Very stupid question about receiver settings... (1 Viewer)

[Andy Vertin]

I've got a Dish Network receiver hooked up to a DD/DTS receiver via digital optical. What am I doing wrong when DD-encoded material is playing correctly through all 6 of my speakers, but when Dolby Surround or stereo material is being played, it only comes from my left and right speakers, not my center or surrounds. With my old receiver, I remember all vocal material coming thru my center channel, but now with Dolby Surround and regular stereo material, there's nothing from my center speaker. I'm using a JVC HTB now (TH-A5). Any ideas?

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Your receiver may have a problem with flagging Pro-Logic material in the correct format. I know that I have a similar problem with my Rotel 1066 pre-pro. If I send it a Pro-Logic signal, it will read that way in the display (it will even say that all the speakers are being used) but I will only get sound through the front channels. Oddly enough, if I send the signal through analog inputs, I have no such problem at all. (BTW, I'm running an older version of the firmware and this problem could easily be corrected with an update, for those of you who might want to know.)

At any rate, I would also cycle through your DSP modes and see if you can't select a Dolby Surround or Pro-Logic mode. Perhaps if the receiver is specifically told that it should be decoding in Pro-Logic, it will.

 

[Wes]

It could be that your DD/DTS receiver is set to Stereo on the digital input. When the DD receiver see's a 2.0 signal it switches to stereo. Look on your display on the face of the Receiver, if it does not say "Prologic" it needs to be switched to PL.
Make sure your Prologic is in "Normal" also. If it's in Phantom you will not get a center channel!

Your receiver may have a problem with flagging Pro-Logic material in the correct format.

Sorry but there is no such thing as flagged Prologic or Dolby Surround for that matter, Prologic is not even a format! If the source is 2.0 it would switch to Stereo, Prologic or some other DSP you may have selected!

Wes

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

One possible fix is to run both digtal AND analog from your Dish receiver to your HT receiver. Use the digital input when you're watching 5.1 material and the analog input when you're watching pro logic / dolby surround material.

You could run the digital and analog to the same source device category on your receiver and select between analog and digital, or you could run the digital and analog to seperate source device categories (example, digital to "TV" and analog to "AUX" or vice versa) and select the source device category based on what the material is encoded in. Seems like the easiest fix and should work regardless of weather it's a bug in your ht receiver or a bug in your Dish receiver.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Sorry but there is no such thing as flagged Prologic or Dolby Surround for that matter, Prologic is not even a format! If the source is 2.0 it would switch to Stereo, Prologic or some other DSP you may have selected!

Perhaps a better way of saying it would have been that his receiver has difficulty knowing when to go into Pro-Logic and when it is supposed to play in stereo. I'm fully aware that Pro-Logic is only a decoding scheme and not a full-fleded audio formate like DD or DTS.

 

[Rommel_L]

Andy,

From your descriptions, it seems that the satellite audio signals only come in either DD5.1 or DD2.0. Even though it says at the program's credits it's in dolby surround, it has that little disclaimer "where available." So if it comes DD2.0 then just manually switch to your favorite Pro-Logic DSP mode.

Cheers,
-RL-

 

[Henry_W]

One last thought - be sure to check your settings on the sat reciever. The Dish 501 I have allows you to ID how you want the output formatted for optical and may include a more inclusive option for Dolby.

 

[AaronBatiuk]

Sorry but there is no such thing as flagged Prologic or Dolby Surround for that matter, Prologic is not even a format! If the source is 2.0 it would switch to Stereo, Prologic or some other DSP you may have selected!

Wes, you are just plain wrong about this. Dolby Digital does have the ability to carry a flag on two-channel material to tell the decoder whether it is just plain 2-channel stereo (such as if it is music, etc.), or if it is a Dolby-surround encoded 2-channel source. In the former case, the decoder should play the sound in stereo, unprocessed. In the latter case, it should apply Pro-Logic (or even Pro-Logic II) decoding to it to decode the centre and surround channels. This is the way that all Dolby Digital decoders work (but some apparently don't work properly). You can look it up on Dolby's website if you wish - they have a wealth of information on their formats and on home theatre in general.

Andy, my receiver (Sony) has an AFD (Auto format decode) mode that will automatically obey the flag, and a "normal surround" mode that will apply Pro-logic decoding to any 2-channel source. See if yours has a similar surround mode to force it into doing pro-logic decoding.

 

[Wes]

Wes, you are just plain wrong about this. Dolby Digital does have the ability to carry a flag on two-channel material to tell the decoder whether it is just plain 2-channel stereo (such as if it is music, etc.),

Well I guess I am wrong. But I have never seen or heard about such a thing as Flagged Dolby Surround! What sources have this and which units do this?

 

[Andy Vertin]

Well, when I put the receiver in pro-logic mode it'll automatically switch to DD when it receives a DD signal, but when I change back to a non-DD channel, it reverts back to stereo mode. So, it seems that I'll have to manually select pro-logic every time. I don't know why it can't just save my last setting.

 

[Wes]

Read through your manual there must be a way to save the PL as default for 2.0, HiFi stereo and or PCM! Do you have the same problem with a 2.0 DD DVD?
Most DVD menus are DD 2.0, does it go to Stereo or PL on them? Some units will only save default setting from remote control commands.

Wes

 

[AaronBatiuk]

I have never seen or heard about such a thing as Flagged Dolby Surround! What sources have this and which units do this?

Wes, all Dolby Digital sources (such as DVD, digital satellite, digital cable, etc.) and decoders (such as receivers, pre/pros, etc.) should be able to use this flag. The problem is that often the source doesn't get it right. Most DVD's are OK, but often when you watch digital cable or satellite TV, certain channels will never set the surrond-encoded flag even though they sometimes should.