Dolby Digital 5.1 from Digital Coaxial to Analog (1 Viewer)

[Pointnino]

Ah, good evening everybody. I have a question that I have now spent 9 hours straight online looking for an answer and still have not found a solution. I'm thinking that either I'm on the verge of a great invention idea, or that it's not possible. Here's my question:

I have a Dolby Digital 5.1 Home Stereo in the living room of my home that we use for Dolby Digital audio on DVD's. I also have an older model COBY DVD player with analog Dolby Digial 5.1 ANALOG outputs on the back of it.

I had the DVD Player's analog (6) RCA-type connectors hooked up the receiver's (6) analog RCA-type inputs on the back. Everything worked GREAT. Recently we bought a new 42" 1080p HDTV and hooked that up in the mix. Naturally I wanted to upgrade my DVD player to up-convert my DVD collection to 1080i, so I stared looking around. I wanted to do this before buying a Bluray because of the obvious price difference. Here's where I ran into the problem.

There are a few DVD/Bluray players on the market that have the six analog outputs for Dolby 5.1 on the back, but it limits my choices by 80% at best. Now to make it tougher, Walmart has a Magnavox Bluray player for $128. I want to buy it since it's the cheapest I've seen, but the problem is it doesn't have the analog outputs for Dolby 5.1. The receiver's only option is the 6 analog inputs for 5.1.

Is there a way to convert the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal from the DVD/Bluray player from the Coaxial output to the 6-wire analog inputs on the receiver? I have tried and tried, and I am 100% SURE that this is the only way this is going to happen. Well, the ONLY other options would be to either upgrade the receiver, DVD player, or both... OR to just pick a DVD/Bluray player with the analog outs. I don't want to change the receiver, and I really want the $128 Bluray.

Sorry for being long winded, but I feel that you need to know what I tried and what I already know. If you have any advice, please let me know. Thank you!

 

[gene c]

Sounds like you have a late '90's Dolby "ready" receiver. I think what you are looking for is a Dolby Digital Processor like this Yamaha DDP-1" on Ebay for $90. You can download the manual on Yamaha's website.

 

[Pointnino]

Thank you Gene. Much appreciated. I figured there was a way to do it. If it was up to me alone, I'd just get a new receiver, but the girlfriend is in love with it for some reason, so this route may be the only way. The quality of the sound on this thing is unbelievable for what it is, don't get me wrong, but I suggested upgrading. That suggestion was shot down. Thanks again!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

If your new TV is a plasma or LCD flat panel, or DLP, LCoS or LCD rear-projection set, it is already de-interlacing and scaling your DVDs to 1080p. Fixed-pixel design TVs (pretty much everything other than CRT, these days) can only display their native resolution, so all inputs get converted to that. The question then becomes, "How good a job does the TV do?" I have a JVC LCoS 56" RP and an upconverting Sony DVD player. I've done A/B comparisons with both the TV and the DVD player doing the conversion and I can't see a difference between the two. So I let the JVC do the work.

So you may want to check around to see what kind of rep your TV has for scaling video, and compare that to any upscaling DVD players you look into. Your best (and cheapest) bet might be to stick with what you have and then save up for both a new AV receiver and a Blu Ray player. Because one way or the other your DVDs will get upconverted, and even if the DVD player does a better job, it might not do enough better to justify buying both it and an outboard audio processor while you're waiting for Blu.

Regards,

Joe