Asim

Confusion about DD & HK 520

Ok, i rented a Dolby digital movie (i think star wars AOTC)
and have it set to play through my Dell inspiron which has
a digital audio out to my HK 520. In the DVD menu, i chose the DD track, yet on the receiver, the dolby digital LED never came on. I could cycle b/w DPLII, etc., but no DD light.
what gives? is it my computer's DVD drive that is not capable of sending out DD? though i would think since the receiver is doing all the decoding, it would be receiver dependent as long as it was receiving a digital signal? am i flawed in my thinking here?

thanks for the help.

- asim

RobWil

I don't believe that receiver 'autosenses' the format. You would have to go into the receiver menu and select that format for the associated input. I think

Asim

well, i have been several times in the menu b4, and only got choices for DPLII - music, cinema, emulation, and Dolby 3.

Then i started just flipping arount the input from Coax1 to Optical1, 2,3, and lo and behold, DD shows up as a choice. Then i switch it back to Coax1, and lo and behold, i have a new option. now why wasn't it there b4? who knows. thanks for your input.

Skyler

On the HK 20 series you have to actually instruct the receiver to decode digital or analog MANUALLY. It won't do it for you (like almost every other AVR). This frustrated me beyond belief. Hitting a combination of buttons on a remote to do this was unacceptable. This was especially BAD on cable, where some stations are Analog (Dolby PL II, or Logic7), and others are DD 5.1 or 2.0. One the digital ones, you get silence. Kinda KILLS the idea of channel surfing.

Asim

well, i spoke too soon. I am using the Matrix (which on the box says Dolby Digital) but i see no audio options in the dvd menu. so after settting it to DD on the receiver, and then playing through the dig coax, as soon as it started playing, it automatically switched to DPLII. I then tried to force it again, but it never stayed in DD during playback. other than the DVD not being DD, any clues?

skyler: yeah, too bad you have to do it thru the darn menus. at least if you could do it with the remote and not have to do it with the OSD, that would be much better.

Asim

bump...neone?

RobWil

Hmmmm.....that's strange? But unless you find the audio options on the DVD I don't think it matters what you've set on the receiver. If it isn't receiving the DD signal it's not going to stay on DD.

Asim

ok, i found the problem. when i attached a real DVDp digitally, the DD and DTS came on fine. Just not thru my computer. I had originally had problems setting up to get digital output on my computer, and that must only be sending out a regular PCM signal - not DD or DTS. I thought a complete track is sent and it is up to the receiver to choose which one to grab. error in my understanding. thanks for your help though, Robwil and skyler!

- asim