Dolby digital wth dish 501 (1 Viewer)

[TraciC]

I have a denon 3802 & just hooked up a Dish Network 501 receiver mainly to take advantage of receiving DD sound from some of the programming. My question is that on the 3802 I do see the red DD light turn on with DD programming but on the display on 3802 where it shows the surround source it does not say dolby digital but says dolby PLII. I am wondering if I am hearing DD or not or is there something I am not doing. Thanks for any help
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[Rob Robinson]

Not all DD programming on dish is in 5.1- in fact, most isn't, even on HBO. a good test will be Band of Brothers tommorow- thats one 5.1 signal I KNOW the dish 501 will pass.

 

[Rob Robinson]

also, you ARE using the toslink optical connection, and not the stereo RCAs, right?
AND you need to go into the dish setup menu and make sure the optical port is set to pass a Dolby/PCM stream, not just PCM.
and last- there is a dish forum here, so I bet an admin will prolly move this soon.
email me if you have issues getting the 501 configured- I hstruggled with mine before i realized my setup was right and I just couldn;t find any 5.1 programming. they are adding more all the time...

 

[TraciC]

Thanks Rob--yes I am using toslink connection & 501 was setup to do both DD/PCM (even though i didn't know to do that--thanks). If I understand right--the shows may say DD but if it is not 5.1 then the receiver will not say DD on display, is that correct? Is there any way to know in advance if it is DD 5.1, especially on PPV channels so you dont buy & then see it is not 5.1? Thanks for the info
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[Keith Mickunas]

I'm fairly certain some of the channels send DD 2.0. I've seen my receiver (Yamaha RX-V1) light up the digital light, then briefly display Dolby Digital, and switch to DPL which it will do with DVDs that have DD 2.0. I think The Sopranos is done this way.

 

[Gary Thomas]

Also, as you surf through the HBO channels the description will often identify DD. I think a bunch of PPV movies are DD as well. I assume the 501 would record them as such.
BTW...I've got the same combo of 501 & 3802!
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[Rob Robinson]

No, dish makes no distinction between DD 5.1 and DD 2.0-
and HBO is very hit or miss- for instance, Fight Club and Gladiator were 2.0, but what lies beneath was in 5.1.
Like I mentioned earlier, I am POSTIVE that BoB is in 5.1- you should have the PVR grab it just to verify, even if you haven't been following (which you SHOULD- it's so badass, but i digress)