Confused about optical cable and analog cables (1 Viewer)

[Steven Larson]

Hello,

I am pretty new to HT, and am in the process of building my system.

I just found a used Panasonic XP50 DVD player, which can play DVD-A. I also have a brand new Harman Kardon AVR 230 receiver. It seems from reading some of the threads here, and I think I am interpreting the manual for the DVD player correctly, that I should have BOTH the optical cable and the analog cables for audio??? I have the digital inputs on my receiver obviously, as well as the inputs for up to 8 analog cables.

Do I really need both? What would be the point?

Steve

 

[ScottCHI]

well, you MUST use the 6-channel analog connection for hirez dvda playback. and you CAN use the same analog connections for CD and DD/DTS DVD playback, as well. or you CAN use the digital connection for those formats. it comes down to whether you think the player has the better DACs and decoder, or your receiver, and what sounds best to you, of course. many people prefer to use the digital connection for their DD/DTS DVDs, for whatever reasons. if you want to run a DD/DTS 6.1 or 7.1 setup, a digital connection MUST be used. or, if you want to apply processing that the player doesn't provide, but the receiver does, like prologic2 or the "soundstages", for example, then a digital connection would be necessary. or, your particular setup and bass management needs, and each component's capabilities may dictate which connection is best for different media.

currently, with my 5.1 setup, i'm using my DVD player's analog connections, exclusively, for everything coming from it. but i do have a digital connection, as well. you'll probably want to use both and experiment. having both connections can be useful in a number of ways, like trouble-shooting, for instance.