[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks for the advice – I’ve performed that test and there is no real friction there at all.  I performed the same test on my BG3000 just for comparison and there is plenty of friction there, so I see exactly what you mean.  I’ve ordered a new belt.

[CharlieWednesday]

I managed to get a pair of Penta’s myself earlier this year, and probably for the same reason as you want them – they may be a bit old now but they are the speakers I dreamed of when I was a teenager!

The foams on the mid-range speakers are prone to degrade – there are four in each speaker.  Kits are available to replace these, and I was able to carry out this work myself on mine.  I am no engineer, but with a bit of patience I was able to do it, and they sound great now.

I use them with a B&O TV/HiFi setup but my understanding is that if you use them with non-B&O equipment and connect them via the Speaker Link or Line In sockets rather than the Powerlink sockets, they switch off after a few minutes of receiving no signal, so you should be okay there.

The displays definitely won’t work for you – they are 100% only for a B&O setup.

You might want to consider getting the passive Beovox Penta instead of the active Beolab Penta, and then adding your own amplifier.  Beovox Penta will come cheaper, and have no display, but look just as good.  Due to having no amplifier in the base, they are about 6″ shorter.  They also of course don’t need to be plugged in to the mains.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks for the advice @Dillen, the glue dried, and the hook I had glued back on seems firmly fixed this time, so I reattached the wire drive, adjusted the eccentric a little, and the set-down position now seems to be good for both 12″ and 7″ records.  The sound quality seems to be as good as my BG3000 so I’ll keep using it for a while in place of my BG3000, to make sure it continues to work.  I’ve never restored a Beogram before so I’m quite proud of myself!

The only thing I do notice is that when I press Play, the platter seems to spin slowly for 2 or 3 revolutions, but by the time the arm has set down, it has reached the right speed. I’m assuming that this means the belt is worn, so I’ll get a new one – they do them quite cheap on Beoparts Shop (or Danish Sound Parts, as they are now calling themselves).

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks. The little plastic hook that I had glued back in place came loose again, so this time I’ve added a little plastic ‘buttress’ of my own making and glued it back on so it should have a firmer hold. I also got the positioning of the hook more precise this time. When the glue dries I’ll refit the wire drive and give that a try (I saw the adjustment method you mention in the service manual but it said that was more for 7″ records).

[CharlieWednesday]

While searching for a solution to this I found this post on the old forum, and it seems this is a known issue with the BV7.  Those digital A1-A4 coax inputs seem to have known issues.

I will therefore go back to using the Beosystem 3.  This means I have to use link commands to switch on my BV7, but at least it works.

[CharlieWednesday]

Further experimentation today – just to make sure there wasn’t a fault on my BV7-32 (maybe the digital audio inputs A1 thru A4 weren’t working, I wondered), I performed the same tests with the same setup connected to my BV7-40.  The results were exactly the same – I get picture. but no sound.

So, it does seem that the modern HDMI digital audio splitters (that provide sound via digital coax) are not compatible with the BV7, for reasons I don’t understand.

Did anyone ever use an HDMI matrix (with digital audio) with a BV7, using the coax digital audio in sockets on the BV7 for sound?  If so, can anyone recommend an HDMI matrix and/or digital audio splitter that would work?

[CharlieWednesday]

Following the above, I wanted to make sure the coax digital output on the HDMI matrix was working, so I connected my speakers up to my Beosystem 3, and connected the HDMI Matrix up to that instead, but using the Connections menu of the BS3, I set it to use SDDIF 1 as the sound input when using HDMI 1.

I did get sound, so at least I now the HDMI Matrix’s digital coax out is working, but I was only able to get it to work in normal stereo – even with the matrix set to output sound in 5.1/DTS format, the BS3 told me that it was only getting a sound signal in 2.0, and when I ran a 5.1 test video on Youtube, the same sound came out of all speakers.

Once I knew the HDMI matrix’s digital coax was working I plugged it back into the BV7 and tried again, but again, I got no sound at all when connected direct to the BV7.

Some compatibility issue between the HDMI matrix and the BV7 and BS3 then, I guess.

If anyone knows of an HDMI matrix that would work with a BV7-32 and give me digital 5.1 sound, please let me know!

[CharlieWednesday]

I’ve been on holiday for a few days but now I’m back, I managed to get hold of a used 4×2 HDMI Matrix/Audio splitter that has a digital coax audio output – this seems quite rare as new ones usually only have optical outputs, which is why I bought this used one.

