Denon Receiver PLII questions. (1 Viewer)

[Sanaka]

I've been fiddling w/ my Denon 1802 for a few weekends now, and can't figure out a few things about Pro Logic II.

Anyone else find that PLII Cinema mode totally sucks? Like 95% of all the sound all the time comes only from the center speaker? It's just like the generation 1 Dolby 'surround' of 8 years ago - the sound that drove me hastily and happily back to stereo until a few months ago. This is the less important question as I can simply not use this mode.

The PLII music mode is pretty cool and is what I'm using for VHS, but: I can't seem to quite sort out what's going on w/ 'Panorama' and 'Dimension'. Does Panorama need to be on for Dimension to work - i.e. is DIM. a subset of PAN.? Center Width control is great, Panorama on vs. off is quite noticable and I just set it whichever way sounds best on any given program. But no matter what I do, Dimension control seems to have basically no effect. I can't pull the image back to the surrounds the way I can pull it in or out at the front with the Width control.

Any insights?

Thanks!

Sanaka

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Sanaka,

Like you, I agree that there is little benefit to running the 'cinema' mode of DPLII. To answer your question, Panorama does not have to be on in order to utilize Dimension. Page 32 of the manual provides pretty good descriptions on what each of the three features provide (Panorama, Dimension and Center Width). The part that threw me off the first few times I cycled through and made adjustments to these settings was the "Default Y/N" option. Thinking that I had to select "Y" to make my choices the default, I un-did the options that I had recently selected.

Personally, I like DPLII and the options for control that it provides. I find myself using it while listening to music quite frequently. I believe some of the early DPLII receivers (e.g. Onkyo 595, etc.) did provide DPLII, but did not provide the option of making adjustments in the manner we are capable of doing with the 1802.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Well, my feelings are that DPL II Cinema mode is MUCH better than either of it's 2 predessors. Much less center channel oriented with easily recognizable stereo surrounds.

But, this like many other subjective opinions, is obviously not your experience.

You might find it interesting to know that apparently, DPL II's inventor (Jim Fosgate) listens to DPL II Music mode nearly all the time. For both music and movies. (There was a thread or 2 (a few months back) that he participated in extensively at avsforum.com and mentioned his preferences.)

As for the Music mode adjustements, in general, I don't think that they are intended to make large, hard changes (if I'm understanding your questions correctly.) My feelings are that they are there as fine tuning, not course adjustments.

 

[Sanaka]

Thank you both.

Well that's telling that the inventor doesn't use that part of the invention either. I wonder what the heck the thinking behind 'cinema' is?

Yeah I think it is supposed to be fine tuning but the dimension control is beyond fine, I just can't hear anything. This is kinda bummer as my surrounds are quite a way back from the mains and having this control was a influencing factor in buying the 1802. The width control is awesome - all center to all L/R control - and really helps. I can't figure why 'dimension' isn't the same way.

 

[RoyB]

I am considering purchasing a receiver with DPL II and am also interested in the tweakability of this mode compared to the old original version. Any other opinions?? Is the Denon version the most tweakable? Is Sanaka expecting too much sound from his surrounds? I'm sure these questions seem basic to most of the group...

 

[Wayne Ernst]

The Denon receivers offer a lot of tweakability when it comes to DPL II. The Dimension control is about the only control where you can't tell a major difference when you adjust the settings. However, the Panorama, Center Width, etc. all offer quite a bit of control. I use DPL II (music mode) for listening to music. Personally, I think it blows away regular 2 channel listening - which, to me, seems rather "lifeless" when compared to DPL II.