RP 91: DEFINITELY no bass management for DVD-A (1 Viewer)

[Scott O'Keeffe]

Welp, its official.
I finally got my hands on a DVD-A disc. (Metallica's Black Album) I went into the multi-channel menu and selected "no" for subwoofer. I have a Denon 3300 which does not do bass management for the 6 channel input.
Guess what?
My subwoofer was active, which tells me that the multi-channel menu does nothing for DVD-A.
Also, I switched between small and large settings in the menu and my SPL never changed.
Whats recorded on the disc is what you get. Case closed.

I guess what pisses me off is the fact that its advertised in the manual as being able to be accomplished. How do you write a manual that is totally inaccurate?
Sure, some purists will argue that you don't need BM with DVD-A, but it certainly can be an "option" for those w/o full range speakers. You might lose something in the conversion, but for some of us its worth it.
Don't get me wrong, DVD-A sounds fantastic, but this "feature" was definitely overlooked.
I guess I'll have to wait and spend some more $$ on the Outlaw crossover. That pissed me off, too.
Enough ranting....i'm just going to enjoy the machine. It still is unbelievable.
Ok, back to happy mode.

Scott

 

[Wayne_T]

Scott, I'm disappointed too. I was really trying to believe that the RP91 did have bass management despite all the evidence to the contrary. I have one on order.
I not sure I'd agree with this one statement you made though.

I guess what pisses me off is the fact that its advertised in the manual as being able to be accomplished.

There is nothing on Panasonic's website that I could find, and the manual isn't there either - I looked pretty hard when I was trying to find out about this. So I don't think "advertised" is quite fair to say since you'd have to have already bought the player to know about the error.
I know what you mean about spending more dollars on a crossover unit. Bummer! Not only that, but after the fact bass management is a compromise whether its done in the analog domain or re-digitized, either way.

------------------

 

[Scott O'Keeffe]

Wayne,
Understood. I did not get the player for any advertising or such regarding DVD-A bass management. I think the values of the player regarding video are enough to justify the purchase. I still love the player.
But, again, what bothers me is the fact that there is a speaker setting section in the manual that specifically denotes DVD-V and DVD-A with regards to speaker size settings. DVD-A has nothing to do with the speaker settings with this machine. You can chage all you want in the multi speaker setting and it doesn't make any difference for DVD-A.
Don't advertise or even say it does when it has absolutely nothing to do with it, right? That's my only point. How can that happen? We're certainly not talking about rocket science!
Bass mangement with the RP-91 is only valid with DTS or DD. (using their decoders, of course)
Why denote that it is valid for DVD-A? The manual states that speaker settings are valid for DVD-A and DVD-D. Simply not true. Its a false claim, period.
Again, the player is absolutely fabulous, I just think they need to hire better interpreters or get their story straight when you're dealing with basic features of a DVD player.
**Back to happy mode.

Scott

 

[Ricky T]

Can you guys describe the bass mgmt for dd/dts decoders:
Crossover point for small speakers?
Can all speakers be set to large?
Level settings with pink noise for each speaker and sub?
Seamless and automatic output of dts or ac3 (whatever mode You choose in the dvd software menu is automatically outputed by dvd player)?
And lastly, what is the quality of the dts and ac3 decoding? Compared to $600-1000 receivers such as Outlaw 1050, Denon 2801, Sony V444ES, and HK AVR310?

 

[Will]

Why denote that it is valid for DVD-A? The manual states that speaker settings are valid for DVD-A and DVD-D. Simply not true. Its a false claim, period.

Is there any comment from Obi?

 

[Graham Perks]

I second Ricky's question. I read that the x-over was fixed at 100Hz, but that was in the context of DVD-A. For DD/DTS, is it the same? I would really like a more flexible alternative.
I guess I could set the RP91 to everything large, use an ICBM and forget bass management through my Denon 3200 receiver, which has a fixed x-over at 80Hz. Using the ICBM would give me more flexibility in all of DD, DTS, DVD-A, and stereo. Right?
But I don't want to have to buy an ICBM so I'm hoping the RP91 is flexible enough particularly for DD and DTS.
Thanks...

 

[David Judah]

If the RP91 is like my Technics DVD-A10 for DVD-A(I imagine it is), then it will only perform bass management if the track is LPCM, not PPCM(MLP). I discovered that little quirk with the sampler disc(all of the tracks were not packed) that accompanied the player. Since all of the other discs I have bought are MLP'd, bass management is effectively useless.
DJ

 

[Will]

quote:
I guess I could set the RP91 to everything large, use an ICBM and forget bass management through my Denon 3200 receiver, which has a fixed x-over at 80Hz. Using the ICBM would give me more flexibility in all of DD, DTS, DVD-A, and stereo. Right?
[/quote]
The ICBM does not do time alignment to compensate for
the different distances between the various speakers.
Time alignment should be applied BEFORE not after
bass management. You don't need to worry about time
alignment if your speakers (LF, RF, CF, LS, RS, sub)
are all equidistant from you.
The ICBM is analog which is inherently inferior to
the digital bass management present in digital crossovers.
Eventually, there will probably be DVD players that
do digital bass management and digital time alignment
of DVD Audio, in the player, before the D/A conversion.
I think doing this in the player would not violate
DVD Audio copy protection.
[Edited last by Will on July 10, 2001 at 02:13 PM]