I exchanged this for my more basic 3×1 HDMI switch (this also had an audio extractor, but analog only, so no use for surround sound).

So, I connected my Google TV to the new HDMI matrix for testing.  I connected a digital coax cable from that to the A1 input on my BV7.  I then went into the Connections menu and altered the AV4/PC connection so that it used ‘A1’ instead of ‘None’ as the audio input.

I get no sound.  I have also tried A2, A3, A4 sockets, but still no sound.  I have tried switching the ARC switch on the HDMI matrix, but it makes no difference.  The HDMI matrix has a lot of EDID options using tiny switches, but I’ve tried them all – I keep getting picture, but no sound.

It’s possible that the digital coax audio output on the HDMI matrix is faulty (it is a used one after all), but before I return it, could I be doing something wrong with the Connections menu settings on my BV7?

[CharlieWednesday]

Yes I got that too. A bit disappointed as this would be a perfect gadget for my ML era stuff, and might have even worked with my BC8500 with a 1611 converter. Here’s hoping they still find a way to make it happen.

[CharlieWednesday]

Since posting the above I have also found this device which converts optical audio output to coax and supporters 5.1.  So, if I buy this device as mentioned in the above post, convert the optical audio output to coaxial, then connect that to one of the coaxial audio inputs on my BV7, I think that will achieve what I need for video, while also giving 5.1 surround.

I’ve tried to find a 4-in 2-out HDMI which that has coax audio out but cannot find one – they only ever seem to come with optical and 3.5mm analog audio outputs.

[CharlieWednesday]

That audio splitter arrived today but I’m afraid I got the same results – the projector shows ‘Content is Protected – select another source’ if I try to watch my Google TV via the cinema output on my BV7.  Damned HDCP.

It did give me a thought though – really, I only need the BV7 to deal with the audio, not the video.  If I buy a 4-in 2-out HDMI switch which is also an audio extractor (such as this one), I could plug my Google TV and my games consoles into that, then plug the audio output and one of the HDMI outputs into the BV7 (using an HDMI>DVI cable), and plug the other HDMI output into my projector.

That way, when I want to watch in cinema mode, I would just need to switch the HDMI output on that switch box to the one connected to my projector, hit Format 0 on the Beo4, and the switch box would deal with the video, while the BV7 continues to deal with the audio.

I am however assuming that the 3.5mm audio output on that switch box will only support 2.0 stereo, not 5.1 surround? I therefore think I might also need an HDMI audio splitter which uses digital coax such as this one so I could plug the audio into one of the coax audio inputs on my BV7.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks Guy.  I’ve ordered that from Amazon, might as well give it a try.  My existing HDMI audio extractor is also a 3-way HDMI switch (I have two games consoles plugged into it as well), but I’d still like to test it and see if that can solve the problem.  I could always use both of them in series, if the box you have suggested works for me.

As for the BV10, am I right in saying that the BV10 doesn’t have a cinema output, for use with a projector?  My BV8 doesn’t, and that’s partly why I started using the BV7 again.

[CharlieWednesday]

My attempts to set up a B&O home cinema seems to be more complex than I thought!  I encountered a whole new unexpected issue today.

I am not yet using the Beosystem 3 for the reasons given earlier in this thread (and may never use it, if it turns out to be no use to me), but I thought I would set everything up just using the Beovision 7’s VGA Cinema output, connected to my projector, which has a VGA input.

Because my Beovision 7 (Mk3) does not have HDMI inputs I have a 3 way HDMI switch box and audio splitter, which in turn is connected to the DVI input and RCA audio inputs of my Beovision 7.  Thet HDMI switch box has a Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Wii U, and a Google TV connected to it.  They all work fine when watching on the BV7 itself.

So, I switch to the projector screen using Format 0 on the Beo4, and everything works fine except the Google TV.  DTV and DVD from the TV are both fine, both Nintendo consoles are fine, but when I try to switch to Google TV, I get a message only if using the projector – the message ‘Content is protected – select another source’ is displayed.  I am not sure if it is the TV or the projector which is generating that message, but I think it’s the projector.

I found this post on the old forum from someone who had a similar issue but with a Beosystem 3.  It seems that their screen was not HDCP compliant, but I have checked the manual for my projector, and that is HDCP compliant.  I don’t know anything about HDCP and had never heard of it until today, but I assume the BV7 must be HDCP compliant as the Google TV works fine when not in cinema mode.

