Why is it necessary for me to change my DVD player to Bitstream as well as selecting Dolby Digital on the particular DVD I am watching. If the DVD player is set to analog and I select 5.1 on the DVD, which am i getting?

Which DVD player do you have and how is it connected to your amp/receiver?

Generally, if your selecting bitstream, the pure digital signal is sent to the receiver, which converts it to analog and sends it to your speakers. If you're selecting analog, the conversion is done in the DVD player, and your sending an analog signal to your receiver, which could experience some loss of quality.

Can you have analog 5.1? I thought Dolby Digital were 6 discrete bit-streams that had to be interpreted by your reciever to the discrete channels...digitally...

If your connecting your DVD via the stereo pair on the back of your reciver your getting a 2 channel mix-down of the 5.1 tracks. Or Dolby Pro Logic at best.

This message was edited by Matt on 11/25/01 11:24.09.

Steve,I have a Toshiba SD-1700 DVD player. Matt, I am not sure what you are saying? My DVD player audio is connected via digital audio out. (coax) I was just not sure why my DVD player gives me the option of selecting 2 channel audio as well as Bitstream, when the DVD movies basically do the same thing, when you go into the audion setup on the DVD.

I don't really know what your DVD is on analog for...not sure what you mean. A DVD is a digital device and if your hooking it up optically then it should just 'be there'. I imagine your DVD player is asking you which you have connected, digital out or the analog left and right rca connectors on the back.

Just set it to Bitstream, optical out...or whatever it says and leave it.

I fully understand digital, Matt. And as I stated, I am using the coaxial input, not the optical. My original question was why it was necessary to select "digital" on both the DVD player and then again on the also on the individual DVD that is in the player. I guess I will have to assume that the reason is that the DVD player and the DVD disc can't communicate in a way that one knows what the other is set to. In other words, it just seems redundant. I was just asking why it is that way.

Guess your DVD player is different than mine, mine will automatically select the digital format...if there is more than one digital format on the DVD then I have to manually select which one. Mine defaults to 5.1 in the case of a 5.1/DTS encoded disc.

Sorry for the confusion. In your original question I read it as you were using the analog outputs and setting the DVD for 5.1...thus you would get a 2 channel mixdown or pro logic at best.

Thinkly,

I think your DVD player is offering "backwards compatiblity" to receivers that are not ready for Dolby Digital. When I first bought my DVD, I still had a Pro Logic integrated amp. Even though the amp offered (optical only) inputs for the "laser disk," a discrete 5.1 signal sounded terrible! I had to tell the DVD to send a PCM (two channel) signal to it.

And, you're right about the disc not knowing what the player is set to. So I also had to tell each disc to use the PCM track.

BTW: reference your initial question. If you had the DVD player set to analog, it was sending a two channel signal to the receiver even though you had the digital cable attached. The receiver was then almost certainly mixing that into a Pro Logic (not DD) output.

And when I upgraded to a DD receiver? You guessed it: I had to go back into the DVD setup menus and tell it that now it should send DD 5.1 down the pipe, and I have to tell each DD disc to use the 5.1 track.

This message was edited by Bruce Burson on 11/26/01 09:07.41.

I have a Panasonic, and I never know when I'm going to have to tell it what the movie soundtrack is on a DVD. I have set the defaults on the Panasonic to the proper output for auto-selecting DD5.1, DTS, etc., but sometimes a movie will start up in ProLogic mode; then I have to stop it and go into the setup menu for the player. This seems to be regardless of whether the DVD itself has a "setting" for soundtrack type.

Then there are some DVDs that have no setting, and automatically go into the "best" mode.

This is very frustrating, as those watching with me have to endure the lag-time involved in figuring out which is what. And say, howcum the soundtrack type is almost always accessed through the "language" menu... ? Talk about user unfriendly.... ... Mike

Thanks for the good info. That is kind of what my original point was. It seems a little "unfriendly" to have to go in and select 5.1 very time on each DVD. I just thought that since the "hardware" was set to 5.1 the "software" would recognize this. I see this is not the case. I imagine it will get better in the future as this will be a huge problem for the home theater in a box crowd, which I imagine is the biggest market share.

Whether you get the Dolby Digital 2.0 (not to be mistaken as an analog format), or the DD 5.1 track by default is typically an issue with the way that the DVD software is authored.

Columbia titles typically default to DD 2.0 (and subtitles on it seems) and you have manually change to DD 5.1 or DTS.

Brian G.

... and even more unfriendly is the sound reference on the menuing system for most DVDs: It always seems to be in ProLogic, and very rarely in the format of the movie soundtrack itself. I often see the display on my Receiver start in 3/2 for the Corporate log, then switch to 2.1 for the Menuing and Titles, and then... I never know if it's going to go back to 3/2 when the movie starts, or if I'm going to have to set it myself.

This doesn't seem to happen with DTS tracks, for some reason... . ... Mike

Hey Mike,

I have the Panasonic DVD A120, and I have never touched the menu after the initial setup. Sometimes, I "need" to go into the Language menu on a specific DVD to select 5.1, but never the DVD player's setup menu.

I'll check the player's setup and report back if you think it'll help.

Tom

Mike, that's because DTS has only one 'flavor'. DTS is always 5.1 (except, of course, for the 6.1 variety). Only DD has more than one channel spec in the standards.

Larry

alfabet, mike is referring to the dvd menus on the dvd itself. those can vary so you can't really go by what the receiver is showing while they are playing.

glad to hear it's random. mine always defaults to 5.1 for the most pat.