Should be simple, but having trouble (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Gatie]

Not only do you have to set the receiver for the proper input, you have to set the DVD player to output the DD and/or DTS stream. The default setting for most DVD players is "PCM out", you must change this. From your setup menu on the DVD player (often only accessible with no disk in the player), choose the "Audio" selection. Under the "Dolby Digital" entry, make sure it is set to "Bitstream". This will give you Dolby Digital instead of PCM. Under the "DTS" entry, set it to "Bitstream", this will give you DTS. Next, make sure you set your receiver to auto-decode the incoming digital audio (or at least select the type of codec you have coming in on the particular disk you are viewing). 99.99% of the time, auto-decode is fine. Note that in order to get the DTS (and sometimes even the DD) track on the disk, you must select it from the "Setup/Language/Audio" menu on the disk itself. DTS is almost never the default track on a disk because the DTS stream can be harmful to systems that do not decode DTS. A few DVD's default to the PCM track instead of the DD, but this is very rare.

Good luck!

 

[BradCR]

Thanks Jeff. That got it. I really appreciate the help. I have learned a lot in this brief exercise.

It seems that the quality of surround goes from Dolby Pro-Logic (good) to Dolby Digital (better) to DTS (best).

I was able to get sound with DD but not DTS. I didn't see where to go to select DTS in a "Setup/Language/Audio" menu. Is that in the DVD player or in the stereo? (My DVD player is Panasonic RP56)

Thanks again!

 

[Cees Alons]

If DTS is turned "on" on your player, you'll still have to select it on the individual menu of the DVD you're playing. Generally it's under "languages" (if there's a DTS track present at all).

It seems that the quality of surround goes from Dolby Pro-Logic (good) to Dolby Digital (better) to DTS (best).

Except that not everyone agrees about that last one (*! CAN OF WORMS ALERT !* ). And a DTS track surely takes a lot of audio space on a DVD.


Cees

 

[BradCR]

Thanks Cees, I'll give that a shot.

Brad