems even more profound now will do a write up soon.
