Panasonic RP91 audio questions (1 Viewer)

[Jason_H]

Hey guys,
I just got my RP91 today and WOW is it fantastic. I have one small issue though, regarding audio. I am hooking into a Denon AVR-85, which is one of their low to mid-end recievers with built-in DD.
When I make the audio connection using the 6 analog cables to the 6-channel AUX-IN portion of my reciever, everything works fine. DD and DTS both work great, I'm letting my RP91 do both decodes.
I'm having problems though getting DD and DTS to work properly with the optical outputs (using the optical jack). Although I have the RP91 set to do the DD and DTS encoding (setting output to PCM), what comes from the player is just a stereo track I think...setting my reciever in surround mode like I used to with my old DVL-909...it just sounds like Pro Logic, not good. Do I need to change a setting on my DVD player or the reciever?
Is my logic flawed? Or should I even be worried about getting the optical to work if I have it working through the 6-channel analog connections (will there be a noticible difference)?
Cheers,
Jason

 

[Brian Corr]

PCM is for 2 channel audio.
Change the setting to bitstream for dts and DD and you will be in business.

 

[Jason_H]

Hey Brian,
Well, I tried that with mixed results. The DD works whenever I do that, because I guess all is happening is it is passing the audio signal straight through to the receiver to decode. HOWEVER, the DTS does NOT work when I do this...I get silence. And that makes sense, the manual seems to indicate I can only output via bitstream if my receiver also had a DTS decoder on it, which it does not.
So I guess what I'm really asking is...there is no way to have my receiver do both DD and DTS decoding and then pass the decoded stream to the reciever via optical. I'm guessing no...I will probably have to stick with analog then since I do not want to have to get up and unplug the optical cable when I want to use DTS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but with my setup I cannot possibly get DTS from the RP91 to the receiver via optical.

 

[Matt DeVillier]

Jason,
since your receiver does not decode dts, you must use the 6 analog cables to connect the rp91 to it.
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My DVD collection

 

[Jason_H]

Ok, I guess that was the basic question hidden underneath all the details. Thanks Brian and Matt.

 

[Vegas 1]

Jason I have a similar situation. I recently got a Pan RV80 which also has built in dts & dd decoders. I have a Marantz SR96 with a Marantz dd decoder & dts added from MSB which was done in '97. Anyway the dsp will not pass dts via optical but the dd will work. So I opted to route the six channel interconnects into the DSP and put it in bypass mode. DD actually sounds much better using the DVD players decoder & DTS sounds great as well. I still use the DSP for my lasers which works just fine. MSB said that using the dvd players decoders would be the best for my situation.
Al

 

[Jason_H]

Ah, I see. Yeah, I just assumed that the RP91 would do better decoding then my several year old, not-very-high-end Denon receiver. I just wish I could pass the DD and DTS optically. But I'm not really sweating it, it still sounds absolutely fantastic and every time I put in another disc, I am blown away by the video quality as well. I have my RP91 paired with a Toshiba 56H80 and the difference over my old Pioneer DVL-909 is just leaps and bounds.

 

[DanG]

When you are using the optical or coaxial cable, you are transmitting a Bitstream via the fibre. There are two types of bitstreams, one for DD5.1 and a DTS one. In either case the onboard RP91 decoder does nothing here. It assumes the receiving device will be doing the decoding. Your (5.1?) receiver can decode DD5.1 but can't decode DTS.
So your stuck with taking the analogue route to get DTS.
The only drawback here is, the RP91 does bass management only in Digital mode and not analogue. Your receiver also can only do bass management in Digital mode. So when you are blasting the Moog on ELP's DVD-Audio disc, using analogue, take care not to damage your surrounds.
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[Jason_H]

I see, that makes perfect sense Dan. And thanks for the tip, I have some very weak surround speakers right now and have been meaning to upgrade them for years. This gives me a great excuse! Any suggestions on surround speakers? They are one area that I know almost nothing about.

 

[DanG]

What goes around comes around. John Kotches gave me some good advice about solving bass management and now IMHO, I recommend to you to upgrade those surrounds.
If you can find dealer nearby, go take a listen, even better if he has a 30day return policy. Myself I purchased the Paradigm Monitor 3's - 36Hz DIN - 150w power rating - 24lbs. so the left can use the wall hanger bracket, $477CAN and $300-400US.
I got a MA-500 monoblock 125w to drive my old-old-old and huge Miller&Kreisel passive subwoofer.
My system sounds so nice now, I am one happy camper!
Dan
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