No Sound When playing DVDs the receiver defaults to PCM Digital and I get no sound. After some time it may switch to Dolby Digital and sound starts, but this does not happen often. I have checked all wiring and everthing seems setup OK. There is nothing in the manual about PCM. Any suggestions?

You must use optical/digital cable and set the audio options for 5.1 sound in the settings.

If you are playing media that has both dolby digital audio and dts audio, your player and your receiver will decode the first audio codec listed first by default unless you select it otherwise yourself. If your remote or receiver has an A.F.D. (auto format decode) button, press it until your display shows that the sound source is dolby digital or DTS, whichever sound mode it was you wanted when you started your DVD.

Hello, it sounds to me like the receiver doesn't support the sound format being sent from the blu-ray player. This is because the blu-ray disc would have HD encoded sound such as DTS HD Master Audio or Dolby True HD. Most receivers have not been fitted with these sound formats untill quite recently. The reason for the menu sound playing correctly would be for the PCM (Pulse-code Modulation) which sends simple two channel digital sound supported by all digital receivers. It may be possible to use Dolby Pro Logic or similar formats to give a surround feel, but the only way to get true surround sound in this way would be decode the sound externally and input it through several phono cables into the multichannel input, however blu-ray sound comes in 7.1 so the receiver would need to be able to accept this to get the full effect. If it is possible, see if the blu-ray player will allow downsampling to a surround sound format that your receiver can accept such as Dolby Digital or DTS. Hope this helps.

Like most receivers it will probably have settings for the sound output. Once you find this it will be just a matter of switching the system over to Dolby signals. If you find that it already set like that, try switching the DVD or blue ray player you are using or whatever source, using their sound settings on them. So that both devices are sending and detecting Dolby signals.
If both devices are set correctly then there probably will be a fault in the decoder of the JVC.

Try checking your audio output in the setup screen of dvd player. Try setting Digital Out HDMI to Auto, if it isn't already. See if that helps.

hdmi can only pass pcm 2.0 digital for the separate cables you may try to switch them to another output from the monitor to the receiver or if you can get your hands on a spd-if cable (one single fiberoptic cable that will go as high as 5.1 dolby surround)

I have the same problem with my Sharp Lcd and Onkyo 804. I believe one problem is that the TV can not accept dolby digital or dts digital audio signals through HDMI. It will play sound if it receives a PCM signal through HDMI. You can try switching the type of signal on the cable box settings and on the dvd player. I switched to PCM and got sound through the TV and the receiver. The problem is that PCM is usually only a 2 channel signal and Dolby 5.1 will sound better through the surround sound theater system. I have not found an absolute solution to this yet, but I am willing to not get sound through the lousy TV speakers in order to get top notch sound through the Onkyo.

Is there switch from dolby pro logic/ surround / or analog/ digital?

If it is a new DVD that may be a problem, as signal changes may be frustrating this old machine... but it is likely the cabling from the DVD player to the reciever. Are you on the right channels/settings? is the optical cable and digital cable recieving digital output from your DVD player? Try changing those settings and you should be in good shape Thanks! good luck!

Is it connected to 5.1 amp??.The first thing to try is to go to set up menu and change the audio o/p to pcm track.See if this works.What has more than likely happened is unit is set to dolby digital and should be on pcm track instead.If this doesnt work more than likely fault in unit but have seen very few audio problems with dvds.