RP91 DVD Audio Mode Selection Question (1 Viewer)

[Wayne_T]

I have only had the RP91 for two days, and the menus are certainly a lot more complicated than my old DVD player, but I'm learning. There is one thing I just can't figure out yet, and I'm going to need some help from other owners.
I have one DVD-Audio disk, Steely Dan 2 Against Nature. I have listened to it several times before on my old DVD player and I had a choice of DTS or DD 5.1. With the RP91, I can only find the 2 or 6 channel DVD-Audio tracks. Now, I know that the RP91 plays DTS and DD 5.1 and I'd like to compare these to the DVD-Audio modes, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get to them. No matter what I do, the digital output to my receiver remains at 48K PCM.
How can I get to the DD 5.1 and DTS tracks on DVD-Audio disks? If someone out there can point me to the right menu it will be be very appreciated.
Thanks,
Wayne
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[Brian Corr]

Make sure that in the menu of the RP-91 that dolby digital and dts are both set to bitstream, not pcm.
If it's set to pcm, it may not be picking up the DD and/or dts tracks.

 

[Don P]

I hit that when I went to watch Saving Private Ryan (DTS version).
The default for DD is Bitstream and works fine out of the box. The default for DTS is PCM, so if your receiver or pre-amp does your decoding you need to change it to Bit-Stream in the Action menu (I think that's where it is.)
I was pretty worked up about how SPR only would play in 2-channel until I found that setting.

 

[Wayne_T]

Thanks guys, but both DTS and DD 5.1 are set to bitstream. That's not the problem. I can't even find a menu on the DVD-Audio disk that has the DD or DTS selections on it. The cover says that the disk can be played four ways - extended resolution 2 and 6 channel, DD 5.1, and DTS.
On my old DVD player, there were two selections available, DD 5.1 and DTS.
On the RP91 the other two selections are available, 2 and 6 channel DVD-Audio. What I don't understand is why aren't all four options available since the RP91 is capable of playing all four?
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[John Kotches]

Ok,
Here's the deal with the Panny and DVD-A discs.
Access to other than the DVD-A soundtrack on a DVD-A player is strictly media dependent. If the content provider (the record label) allows you, you can chose between DVD-A and alternative tracks.
The WB discs on the market don't allow you to switch between DVD-A and the lower res tracks. The only content provider I've run across so far that allows you to switch between them is DTS Entertainment.
This doesn't mean that all is lost. Some DVD-A players allow you to change the "personality" of the player so to speak. For example, the Onkyo DV-S939, Integra (forget the model) and the Integra Research RDV-1 allow you to set a field called Priority Content, when set to VIDEO the player behaves as a DVD-Video player when a DVD-Audio disc is inserted, which gets you access to the DD/DTS tracks. When set to AUDIO the player behaves as a DVD-Audio player and gives you access to the High-Res tracks. I don't recall if the Panasonic RP-91 is capable of changing Priority Content values, and Panasonic doesn't have the manual up on the web site.
So for most players, on most recordings there's no way to do a quick switch between them.
Hope this helps.
I discuss this in our upcoming feature article on DVD-Audio as part of Benchmark 2.
I'll post back again if you'd like to discuss this further.
Regards,
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John Kotches
Contributing Writer
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[Wayne_T]

Thank you John. As usual you have the answers. So I guess that's "just the way it is" huh? I don't think the RP91 has any priority or personality selection. Not too big a deal as I can still play the disks as they were intended to be played, but I had hoped to be able to do both, particularly for disks with deep bass in all six channels. That way I could trade off DVD-Audio resolution for bass management when I wanted to.
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[John Kotches]

The DTS discs are the only ones I'm aware of that allow you to do this Wayne.
Regards,
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John Kotches
Contributing Writer
Link Removed

 

[David Judah]

I have the Technics DVD-A10 and I know the menus won't necessarily be the same as the RP91 even though they are both made by Matsushita, but if you have a Other settings menu after you hit the Action button, look for a DVD-Video Mode and turn it to On.
It's similiar to what John was talking about with the Integra as it allows you to access the DD or DTS tracks on a DVD-A disc.
DJ
[Edited last by David Judah on July 13, 2001 at 12:47 AM]

 

[DanG]

There is an Other settings menu, but all it does is display a demo of the OSD.
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[David Judah]

Hmmm...I would think it would be somewhere in the menu system, since it is on the older DVD-A10, unless they totally removed it.
Stranger things have happened.
DJ

 

[Craig F]

There is a small independent label called 'AIX Records' which is putting the DVD-Audio zone on one side of the disk and the DVD-Video zone on the other. They only have a few disks out, but they do have a "free" sampler disk that can be had for $6.95 shipping and handling.