So, I’m left wondering, is it because I am using a VGA-to-VGA cable to connect the TV to the projector? If I get a VGA to HDMI converter and connect that to one of the projector’s HDMI inputs instead, is it likely that will work?

[CharlieWednesday]

By the way, does anyone know how you can get the software updated on a Beosystem 3 Mk2?  It doesn’t have the USB socket like the Mk2 has.  I assume this was something a B&O shop would do, but I don’t know if today’s shops would even recognise it!

[CharlieWednesday]

That CD tape adapter was intended for the Beosystem 2000 and 3000, and allowed you to add a CD player when the Beogram CDX was first released.  They do come up on eBay sometimes but tend to go for quite a high price, for what they are.

My old QED switch box, like the ones I have linked to in my earlier post, do allow you to set Input 1>2 or 2>1, so you could record from one source to another.  You should then be able to set your BC9300 to a difference source.  I never actually tried that myself when I had one of those switch boxes, but I see no reason why that wouldn’t work.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks. Yes that setup does work if I use the BV7 instead of the BS3. I’ve already ordered the cable, I’m pretty convinced now that this is what I need – I don’t think the BS3 option setting is working without using it’s own IR eye, as you suggest.

I’ll let you know if it works once the cable arrived.

[CharlieWednesday]

Further to the above, I don’t think that having it connected to the same ML network as my Beosound 4 is enough – I think that the Beosystem 3 wants to have its own IR eye.  I have a spare IR eye but don’t have the right type of cable for it (3.5mm jack), but I see that Steve at Sounds Heavenly sells those, so I’ll order one and see if I have any luck with that.

The seller of the Beosystem 3 assures me it was tested and working (they are a business, not a private seller), so I do think it’s probably me making incorrect assumptions about how it should work.  The B&O manual only gives instructions for connecting it to a Beovision 4 and a projector, but since I don’t have a Beovision 4, the IR eye might be a necessity.

[CharlieWednesday]

I have just taken delivery today of my Beosystem 3, and of course, I can’t figure it out!

To make things simple I have disconnected my Beovision 7 TV from the mains and from the ML network for now.  I don’t have an IR eye connected to the BS3 but I am able to power it on – it is connected to my Beosound 4 via ML, and if I put my Beosound 4 into Opt.2 and the Beosystem 3 into either 0 or 1, the Beosystem 3 does power up if I select a video source, such as DTV.  My Beosound 4 display shows that source, and the channel number, so it would appear to be ‘working’.

However, I am getting no video signal out of it.  It’s a Mk2 so it has DVI outputs rather than HDMI but I have a DVI-HDMI adapter connected, and then I have connected it to a normal PC monitor just to test it.  I am getting no video signal.  I have tried Format 0 on the Beo4 remote to switch between TV and cinema mode, and I have tried both of the DVI outputs, but I am getting nothing.  The power LED is on, but I get no display.

It could be that the Beosystem 3 is faulty, but it seems more likely that I am doing something wrong!  Any advice would be much appreciated.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks for this – it opens up some possibilities for me for both my Beosound 4 and my Beocenter 8500 (via a 1611 converter, which I already have).  I had always thought the Playmaker would be of no practical use to me, and I had also thought that in order to use an Essence, I would also need an NL/ML converter, but it seems that by using Steve’s cable, I wouldn’t need that.

I am not an Apple user and never will be, but DNLA is an option.

[CharlieWednesday]

Guy wrote:

If you ever want to use datalink with the ‘expanded’ input then it could be worth trying to find the B&O Aux Expander, which gave full 7-pin DIN switching from up to 4 inputs.  They do come up on eBay occasionally:

I’ve never heard of the B&O Aux Expander, but now I really want one.

Guy wrote:

Alternatively, connect a Playmaker to the BC9300 Aux input, stream Qobuz from your phone using airplay/DNLA and connect the Revox tapedeck to the Playmaker’s (auto-sensing) aux input.  Instead of a Playmaker you could also do this with Essence Mk1 or Mk2.

How would that work?  I’ve never really considered getting a Playmaker as I thought they had no output other than speaker outputs.  So, you can somehow adapt those for use to connect it to an Aux input, with the right cable?  Playmaker and Essence Mk1 often come up on eBay for less than £100 so I’m thinking I might use that solution myself!

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