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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Gaming > PS3 audio problems in NFS HP & GT5

PS3 audio problems in NFS HP & GT5
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badidea
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Jan 4, 2011, 10:27 AM
 
I just recently (Christmas ) got Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and GT5 and noticed now audio problems first in NFS and now in GT5 as well which is probably rather a hardware problem (since it happened in two different games) than a software problem but I'm not sure! Maybe someone here can help?

The problem is that sometimes the center channel sound seems to break.
I NFS for example is a voice explaining the car you choose and after a few seconds the voice just stops!
On the racetrack it sometimes happens that the engine sound becomes very quiet (because I only hear the effect speakers?)! The same now happened in GT5...suddenly no more engine sounds!
This does not happen every time I play the games but as soon it happens it happens quite a lot!
(never noticed problems like this in any other game)

The PS3 is connected via HDMI to a Harman Kardon receiver with linear PCM audio (is that what it's called?).

Could this be a cable problem? Software? Blu-Ray drive? The receiver?

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The Final Dakar
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Jan 4, 2011, 10:28 AM
 
Simple place to start, did you check the center channel's wiring?
     
badidea  (op)
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Jan 4, 2011, 11:02 AM
 
No but I don't have any audio problems with my center channel when viewing movies (from a Mac mini)!
Only with the PS3 and only in these two games so far!
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The Final Dakar
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Jan 4, 2011, 11:18 AM
 
Wouldn't hurt to double check.

Alternatively, try switching out HDMI cables and see if the problem persists.
     
badidea  (op)
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Jan 4, 2011, 03:31 PM
 
I now deactivated all 7.1 PCM sound options - I don't have 7 speakers anyway!
Didn't have any problems so far but that's nothing special either.
That's going to be some long testing...
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exca1ibur
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Jan 4, 2011, 03:51 PM
 
Sounds like your HDMI cable. I think you need a 1.3/1.4 rated cable for 7.1, so that might be some weird latency glitches there. I had an HDMI go on me and I lost video but audio worked fine. Try another cable, just incase. I thought my system went south, and it was just a faulty HDMI cable.
     
ibook_steve
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Jan 4, 2011, 07:11 PM
 
What's your exact setting in the PS3 sound settings? Have you tried other settings?

Steve
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exca1ibur
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Jan 4, 2011, 08:29 PM
 
I'm just set to 2.0, using the HDMI auto-detect. I believe these are my settings, but I'll have to verify once I get home and I'll post back.

Linear PCM 2 Ch.
Linear PCM 2 Ch. 44
Linear PCM 2 Ch. 48
AAC

If you have 5.1 should will need these
DTS 5.1 (Depending on your receiver)
Dolby Digital 5.1
Linear PCM 5.1 Ch. 44


Under Video Settings I set Blu-ray Audio to use LinearPCM.
     
badidea  (op)
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Jan 5, 2011, 04:51 AM
 
Originally Posted by exca1ibur View Post
Sounds like your HDMI cable. I think you need a 1.3/1.4 rated cable for 7.1, so that might be some weird latency glitches there. I had an HDMI go on me and I lost video but audio worked fine. Try another cable, just incase. I thought my system went south, and it was just a faulty HDMI cable.
The cable is 1.3 rated but not 1.4 rated. It's also a cheap one because I don't believe in high quality audio and video with expensive cables (I believe though that cheap cables might cause problems).
What I don't understand though is why I didn't see any problems for the last 2 years and now it sometimes works and sometimes not...
(and since I don't use my PS3 every day I'm not sure when I will be able to say for sure if the problem is solved with a different cable or not)
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exca1ibur
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Jan 5, 2011, 12:02 PM
 
I get my cables at monoprice.com. I'm not paying more than $10 for an HDMI cable either. I see no need for high-quality prices on digital cables, either. I had the exact same thing happen, just out of the blue, after about a year, the cable just went (before I started going to monoprice). I never knew that could happen either.
     
badidea  (op)
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Jan 11, 2011, 05:57 AM
 
Ok, it's not my PS3 audio settings - had the error again yesterday!
I now use a different HDMI cable - let's see how long that lasts....
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badidea  (op)
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Jan 13, 2011, 08:18 AM
 
Didn't last very long - still the same error with a different HDMI cable!
Now what??
I have no problems with DVDs, Blu-Ray Movies...only with NFS HP and GT5...??!?!
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exca1ibur
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Jan 13, 2011, 01:01 PM
 
Hmmm. That's a good one. Only thing left I can think of it to reset the AV settings. Hold the power button down till it beeps 3 times. When it boots back up it should ask you for the video and audio settings again, set those up and then give it a roll for a bit.
     
badidea  (op)
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Jan 14, 2011, 04:53 AM
 
Already did that twice - didn't help either unfortunately!
I think I'll have to live with it until I see a very good reason for a new PS3 or a new A/V receiver.
(a quieter PS3 and a receiver with 2 HDMI outputs isn't enough yet )
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badidea  (op)
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Feb 10, 2011, 06:28 AM
 
The error now also happens in Red Dead Redemption (got this game just a few days ago) and there it's the same...it only happens in the cut scenes! They start talking and suddenly stop and I can only hear ambient sound! No center channel anymore.
What's going on? What's the difference between cut scene audio and normal game audio????

For testing I now connected my receiver with an optical cable to the PS3 and switched to optical audio out - error didn't happen again so far!
I still have no idea if the PS3 or the receiver cause the problem!?
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