Yamaha RX-V750... Good - but which surround program should I select?

[Adrian]

Bit-the bullet and found a Yamaha V750 for AU$1170. Bit more than I
wanted to pay - but hey... (At least the wife is pleased now that I've
prgrammed the learning remote and for the first time ever we have
succesful "remote consolidation" )

On getting it home and spending an hour unplugging everything and
reconnecting I now have it all working! (5.0 surround for now in my
case since I have no sub!)

Straight stereo sound is good - nice and clean, impressive and I'm
happy with it.

My problem now is that I'm not sure how to get the best sound out of
my AV components.

Foxtel digital (Aussie cable) box comes with an RCA digital audio out
that the yamaha tells me is "PCM", and my Sony DVP-S715 has an RCA and
Optical audio out which once connected again the Yamaha faithfully
tells me is "PCM".

The sounds I'm getting are really great - really crisp from the front
3 speakers, but I'm getting very little from the back 2. Which
surround program should I use to get the best out of my non-DTS dvd
player? and How the hell do I find out what garbage audio Foxtel are
broadcasting (They claim to send stuff Dolby Dig. AC-3 Encoded - so
why does the Yamaha just select a Pro-Logic decoder for it)?

....I got a horrible feeling that I'm going to feel like I need to fork
out for a new DVD player and an HDTV STB!


My setup:
Yamaha RX-V750
Sony DVP-S715 (multi-region, but non-DTS)
NAD 501 CD
UEC-Foxtel Digital Cable TV Reciever
LINN Index L-R speakers
TDL ??? Centre speaker
Polk Audio RM40 Rear L-R speakers
Crappy old piece of rubbish TV that needs tossing away ASAP!

[Mick]

HI..Just wondering where you purchased to get that price? best I have found
in Bris is $1285

"Adrian" <adrian.wallace@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fa266e43.0503301729.13a3bdce@posting.google.c om...
> Bit-the bullet and found a Yamaha V750 for AU$1170. Bit more than I
> wanted to pay - but hey... (At least the wife is pleased now that I've
> prgrammed the learning remote and for the first time ever we have
> succesful "remote consolidation" )
>
> On getting it home and spending an hour unplugging everything and
> reconnecting I now have it all working! (5.0 surround for now in my
> case since I have no sub!)
>
> Straight stereo sound is good - nice and clean, impressive and I'm
> happy with it.
>
> My problem now is that I'm not sure how to get the best sound out of
> my AV components.
>
> Foxtel digital (Aussie cable) box comes with an RCA digital audio out
> that the yamaha tells me is "PCM", and my Sony DVP-S715 has an RCA and
> Optical audio out which once connected again the Yamaha faithfully
> tells me is "PCM".
>
> The sounds I'm getting are really great - really crisp from the front
> 3 speakers, but I'm getting very little from the back 2. Which
> surround program should I use to get the best out of my non-DTS dvd
> player? and How the hell do I find out what garbage audio Foxtel are
> broadcasting (They claim to send stuff Dolby Dig. AC-3 Encoded - so
> why does the Yamaha just select a Pro-Logic decoder for it)?
>
> ...I got a horrible feeling that I'm going to feel like I need to fork
> out for a new DVD player and an HDTV STB!
>
>
> My setup:
> Yamaha RX-V750
> Sony DVP-S715 (multi-region, but non-DTS)
> NAD 501 CD
> UEC-Foxtel Digital Cable TV Reciever
> LINN Index L-R speakers
> TDL ??? Centre speaker
> Polk Audio RM40 Rear L-R speakers
> Crappy old piece of rubbish TV that needs tossing away ASAP!

[adrian.wallace@gmail.com]

Actually - I had no previous relationship with the vendor! - But since
his shop is next-door to my office I 've got a sneaking suspicion that
I'm going to be giving him huge chunks of my salary from now on!!
(gotta get me a big plasma soon!)

I got a good price by asking him to price-match the best price I could
find in the country (having found a good price from
http://www.castlehillhifi.com.au) - and he was happy to oblige...

I had a watch of "DareDevil" yesterday and the sound was awesome -
Which begs the question - Is my DVD player capable of serving a DTS
signal out of the digital audio even though it isnt DTS rated (i.e has
no DTS decoder)?

