O.K. I had to write this because yesterday I ran into another person that has been listening to DPL and thinking it was actually 5.1 Dolby Digital. This subject may seem obvious to an HT enthusiast but obviously not to everyone. (and for the people just reading the little yellow pop-up preview box, the rest of this post is about HT in general, not dvd-audio)
And to make it worse this friend of a friend is someone I helped to convince to try surround music. I let him listen to my system using my Linkin Park dvd-audio but using the Dolby Digital track for the demo because he didn't own a dvd-audio player--he uses a PS2 instead. He liked the format & bought a copy for himself. But he never mentioned the disc again so I figured the excitement of surround music had worn off for him.
That was almost a full year ago.
Now it's yesterday...........
Me, him and my buddy were at a big-box store checking out some new Klipsch's in a fully set-up HT demo system. Since I was used to the big-box stores almost never setting up their HT displays correctly, I was poking around the receiver & player audio menus because this time a movie was playing but there was no Dolby Digital indicator lit up on the Yamaha receiver they were using. And only two of the channel indicator lights--[L] and [R]--were lit up. The remote for the player was available so I went into the player's audio option submenu and yep, it was set to PCM. So I changed it to "bitstream", pushed play and finally the receiver's DD light turned on.
My buddy's friend turned to me and said his big Yamaha only had the PCM indicator turned on.......and what is a bitstream?* I explained these more fully to him and we both kind of stared at each other for a few seconds, realizing what had happened.
Keep in mind this guy has owned his HT system for two years now. Wow, all those movies. Thinking he was listening to the latest hi-tech 5.1 movie surround tracks.....when actually it was some simulated surround mode trying its best to concoct some sound effects based on a downmixed stereo PCM input signal. And, no wonder he was so underwhelmed with that dvd-audio he bought (and probably why he never said much when I would describe the latest new one I had bought).
More confusion: when he saw the player's "DTS out ON/OFF" option in the menu, he said he saw the DTS indicator light up on his own receiver. But after I asked more about this, we realized it was actually the DTS:Neo indicator, not the one for "real" 5.1 discrete channel DTS.
This guy is actually quite knowlegdeable about audio but I don't think it's a full-blown hobby for him like for me. So I don't blame him for not knowing about this obscure and unglamorous subject.
This is the second (non-HTF) person I've run into with his system not configured properly. I really think all the audio manufacturers need to include a separate "quick set-up" guide with their components that describe in layman's terms & in bold-faced font the basic but important options that need to be taken care of FIRST. Then go into the secondary foo-foo options that only us audio nerds get excited about.
And (if this is actually happening) why would a player's digital output option be set for PCM from the factory? How many other non-audio people are out there being underwhelmed by their non-bitstream HT systems?
So, just a heads-up for the people new to the multichannel hometheater scene. And as boring as they are, read your product manuals all the way through at least one time!
* same for the employees that have watched me change this setting on a demo system at another store (they said their bosses don't let them play with the equipment; only some special set-up team is allowed to do this--what a stupid and non-productive policy). They didn't even know their $700 demo receiver had an on-screen display for setting purposes--wow. And they wonder why so many customers shy away from component HT systems.
And to make it worse this friend of a friend is someone I helped to convince to try surround music. I let him listen to my system using my Linkin Park dvd-audio but using the Dolby Digital track for the demo because he didn't own a dvd-audio player--he uses a PS2 instead. He liked the format & bought a copy for himself. But he never mentioned the disc again so I figured the excitement of surround music had worn off for him.
That was almost a full year ago.
Now it's yesterday...........
Me, him and my buddy were at a big-box store checking out some new Klipsch's in a fully set-up HT demo system. Since I was used to the big-box stores almost never setting up their HT displays correctly, I was poking around the receiver & player audio menus because this time a movie was playing but there was no Dolby Digital indicator lit up on the Yamaha receiver they were using. And only two of the channel indicator lights--[L] and [R]--were lit up. The remote for the player was available so I went into the player's audio option submenu and yep, it was set to PCM. So I changed it to "bitstream", pushed play and finally the receiver's DD light turned on.
My buddy's friend turned to me and said his big Yamaha only had the PCM indicator turned on.......and what is a bitstream?* I explained these more fully to him and we both kind of stared at each other for a few seconds, realizing what had happened.
Keep in mind this guy has owned his HT system for two years now. Wow, all those movies. Thinking he was listening to the latest hi-tech 5.1 movie surround tracks.....when actually it was some simulated surround mode trying its best to concoct some sound effects based on a downmixed stereo PCM input signal. And, no wonder he was so underwhelmed with that dvd-audio he bought (and probably why he never said much when I would describe the latest new one I had bought).
More confusion: when he saw the player's "DTS out ON/OFF" option in the menu, he said he saw the DTS indicator light up on his own receiver. But after I asked more about this, we realized it was actually the DTS:Neo indicator, not the one for "real" 5.1 discrete channel DTS.
This guy is actually quite knowlegdeable about audio but I don't think it's a full-blown hobby for him like for me. So I don't blame him for not knowing about this obscure and unglamorous subject.
This is the second (non-HTF) person I've run into with his system not configured properly. I really think all the audio manufacturers need to include a separate "quick set-up" guide with their components that describe in layman's terms & in bold-faced font the basic but important options that need to be taken care of FIRST. Then go into the secondary foo-foo options that only us audio nerds get excited about.
And (if this is actually happening) why would a player's digital output option be set for PCM from the factory? How many other non-audio people are out there being underwhelmed by their non-bitstream HT systems?
So, just a heads-up for the people new to the multichannel hometheater scene. And as boring as they are, read your product manuals all the way through at least one time!
* same for the employees that have watched me change this setting on a demo system at another store (they said their bosses don't let them play with the equipment; only some special set-up team is allowed to do this--what a stupid and non-productive policy). They didn't even know their $700 demo receiver had an on-screen display for setting purposes--wow. And they wonder why so many customers shy away from component HT systems.