[nmiller]

It appears this did the trick after all. Second time I rebooted, I suddenly had sound in menu and when playing back movies. Amp says MultiCH and I can see all 6 channels which was in the movie

Amazing. Now I just need to figure out how to get proper image. I tried fixing modelines but hasn't worked out.
Image is jerky even with VDPAU and audio a little out of sync.
I'm waiting for my new plasma to arrive shortly then I will give the picture a go again. Pioneer LCD is just such a piece of crap.

One thing I noticed though, was then I fast forwarded, XBMC stops emitting sound which causes the Amp to click. It would be nice if XBMC just outputted silence while fast forwarding so that app would stay "tuned" in to the multi ch. I might have to trac this one I guess.

Good to hear! Glad you got it going...I haven't seen the jerky image so I don't know if I can help you that much. I can definitely try to recreate what you're doing, if possible. I've noticed the Receiver clicking or losing signal as well...it is a bummer that it does this. I also noticed it in the menu sounds as well that sometimes the Receiver doesn't get the signal fast enough to transmit the clicks between some menu items...but if I keep moving around constantly in the menu the Receiver never loses signal and then it works fine. For me that was tolerable as long as everything else works fine. One thing I did notice is that when playing some trailers I get a "Failed to initialize device" message and no sound...still working on figuring that one out.

I'm really a linux noob. I've been a PC guy for ages, am a IT Network/Security Engineer by trade and have had to touch on linux here and there but never anything too advanced. Most of my stuff I've figured out has been due to hours and hours of reading and research in multiple forums and a lucky guess or two...if it wasn't for others posting their success and knowledge I'd probably still be at step 10 out of 50