Audio Set Up

[Emir]

I have a Cambridge DVD Player that has 5.1 Analog Outputs that is
running to my Cambridge Audio Receiver that is 6.1. I am only running a
5.1 set up.

My question is when I'm running a movie or DVD audio disk in DTS or
Analog it shows 6.1 channels running on my Receiver. Am I actually
losing a channel and missing out on some sounds?

Should I still to the Dolby option which shows 5.1 on my reciever.

I hope I'm making sense here. I do notice a big sound difference
between the Dolby option and analog option. The analog being much
better.

Thanks in Advance.

EA

[Gordon Walz]

Your reciever probably has a setting to activate the 6th channel. In my
receiver, I have to activate the dolby ex or dts es. This gives your sixth
and 7th channel (if you have a sixth or seventh speaker). In the setup part
of your receiver, you may need to tell it that you have a 6th and 7th
speaker. Read your manual. It will be in there somewhere.

Good Luck....G

Emir <eaboulhosn@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1132089136.729305.133630@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> I have a Cambridge DVD Player that has 5.1 Analog Outputs that is
> running to my Cambridge Audio Receiver that is 6.1. I am only running a
> 5.1 set up.
>
> My question is when I'm running a movie or DVD audio disk in DTS or
> Analog it shows 6.1 channels running on my Receiver. Am I actually
> losing a channel and missing out on some sounds?
>
> Should I still to the Dolby option which shows 5.1 on my reciever.
>
> I hope I'm making sense here. I do notice a big sound difference
> between the Dolby option and analog option. The analog being much
> better.
>
> Thanks in Advance.
>
> EA
>

[Emir]

I don't have a 6th or 7th channel. Unforunteately my reciever came with
the worst manual on earth. I am not sure if I'm losing a channel when
running 5.1 sound to a 6.1 receiver?

Does this make sense?

[Emir]

I don't want to activate the 6th channel since I don't have one. I am
missing the rear center channel. What I am confused about is not by not
having a rear center, am I "losing" or "missing" sounds that would
experience if I had a rear center.

Please keep in mind that my DVD player only has outputs for 5.1.

I know my question may have been a bit confusing.

Thanks again.

EA

[Kalman Rubinson]

On 16 Nov 2005 11:36:49 -0800, "Emir" <eaboulhosn@gmail.com> wrote:

>I don't have a 6th or 7th channel. Unforunteately my reciever came with
>the worst manual on earth. I am not sure if I'm losing a channel when
>running 5.1 sound to a 6.1 receiver?
>
>Does this make sense?

You are not missing anything. On those rare(!) 6.1/7.1 programs, the
addition channels are derived from the 5.1. So, as long as your
receiver is set up to know you have only(!) 5.1 channels, nothing will
be lost.

Kal

[Rich Clark]

"Emir" <eaboulhosn@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1132089136.729305.133630@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>I have a Cambridge DVD Player that has 5.1 Analog Outputs that is
> running to my Cambridge Audio Receiver that is 6.1. I am only running a
> 5.1 set up.

If you're using the analog audio outputs, the receiver's decoding
capabilities aere not used. The player's decoder will be used and the
decoded 5.1 channels sent to the receiver's analog inputs already decoded.
>
> My question is when I'm running a movie or DVD audio disk in DTS or
> Analog it shows 6.1 channels running on my Receiver. Am I actually
> losing a channel and missing out on some sounds?

If you're using a digital audio connection, then the number of channels will
be determined by the decoding scheme the receiver chooses (or is forced to
use by user selection). If a 6.1 scheme is selected, then when it receives a
5.1 bitstream a 6th (center surround) channel will be synthesized. This is
what appears to be happening, via DTS ES 6.1 decoding.

