Another newbie question! (1 Viewer)

[discombobulated]

Thank you guys for being patient with the new guys around here like me. First time post, but here goes. My surround sound system reflects my status on this forum......it's my first system, and as you could probably tell, I'm on a budget, as many of us are. Here is a quick idea of what I have:

TV - 2 years old:
Sony-KD36FS170 36"

Receiver - 3 or 4 years old
Sony-STR-DE685

DVD Player - about 2 years old:
Sony-STR-DE685

My problem is probably rather simple. I'm not exactly satisfied with the sound that I get when I play DVD's. It sounds like the music and sound fx is always louder than the voices. My DVD player is run to my receiver with the yellow, red and white cables...and when I went to replace that with a coaxial cable, it didn't work. So I switched my receiver to "COAX mode" and still nothing. This was without the progressive scan on, since that never seemed to work anyway. The receiver I have says it has DD 5.1 & DTS but always says "Prologic" on the display. I've re-read the manual over and over and can't change it. I would like to set it up with the COAX but nothing seems to work. Sorry about the long post, and thank you guys very much in advance for all the help you give.

 

[discombobulated]

I forgot to add.....if you notice that something is causing incompatability or is "outdated" and have a reasonably priced alternative, I am always looking for suggestions. Besides, X-mas is coming up.....

 

[JeremyErwin]

first off, you should be connecting the dvd player to the TV with component cables. (Those are the red, green and blue jacks labeled YPbPr or Component Video). A direct connection between the TV and DVD player won't degrade the video as much as routing it through the receiver, but it's less convenient.

You should connect a coaxial cable from the DVD player into the receiver's coaxial input.

Then go into the DVD player's setup menu, select Audio Setup, and then Digital Out. Set Dolby Digital to Dolby Digital, and dts to on.

While you're at it you should probably make sure that the video settings are correct. For optimum results, set the TV Type to "16:9", and toggle the switch on the back of the DVD player to "progressive".

Oh, and thanks for posting the links to amazon-- the manuals helped immensely.

 

[homthtr]

The Tv is 4:3.

Setting that to 16:9 might not be a good idea. If you have 4:3 format DVD's Keep the DVD player set to 4:3.

 

[JeremyErwin]

The TV has a 16x9 mode.

 

[homthtr]

Wouldn't you still get different results depending on the format of the dvd. I'm just guessing on the output result on the Screen. What does the 16:9 Mode in the TV accomplish? My normal goal is to keep the screen filled, is that a function of the 16:9 mode of the TV?

Time to teach an old dog a new trick tonight!... I love learning little tidbits... Especially with Product Specific Modes.

 

[JeremyErwin]

The typical DVD picture is composed of 720 horizontal pixels by 480 vertical. There's a little flag that determines whether these pixels are squarish (4x3) or wide (16x9).

An anamorphic DVD uses wide pixels. When it's shown on an obsolete set, the DVD player discards 25% of the lines (resulting in a 720x360 picture), leaving space for those black bars. However, a crt can be instructed to paint the scan lines closer together, resulting in a squeezed picture. The 16x9 mode on certain tvs can do this automatically, but if your TV doesn't have one, it may require fiddling with the service menu...

 

[discombobulated]

Thank you for the quick reply. That's a lot of help, and I woulda never thought to mess with the dvd players settings in order to achieve what I wanted.

I hooked up the component video cables, and set the picture to 16X9, but need to pick up another set of coaxial cables (since I returned the ones I thought wouldn't work). However, putting the dvd player on progressive scan results in a picture that looks like a warped diagonal discolored screen (it's hard to explain, sorry). Could this be because my TV isn't capable of progressive scan? I bought the dvd player just a couple months after the TV, so I thought they would both be compatable.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Uhhh, not to jump on you (and I'll try to be gentle), but wanting to "keep the screen filled" is not the kind of statement that goes over too well at HTF. The majority of people here would like to recreate the theater experience at home (it's in the mission statement) and since films have different aspect ratios in the theater and we only have 2 aspect ratios at home (4:3 and 16:9), some films will have black bars (horizontal or vertical) on some TV's. This is OK and you should learn to watch the picture and not the bars. Forsaking the artistic presentation in order to optimize the usage of some arbitrary piece of hardware is silly when you think about it; if we really wanted our screens filled all the time we could watch them blank and forget about the movie altogether, right?

Now, to your question. Jeremy's advice is spot on. Also, to overcome the problem that "It sounds like the music and sound fx is always louder than the voices ", you must calibrate your system. What this does is get all 5 (or 7 in a 7.1 system) speakers to output the same volume. You do this by playing test tones from the receiver (good way) or a calibration disk (best way) through each speaker, one at a time, and setting the individual speaker levels so that all tones play at the same volume. In order to measure the volume, you would need an SPL meter, which is built in to some receivers (check your manual) or is available at Radio Shack. The problem you stated (music and FX drowning out voices) is almost always caused by a difference in volume between the L-R mains and the Center speaker. A quick fix would be to set them by ear (raise the Center a few dB), but to really calibrate you need an SPL meter. See the FAQ/Primer at the top of the Basics forum for more info on calibration and aspect ratios (neither one is that hard to understand or implement, but it may take a while to grasp having not seen it before).

Welcome aboard.

 

[JeremyErwin]

Uhoh. The owner's manual says that it's 480i only. Amazon must have made a typo.

The 16:9 feature should be described on (physical) page 28 of your manual.

 

[discombobulated]

Thanks again guys.......

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Above, Jeremy said:


"480i only" means it is not cappble of 480p. The 'p' in 480p stands for progressive, so it is not capable of progressive scan.