HD DVD - PCM - HTR-5990 - Do I have this right?

eschep · 07-22-2007, 07:27 AM

Hello group,

I recently moved to a home where I have enough room to build a decent home theater system. I've had a surround system for as long as I can remember, and I've been upgrading one piece or another along the way.

I've been reading posts here on the forum for a few days in hopes that I can understand as much as possible. Other than the HD DVD/BluRay conflict being played out here, I've found the postings very informative. I've now read until my head hurts and think it's time to clarify and confirm with the experts before I get too far down the wrong track. My grandfather had a saying... "It's not that you're stupid, boy! It's just that you know a bunch of crap that isn't true!".

I've had a Yamaha HTR-5990 for a year and have used it in a 5.1 configuration. I also have a newly-installed DirecTV HD Decoder/DVR.

The latest upgrades I've made include an HD DVD player (Toshiba A2KU) and two rear surround speakers. This is when the trouble (and confusion) began.

The first problem that surfaced was a presumably-bad left Rear Surround channel on the Yamaha. The test signal was scratchy and broken up. I made sure it wasn't the wiring or the new speaker. Unless I have something completely fargled up in settings, I'll have to get the receiver repaired. I'm not sure when I'll do that because I can't find any source that actually plays through the Rear Surround channel!

From what I can tell, and please let me know if I have this right, the HD DVD player does not decode the Dolby Digital Plus audio found on most of the HD DVDs (that I own). The HTR-5990 indicates that it is receiving PCM. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it appears that I get decent surround sound, although it's only 5.1.

A couple of questions...

Can a future release of firmware add decoding capability on the HD=DVD?

Even if it does, am I correct in assuming that the HTR-5990 won't be able to deal with it because the unit only decodes the following and Dolby Digital Plus is not included?

Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Pro Logic, THX Select 2, THX Surround EX decoder, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital Surround EX, DTS Neo:6, DTS-ES Matrix 6.1, DTS-ES Discrete 6.1, DTS 96/24, Dolby Digital, DTS decoder

Thanks for your help...

Pete

Steve Schaffer · 07-22-2007, 02:01 PM

What audio connection are you using between the A2 and the 5990?

eschep · 07-22-2007, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Schaffer

What audio connection are you using between the A2 and the 5990?

oops... sorry, very important. HDMI

Steve Schaffer · 07-23-2007, 01:36 PM

Your HD-DVD player is working correctly. All decoding of Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Tru HD is done by the player and output as 5.1 multichannel PCM.

This is why your receiver is displaying PCM as the incoming audio signal.

Many receivers are not capable of performing 7.1 processing on incoming 5.1 PCM, apparently yours is one of them, but consider yourself lucky as there are a lot of "HDMI" receivers that can't even accept 5.1PCM at all.

eschep · 07-23-2007, 04:45 PM

Thank you for the response. I was hoping that was the case. It's interesting that when I used the Optical Digital input, the Yamaha displayed DTS as the incoming signal. I don't recall checking to see if the rear surrounds were working.

Pete

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Stephen Hopkins · 07-25-2007, 08:55 AM

The reason it displays DTS as the source format when connected via optical is because the A2 is decoding Dolby Digital Plus and/or TrueHD and then RE-Encoding to DTS (which has greater maximum bitrate than regular Dolby Digital).

You can look into having the 5990 repaired but it's likely not worth the cost considering a point you yourself made, the huge lack of content encoded in anything above 5.1. The back surround speakers may also not be worth the cost and you may want to look into returning them or selling them, especially if your seating position is directly against the back wall (an instance when 7.1 can actually sound much worse than 5.1)

eschep · 07-25-2007, 11:02 AM

Probably too late to return or sell them. They look much better than the holes in the wall I made to install them. They're in a wall a good 12' behind the listening/viewing area.

Luck has it that I bought a Product Support Plan for the Yamaha. I usually don't do that but they must have had a special deal as the receiver was the floor model at Best Buy. I'll get it fixed or swapped out if it's not too much hassle.

Thanks for the help.

Pete

Stephen Hopkins · 07-25-2007, 11:10 AM

Sounds like repair/replacement should be free and you have the appropriate space behind the listening position so for you 7.1 may indeed be worthwhile, atleast as some more software becomes available.