If the receiver was properly set up to "know" there is no center surround
speaker connected, it will not try to send any sound to one. It may still
indicate that it's receiving the data, however. A 6.1 decoder will split the
center channel (if present as a discrete channel) and mix it with the L/R
surrounds equally. A 5.1 DTS decoder reads the same bitstream and "sees" 5.1
channels, and decodes them normally. (IOW, in a DTS ES bitstream there are
both 5.1 and 6.1 data, with flags that only a 6.1 decoder can see. If not
seen (as by a 5.1 decoder) the 5.1 version is used. If seen (as by a 6.1
decoder) the 6.1 version is used.
>
> Should I still to the Dolby option which shows 5.1 on my reciever.

Use whatever sounds better.
>
> I hope I'm making sense here. I do notice a big sound difference
> between the Dolby option and analog option. The analog being much
> better.

It's hard to say why that is. Your receiver and your player each has its own
decoder, and those decoders have settings for channel balance, speaker
distance, LFE crossover, subwoofer level, etc. Plus, it's almost certain
that there is an overall level difference when you switch between your
receiver's analog inputs and its digital input (and louder nearly always
sounds better upon initial comparison). So the analog inputs sounding better
probably has more to do with those factors, rather than a "missing" center
surround channel. And it's not always possible to exactly match two
different decoders' settings, so you may have trouble determining what's
causing the difference. Sometimes a difference in the available bass
crossover frequencies is enough to make one decoder sound better with
certain speaker arrays than another one does.

Bottom line: you're not losing any sound by not having the sixth channel.
Use whichever decoder sounds better. You may even end up using one for some
things and the other for other things (music DVDs vs movie DVDs, for
example).

RichC

[Rich Clark]

"Kalman Rubinson" <kr4@nyu.edu> wrote in message
news:5bann1te75tv90c3mn8o0h885n1nrc5smb@4ax.com...
> You are not missing anything. On those rare(!) 6.1/7.1 programs, the
> addition channels are derived from the 5.1. So, as long as your
> receiver is set up to know you have only(!) 5.1 channels, nothing will
> be lost.

That's not exactly accurate, although the result is the same for people with
5.1 setups.

6.1 formats do in fact contain six discrete channels. The sixth channel is
not "derived" from anything. But the bitstreams also contain the surround
information in a 5.1 format so that 5.1 decoders will see and decode a
normal 5.1 array.

You may be thinking of how 6.1 decoders can derive an additional channel
from 5.1 sources, or how 7.1 systems can derive a 7th channel from the sixth
in a 6.1 bitstream.

RichC

[Kalman Rubinson]

OK. It's my myopia. There's nothing in more than 5.1 that concerns
me although it is possible that I've rented a DVD movie with more.

Kal

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 17:52:29 -0500, "Rich Clark"
<rdclark2SPAM@TRAPcomcast.net> wrote:

>
>"Kalman Rubinson" <kr4@nyu.edu> wrote in message
>news:5bann1te75tv90c3mn8o0h885n1nrc5smb@4ax.com...
>> You are not missing anything. On those rare(!) 6.1/7.1 programs, the
>> addition channels are derived from the 5.1. So, as long as your
>> receiver is set up to know you have only(!) 5.1 channels, nothing will
>> be lost.
>
>That's not exactly accurate, although the result is the same for people with
>5.1 setups.
>
>6.1 formats do in fact contain six discrete channels. The sixth channel is
>not "derived" from anything. But the bitstreams also contain the surround
>information in a 5.1 format so that 5.1 decoders will see and decode a
>normal 5.1 array.
>
>You may be thinking of how 6.1 decoders can derive an additional channel
>from 5.1 sources, or how 7.1 systems can derive a 7th channel from the sixth
>in a 6.1 bitstream.
>
>RichC
>

[Michelle Steiner]

In article <1132169809.681674.41180@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.c om>,
"Emir" <eaboulhosn@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't have a 6th or 7th channel. Unforunteately my reciever came
> with the worst manual on earth. I am not sure if I'm losing a channel
> when running 5.1 sound to a 6.1 receiver?

No, you're not losing a channel; all you ever had was five channels
(plus the sub woofer) from a 5.1 sound source.

--
Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush.

[Emir]

Thanks everyone for answering my questions!

EA