Need expert help connecting from the 20th century to the 21st

If your older DVD works, it seems you are only getting mono sound, identical left/right channels out of the Samsung analog outputs for some reason.  (It's called "analog stereo", not "composite"; "composite" only refers to the yellow video connection).

I would see what happens if you:
- connect sound from TV's analog out to receiver instead (only HDMI from Samsung->TV, try both Dolby bitstream & PCM settings)
- disconnect HDMI and use component, still connect from DVD to receiver.

But for Pete's sake get a new receiver!  The jump between Prologic and Dolby digital is *tremendous*, well worth it.  I'd rather find a used $70 DD/DTS receiver than continue to use that old one.  It was time to upgrade 10 years ago!
Edited by Stephen Tu - 8/23/09 at 6:53pm

It is most likely an issue with the analog downmix setting on the DVD player.  Go into the setup menu of the player and find something about analog audio out, analog downmix or something like that.  It may be set to mono or something else.  It should be set to Stereo or analog surround.  There aren't standards for the terminology.  That should do the trick, so long as the receiver is set up right.

There is no downmix setting according to the player manual ... besides I've never seen any player with a "mono" setting.

Stephen, I doubt it is outputting mono, or else there would be no sound coming from the surrounds.  If not the downmix, then probably something with the speaker configuration on the receiver.

The surround channels might be encoded OK to the L/R, but the front channels are probably mono, equally distributed left/right if all sound collapses to the center.  It can't be speaker configuration, the DVD player is doing something wrong.

My interpretation of the how the DVD player is connected is with L & R analog only, which makes what you propose impossible (mono signal = no surround sound), but that is what my suggestions were based on.  The OP really isn't clear on that, so any more speculation on what is going on is pointless until he returns and clarifies things.

No it doesn't.  Like I said the surround may be divided/encoded correctly, but the main front channels not.  The way prologic works, sound that is identical in the left/right channels (= mono) gets steered toward the center.  Stuff that is 180 degrees out of phase gets directed to the surround.  Surround is OK, the left/right channels aren't.

It's the settings you propose that are non-existant, and can't have this effect if the system works normally with other DVD players.

My last attempt.  My interpretation (which I have already said may be incorrect, because the OP has not clarified) was that the DVD player is connected only with the L&R analog audio, so the surround is being matrixed from the L&R.  Therefore, if, as you say, those two channels are being put out mono and collapsing to the center, it is impossible for them to also be 180 deg out of phase and directed to the surrounds.  If that were the case, there would be no sound coming from the center, rather than all front sound coming from the center.  It would do one or the other, not both.

The fact is, things like "there is sound coming from..." doesn't really tell us as much as we need to know.  We need to know what that sound is.  Is it dialog? Is it everything in the soundtrack?  Is it everything except dialog?  Is it only minor ambient sound?  Until we know that, everything is speculation, and we in fact do NOT know that "the surround is OK".  We only know there is some kind of sound coming from it.  The fact there is NO sound coming from the sub indicates something else is wrong.  Maybe this is a three piece system (for the L,R & sub) and it simply isn't connected correctly.  That also indicates more has changed than simply the DVD player.

FWIW, every DVD player I have ever owned has options for how the 2 channel analog downmix (mixing 5.1 digital soundtracks down to 2 channel) is performed.  Very few people ever even look into that because, particularly these days, they are using digital audio connections.

It is a good suggestion to hook up another analog 2 channel source to narrow down where the problem is.  If the same thing happens, it's not the source.  Beyond that, there is no point in continuing more speculation until the OP has clarified a few things and tried some trouble shooting.

There are 5.1 channels here.  Normally in a downmix, you take the center channel, divide equally to left & right, added to existing left/right.  The surround channels are combined, then added to each left & right out of phase.  The DVD may be mixing in the surround channels correctly, while not handling the front channels correctly (dropping L/R for some reason, for example).  That is all I am saying.  It is admittedly possibilty,  conjecture.  Nevertheless it is substantially more probable than your pointing him to configuration options that *don't exist on his equipment*, and *would not result in such an effect*.


Agree, but the surround *might* be OK.  I was merely explaining a possibilty, because of your claim that if the front channels were mono that there would necessarily be no surround either.


Not true, he said it was a passive sub, therefore presumably connected in parallel with his front left/right speakers.  No signal to left/right speakers would explain no signal to the sub.

Unlikely, because he said he got sound from them when plugged into the main in, bypassing the surround circuitry.


Yes, but his *DOES NOT*, if you look in the manual.  Furthermore, the option is between stereo downmix, and surround downmix.  Which would only affect how the surrounds are mixed in, not destroy the stereo sound and collapse everything to the center, either way it is set.

Wow.  I've learned so much about HT here.  Thank you Stephen.  You are absolutely right about everything.

Now, can we see if the OP comes back?