so in the living room, i have a 5.1 surround sound system with a 5-cd dvd player. verytime a movie plays, it goes into the surround sound mode and it fires at all speakers, dolby digital singal or whatever. but then, every 5 minutes or so, my sub punds and it goes into 2 channel mode, and then 2 min later the sub booms again and its back in dolby. what the hell? its annoying as all hell. how do i fix it? all sony stuff btw.

Dude, that sounds like a system malfunction, either with the DVD player or the amp. the sound is coming from the DVD player via a digital stream, so either the output from the DVD is corrupted or the amp is not decoding it correctly. I assume that you have tried several DVDs with the same result. These suggestions are basically a last resort, but:

Do you have the digital sound output from the DVD player connected to the amp via coax or fiber optic? You could try a new cable.

Some DVDs let you select either Dolby or DTS. Try both of these and see if it does the same thing.

Try a friends amp or DVD player to isolate.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'll check back if you pose any new info...

Hey, you answered your own question. :p

i gota take all the stuff down, and rewire it all, cause my parents had my cousin do it, and looking at some of it, it doesnt look to hot.

now its all a matter of taking all the crao if the shelves buying new wires and all. running coax wires, ill probably need new ones. so ill do all that and then well see.

I would try hooking up a new / different DVD player possibly as well and see if the one you have is toast. I have gone through two DVD players and I am now on my third - I think they are all basically crap and made to break.

ps - don't buy a crap-shiba!!

I'd second that...

anyways, it sounds like the sub is overheating, and freaking out. Not an uncommon problem with cheap subs. The thing is, there is no such thing as "2 channel" to the sub. The sub only gets 1 signal, regardless of whether the receiver is in 5.1 or stereo mode. So if the sub is crapping out for a while, then I'd say it's either the sub output on the receiver (highly possible; it's a sony), or it's a sub malfunction (also highly possible; it's a sony).

Sony products are good for the average, run-of-the-mill, off the shelf product. But if you try to use them they way you *think* they're built for (aka, good, loud, house rattling sound), it's either not going to be clear, good sound, or it's going to crap out on you, or both.

Turn down the gain on the sub, and see if it still does it. Turn it down to about halfway, and if it still does it, turn it down to a quarter. My guess is still that it's overheating, and tripping an internal breaker.

And save up your $$ for higher quality speakers... And receiver... And not to sound like an ass, but it's like modifying your Xterra. Sure, you can put a shitty piece of plastic hood scoop on there, 'cause it "looks pretty", but it's not going to do anything... You gotta' pay to play. For a lower-end surround system in a medium size living room, you need at least $1,200 to do it right (+/- $600 on receiver, $600 on speakers, MIN!). Those all-in-one surround setups just really aren't up to the task.

The good thing is, you don't have to do it all at once. First, buy a good receiver. Onkyo, B&K, HK, etc. Second, buy a good center channel. Third, buy a good set of fronts. Fourth, buy a good sub. Fifth, buy a good set of matched rears (match the rears to everything else you've bought). Don't be surprised if you spend $150 to $300 (or more) per speaker. If you want it done right, you won't find it in a set...