...and How come no matter what I do from the DVD player the Yamaha amp
doesnt seem to recognise a "DolbyDigital" source? Shouldnt it
automatically be able to detect the presence of DD from the single RCA
digital audio output from the player?

At the moment it doesnt seem to matter what disk I put in the DVD
player the only "programs" the Yamaha offers me are PL (i.e inadequate
encoded stereo) or DTS (which I didnt think my DVD player was supposed
to be able to handle?!). The DTS sounded great with a DTS movie - so
I'm guessing thats working as intended, but if the signal is coming
from a non-DTS disk and isnt a DD signal, it must be just a PCM stereo
signal right? So how come the amp offers me the oportunity to use a DTS
decoder?

This is all too confusing!! (and the wife declares she cant even hear
the difference and keeps getting mad at me when I "fiddle" with the
Yamaha, trying to get everything sorted!)

[Mark Stead]

Adrian wrote:
> Foxtel digital (Aussie cable) box comes with an RCA digital audio out
> that the yamaha tells me is "PCM", and my Sony DVP-S715 has an RCA and
> Optical audio out which once connected again the Yamaha faithfully
> tells me is "PCM".
>
> The sounds I'm getting are really great - really crisp from the front
> 3 speakers, but I'm getting very little from the back 2. Which
> surround program should I use to get the best out of my non-DTS dvd
> player? and How the hell do I find out what garbage audio Foxtel are
> broadcasting (They claim to send stuff Dolby Dig. AC-3 Encoded - so
> why does the Yamaha just select a Pro-Logic decoder for it)?

DVD players (and I assume the Foxtel box too) have a audio configuration where
you tell it what formats of digital audio are supported by the receiver. You
will need to change this to allow DD/DTS out. There will probably also be a
configuration item which specifies whether the receiver supports 96kbps/24bit or
just 48/16.

Once you enable these options, the player will send out the encoded bitstream
rather than just unencoded PCM. As such the receiver should display something
on the front panel to say that it is receiving DD 5.1 etc.

The reason why they have this configuration is so you don't send DTS to a
receiver which doesn't support it, because this PCM noise could do nasty things
to your speakers.

[Geoff]

Adrian
Can't answer all your questions, but I'm sure your DVD will output dts via
its digital output (either coax or optical, whichever it has). Connect this
to your receiver and select "Bitstream" output in the DVD player audio setup
menu. You will then have the dts or dolby digital output going to the
receiver. I think you are getting confused with on-board decoding. All
players have on-board Dolby Digital but few have dts. That only matters if
you don't have a DD or dts decoder. If you have any resonable modern HT
receivers, it will do DD and dts via the digiatl input.

Geoff

[Conrad]

adrian.wallace@gmail.com (Adrian) wrote in message news:<fa266e43.0503301729.13a3bdce@posting.google.com>...
>
> The sounds I'm getting are really great - really crisp from the front
> 3 speakers, but I'm getting very little from the back 2. Which
> surround program should I use to get the best out of my non-DTS dvd
> player? and How the hell do I find out what garbage audio Foxtel are
> broadcasting (They claim to send stuff Dolby Dig. AC-3 Encoded - so
> why does the Yamaha just select a Pro-Logic decoder for it)?


Use the Prologic II for Stereo/Dolby Prologic(2 CH) AV sources and you
will a similar sound matrix to Dolby Digital. For Dolby Digital(Multi
CH) sources have the Dolby Digital surround program (the Yanaha will
also let you use some Cinema DSP programs to alter the sound matrix)

[SA000584]

I would hang in there and try and get the Dolby Digital to work. Send
your wife out shopping for a while. Sorry I dont have any experience
with any Yamaha receivers however I would imagine there would be a
function that auto detects the stream coming out of the dvd player it
should pick up the DD soundtrack. The receiver should detect a DTS
soundtrack when you change the soundtrack on your dvd player to DTS.
You only need a decoder on the dvd player when you are using the 5.1
RCA outputs to connect to your receiver.

