DD EX question (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey_K]

I have a question about Digital Dolby EX. My understanding is that DD EX is a 6.1 (matrix) format. My receiver a Yamaha HTR-5560, is supposedly DD EX compatible. However, I never get any sound out of the middle back speaker with DD EX movies. I've tried Monster's Inc, Toy Story 2, and Cast Away. I have a digital optical cable from my DVD player to my receiver. I do get sound out of the rear center speaker with DTS ES. I have the receiver set to detect formats of DVDs automatically and it seems to work fine, except for this problem. Does anyone know if I need to set something? Thanks.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

The problem isn't your receiver or your setup. Most DD-EX titles are not properly flagged to tell the receiver to switch to DD-EX mode. Because of this, you need to manually force DD-EX decoding on your receiver when you want to watch a DD-EX title. Do this by setting 6.1 (EX, Matrix, or something similar) decoding to fixed or matrix instead of auto.

Hope this helps

 

[Michael Reuben]

My understanding is that DD EX is a 6.1 (matrix) format.

Actually, it's a 5.1 format; even Dolby says so. Because the center back channel is matrixed into the left rear and right, there are still only 5 discrete channels of sound, plus the LFE (or ".1") channel.

The only true "6.1" format is DTS-ES Discrete. But the terminology is often used incorrectly (mostly by hardware makers).

As Stephen Hopkins has pointed out, most DD EX titles are not flagged in a way that a receiver or processor can detect. Including the flags caused all sorts of compatibility problems with some decoders, so they've generally been left out. Forcing the DD EX decoding should do the trick.

M.