Difficulty with headphone audio with Sony portable BD player (1 Viewer)

[Brad Cook]

I've had a Sony portable Blu-ray player, model BDP-SX910, for a few years now, and I've found that only my noise-canceling headphones give me decent dialogue audio with it. (And only with the noise-canceling option activated.) Apple earbuds and other types of headphones don't work well.

For example, I have a Criterion BD disc in the player, right now and the dialogue is hard to hear with the non-noise-canceling headphones I'm using at the moment -- if I turn it up, it becomes distorted with static. (I'm away from home at the moment and forgot my noise-canceling headphones, so I'm trying a different pair of headphones.)

Music and sound effects are fine in all movies.

Another oddity is that when I tried Captain America: Civil War in the player, I could barely hear the dialogue, even with my non-noise-canceling headphones with the noise-canceling feature turned on.

When experiencing these issues, I've tried switching to different audio tracks, and I've tried looking in the player's audio settings, but I've had no luck. I checked the player firmware against what the Sony support site says it should be running, and it's up to date.

Any idea what's going on here? Thanks.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Make sure the player is set for PCM or 2.0 playback not Dolby Digital 5.1. Also check the audio settings in the disc menu make sure 2.0 is selected, not 5.1.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Brad Cook]

Thanks for the response. In the case of the sex, lies, and videotape Criterion BD I was watching, the 5.1 audio is the only option for that disc.

The player has a bunch of audio settings. Here's what the manual says and what I've chosen for each one. The main options are in bold with the choices in italics.

Any thoughts on this, or is this just a quirk of this particular player?

Audio (HDMI)
Auto:
Normally select this. Outputs audio
signals according to the status of the
connected HDMI device.

PCM:
Outputs PCM signals from the HDMI
OUT jack.

** I chose PCM.

BD Audio MIX Setting
On:
Outputs the audio obtained by mixing
the interactive and secondary audio to
the primary audio.

Off:
Outputs the primary audio only. Select
this to output HD audio signals to an AV
amplifier (receiver).

** I chose On, since I'm not outputting the audio to a receiver.

DTS Neo:6
Cinema: Outputs the simulated multi-
channel sound from 2 channel sources
via the HDMI OUT jack according to
the capability of the connected device
using "DTS Neo:6 Cinema" mode.

Music: Outputs the simulated multi-
channel sound from 2 channel sources
via the HDMI OUT jack according to
the capability of the connected device
using "DTS Neo:6 Music" mode.

Off: Outputs the sound with its original
number of channels via the HDMI
OUT jack.

** I chose Off. This one is a bit confusing.

Audio DRC
Auto:
Performs playback at the dynamic
range specified by the disc (BD-ROM
only). Other discs are played back at the
"On" level.

On:
Performs playback at a standard
compression level.

Off: No compression works. A more
dynamic sound is produced.

** I chose On. This one is a bit confusing too.

Downmix
Surround: Outputs audio signals with
surround effects. Select this when
connecting an audio device that
supports Dolby Surround
or DTS Neo:6

Stereo: Outputs audio signals without
surround effects. Select this when
connecting an audio device that does
not support Dolby Surround (Pro
Logic) or DTS Neo:6.

** I chose Stereo.

There are no other audio settings.