As far as foxtel goes only some Showtime movies and the Box Office
movies have dolby digital, for the all other channels except maybe
music channels (which are better in 2 channel mode) use DTS's Neo 6. I
find this is an improvement to prologic 2 in terms of clarity.


--
SA000584

[thornton melon]

If your DVD player can't read and output the DTS signal,the RECEIVER
can't DECODE it You must have a DTS capable DVD player.
Also ,the receiver must get a SIGNAL via the OPTICAL or CO-AXIAL
digital output of the dvd player, NOT via RCA socket
Good luck


--
thornton melon

[thornton melon]

TT Wrote:
> You're wrong actually. Even CD players will output a DTS
> Bitstream. Digital is Digital is Digital it is up to the
> *Decoder* wether or not it can do the Digital to Analog
> Conversion not the transport device. It only has to read a
> bitstream.
>
> Regards TT
>
> TT,I'm puzzled,the early dvd players (Pioneer 505) etc. must have then
> been capable of DTS playback, even though they did'nt state this in
> their "specs", is this correct.
> Thanks for the correction as this was unknown to me.
> Thornton Melon


--
thornton melon

[Adrian]

thanks everyone...

I finally managed to dig up my DVD players manual and found a setup
menu I'd never before seen! (turns out I needed to retrieve the remote
I havent used for the last 3 yrs).. andyway - after selecting the
digital output to be "DD/MPEG" rather than "PCM" - I now have glorious
multi-channel audio!

I'm still seriously confused by the whole DTS thing. With my DVD
players current settings, the output from a DTS disk is just a DD5.1
signal and the Yamaha doesnt get a DTS signal.... I'll play around a
bit more - but it seems to me that the only DTS I can get is DTS neo6
from a PCM Stereo track - which I gather is a half-hearted
pro-logic-esque way splitting the signal rather than a true 6 discreet
channel signal.

I'll play around a bit more - since I'm assuming DTS should be a
'better' soundtrack than a DD and what your saying about "Digital is
Digital is Digital" does make sense - I just need to find a way for
getting the signal out from my DVD player so that the Yamaha can do
the Decoding!

(btw: Foxtel sucks so much I'm gonna drop it like a stone as soon as
contract allows - what a waste of money!!)

[Han]

> I'm still seriously confused by the whole DTS thing. With my DVD
> players current settings, the output from a DTS disk is just a DD5.1
> signal and the Yamaha doesnt get a DTS signal....

It may seem very obvious but I thought I'd mention it anyway. You need
to actually specify the DTS track in the audio options of the DVDs menu
because otherwise it will default to DD.

Leaving the Yamaha on auto and letting it decide on what type of signal
it is getting is the easiest way.

Cheers

[SA000584]

Han Wrote:
> > I'm still seriously confused by the whole DTS thing. With my DVD
> > players current settings, the output from a DTS disk is just a DD5.1
> > signal and the Yamaha doesnt get a DTS signal....
>
> It may seem very obvious but I thought I'd mention it anyway. You need
> to actually specify the DTS track in the audio options of the DVDs
> menu
> because otherwise it will default to DD.
>
> Leaving the Yamaha on auto and letting it decide on what type of
> signal
> it is getting is the easiest way.
>
> Cheers

I wished that the dvd player manufactures would build into their dvd
players an option to have DTS as the defualt soundtrack instead of the
DD soundtrack. This would save me going to the menu each time I want
to hear the superior DTS soundtrack. You would think this would quite
easy to do and quite logical however may be too confusing to explain in
the instruction manuals.


--
SA000584

[thornton melon]

Han Wrote:
> > I'm still seriously confused by the whole DTS thing. With my DVD
> > players current settings, the output from a DTS disk is just a DD5.1
> > signal and the Yamaha doesnt get a DTS signal....
>
> It may seem very obvious but I thought I'd mention it anyway. You need
> to actually specify the DTS track in the audio options of the DVDs
> menu
> because otherwise it will default to DD.
>
> Leaving the Yamaha on auto and letting it decide on what type of
> signal
> it is getting is the easiest way.
>
> Cheers
The Movie menu will allow you to select DTS,and most DVD players will
allow you to change the diffent audio tracks with one button. look for
the AUDIO button on your machine remote.


--
thornton melon