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General discussion

Sony Customer Support doesn't know how to use HDMI cables

Sep 8, 2009 4:35AM PDT

Ok so i consider myself to have a pretty good knowledge of electronics. Sony on the other hand does not. I email Sony's tech support because i was having problems getting truehd to show up on my receiver. I just got a new ps3 slim. I changed the settings form linear pcm to bitstream. So it should show up truehd on my receiver right? wrong. so i have been emailing customer support to figure out the reason. She first asked me if i was using an hdmi cable. I explained that i was and this is what i got email back to me(keep in mind that when you email them it takes 1-2 days for a response so i would expect a good answer):

Hello Jacob,

Thank you for writing us back with further information on your setup.

If you're using HDMI for both picture and sound, that is why you're not achieving HD sound. You can only use HDMI for either picture OR sound, but not both, as the console doesn't support this.

If you want to use HDMI for sound, then the best picture option for you would be to use component cables for a 1080i picture.


Regards,
Lisa U.

That was sony's exact answer, word for word. I don't even know how to respond to something like that. I mean, wow.

Discussion is locked

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I know the feeling
Sep 8, 2009 5:12AM PDT

I know the feeling.

I have a 32" Bravia, which seems to be having some issues with a specific game (Disgaea) on my PS2. So I email Sony's tech support clearly stating I'm having issues with a PlayStation 2, and their first response is to tell me how to set up HDMI for a PlayStation 3. I respond back saying that unless they intend to give me a PS3 to use for this, it's not very helpful. So then their next response is to point me to a web article about dealing with a no signal issue on OTA HDTV broadcasts, and my particular TV model wasn't even among those listed as being represented by that article.

Just call them, and at least that way it will be a little faster. They'll have you do a bunch of things you've probably already tried, and then likely set you up with a replacement or repair service.

My best guess is one of two things is happening.

1: They have software that isolates key words and phrases and then sends that to the poor sods who have to answer email questions

or

2: They're using cheap asian or indian labor, and these people have a very poor grasp of english (which is why they're cheap) and are basically looking for key words and phrases to punch into the Sony website's search function

So really, probably the best thing you can do is just call the tech support line. If you get stuck on hold for a long time... Speakerphone! At least then you're not stuck with the phone against your ear for 30+ minutes.

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wow
Sep 8, 2009 6:26AM PDT

Wow, that is bad.

Like the last person said, try phone support, grab a beer and get comfortable and hopefully you'll get somebody that knows what they're talking about.

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solved
Sep 8, 2009 12:10PM PDT

Well i was able to actually get ahold of a live person and he had me go into the manual setup for audio and unselect all of the output formats except the DTSHD and TRUEHD. a couple of the linear outputs cant be unselected, but it fixed the issue. I will say it took a while. It took 3 reps to figure it out. The third guy just got lucky and figured out trial by error. He had me unselect all of them because he didn't know which one was interfering with the truehd and the dtshd outputs. So the problem is fixed but they dont know exactly what caused it, either way im still happy. I just hope that by deselecting all of those audio outputs one of my movies or games wont have sound issues.