Cant get full surround 5.1 out of my setup (1 Viewer)

Hello everyone!

I need some help. I am extremely frustrated with trying to get DTS and Dolby Digital signal to play properly on my receiver...

Here is my equipment:
Sony STR-DA1ES receiver (only 2 months old, decodes DTS and Dolby digital)
Sony DVP-NS-315 DVD player
... connected by a digital coax ONLY

I have tried every audio output setting on the DVD player to try to get the receiver to decode the DTS and Dolby digital signal, but I can only get sound if I set up the DVD in this way:

Downmix: Dolby Surround
Digital Out: On
Dolby Digital: D-PCM
DTS: Off

The instructions for the DVD player tells me that if I set the Dolby Digital to D-PCM that this setting is only for receivers lacking a Dolby Digital Decoder, which my receiver is not - it has DTS and Dolby Digital decoders.

I have several "idiot lights" (for lack of better words on the receiver display to tell me when I am playing Dolby Digital, DTS, or Prologic signals and I can only get the Prologic to display when I do get sound. I dont think that my digital coax is bad, because I do get sound with one particular set of output specifications on the DVD player.

I am hoping that some of you might have this equipment or similar equipment that can point me in the right direction, help me troubleshoot, or make some suggestions on how to get this to work in the digital surround modes.

I have several DVD's in various audio formats:
Saving Private Ryan: DTS
Lord of the Rings Extended Edition: DTS 6.1 (supposed to be compatible with "standard" 5.1 DTS) and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Star Wars episode 2: Attack of the Clones: Dolby Digital
The Matrix: Dolby Digital
Band of Brothers 6 DVD set: DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1

This is driving me nuts... help!

Thanks in advance,

Jeffrey

Have you set your DVD output signal to "BITSTREAM" for Dolby Digital / DTS ?

Unfortunately, that is not one of the options on my audio setup menu on the DVD... :frowning:

I looked at the manual for your DVD and receiver online.

DVD:
1) Set the Dolby Digital output to "Dolby Digital" instead of "PCM".
2) Set the DTS output to "on" instead of "off". You must do this with no disk in the drive. Press "display" repeatedly when a disk is in to see the audio format playing.
If this does not work, your player is defective or your receiver is not set up correctly.

Receiver:
1) Make sure there are no coax audio cables connected.
2) Make sure your receiver is set to "auto" to decode any digital signal coming in. You do this by pressing "auto dec" on the remote or on the front of the receiver.

Yes, I meant to disconnect the analog coax, not the digital. I wanted to make sure he is not hearing DPL through an RCA cable he didn't know was hooked up. Should have been more specific.

Jeff Gatie wrote:

I looked at the manual for your DVD and receiver online.

DVD:
1) Set the Dolby Digital output to "Dolby Digital" instead of "PCM".
2) Set the DTS output to "on" instead of "off". You must do this with no disk in the drive. Press "display" repeatedly when a disk is in to see the audio format playing.
If this does not work, your player is defective or your receiver is not set up correctly.

Receiver:
1) Make sure there are no coax audio cables connected.
2) Make sure your receiver is set to "auto" to decode any digital signal coming in. You do this by pressing "auto dec" on the remote or on the front of the receiver.

******

These are the settings I have tried with no success.

The only way I get sound is when I output the signal using the D-PCM. The output settings set as described above will give me no sound and the received display says "not PCM"

I pulled the components out of my cabinet to check the cabling once again. Here is some more detail on my cabling:

DVD to TV S-video
DVD to Receiver: Digital Coax (there is only one input in the receiver for digital coax and the instructions for the receiver say that it is preferred to use digital coax instead of optical)
Receiver pre-amp out to powered sub: RCA
Cable Box to Receiver: RCA analog cables plugged into the TV/SAT inputs
Cable box to TV: analog Coax
... and speaker cables to front, center, and rear speakers.

Overall the cabling is a mininmal and simple as I can do. All cables are Acoustic research and were purchased brand new. All cables are known to be in good condition because I can get sound and video with all connections.

I purchased the DVD player in November and the receiver just a couple of months back so are under warranty. It is looking like I have a defective unit, but at this point I cannot be sure if the DVD player is defective and not sending out the proper signal or the receiver is defective and not decoding it properly. The display on the DVD shows the Dolby Digital and the DTS logos properly when I choose those formats when I put in a DVD and set up the output signal.

Jeez this is frustrating.... :frowning:

again, any insights are appreciated.

I've heard of a similar problem with other Sony receivers and the solution was to switch the source on the receiver from "DVD" to "video 1" or something like that. For some reason the receiver would only get the digital signal when this other source was selected and not from "DVD". Worth a try I guess. Good luck!!

Richard Travale wrote:

One thought is that even though your manual says that the digital coax is the DVD default, there's a chance you still have to go into the receiver menu and tell it that the digital coax is the DVD source. Just a thought.

****
an excellent thought. I went back to make sure that I assigned the input mode on the DVD/LD function to "coax in". Still no sound...

Bill_Wil wrote:

I've heard of a similar problem with other Sony receivers and the solution was to switch the source on the receiver from "DVD" to "video 1" or something like that. For some reason the receiver would only get the digital signal when this other source was selected and not from "DVD". Worth a try I guess. Good luck!!

***
From reading my instructions for the receiver I am supposed to be able to assign the coax in to the DVD/LD CD/SACD and VIDEO 3 inputs. I can only assign it to the DVD/LD and no other.

I figured it out!

The coax is able to be assigned to the CD/SACD or DVD/LD functions only. I opened the front door on the receiver, pressed customize and cycled through the menu until I found coax-dvd. I changed this to CD/SACD and voila, it works. This SHOULD work with the DVD/LD function, but for some reason it does not.

Thank you gentlemen for being patient and offering excellent suggestions. I was steered in the right direction and was able to solve it.