MPEG Audio decoding (1 Viewer)

[Nick_Scott]

Finally- I came across a DVD with an MPEG audio track. My JVC 6018 receiver doesn't play anything with a digital connection, but will play the track as 2-channel analog audio.

This leads me to believe that my RCA DVD player has a MPEG audio decoder, and the JVC receiver does not.

This makes me wonder: Is there even a receiver out there with a MPEG-audio decoder? 5.1? Is it better then DD/DTS? The FAQ states that the DVD specs allow up to 1500bps in MPEG.

I wonder, because I'm thinking of getting a multi-region player, and I hear some foreign have good MPEG tracks, but will all be downcoverted to 2-channel unless I have a 5.1 receiver with MPEG-decoding?

 

[ChrisSk]

When DVD was launched MPEG was the surround format chosen to be used on DVDs in Europe, it can be used for up to 5.1 audio but it's more likely that it's stereo. Only a few early DVDs with MPEG soundtracks were released, Dolby Digital was far more popular and all European discs are now produced with Dolby Digital. I'm surprised you actually encountered an MPEG disc at all!

Philips recievers in Europe used to have MPEG support, not sure if they do now and I would think MPEG support in the US would be non-existant. It may be worth checking in your DVD players setup menus to see whether you can set the MPEG output to PCM, it's possible on my Pioneer. If that fails you could set the DVD player to output PCM for any audio, though you would need to change this back for DD/DTS DVDs.