Can't get DD5.1 to play

Acadian · February 2008

Going nuts here!!!

I have a DVD player (Sony DVP-NS50P) hooked up to my receiver (Yamaha HTR-6050) using this cable

I go in the DVD menu and select DD5.1 playback, yet it plays in my mains only. I select STRAIGHT on my AVR and the little PCM light is on. What am i doing wrong here?

tcrossma · February 2008

Acadian wrote: »

Going nuts here!!!

I have a DVD player (Sony DVP-NS50P) hooked up to my receiver (Yamaha HTR-6050) using this cable

I go in the DVD menu and select DD5.1 playback, yet it plays in my mains only. I select STRAIGHT on my AVR and the little PCM light is on. What am i doing wrong here?

Is that a subwoofer cable? Not sure it would matter though...

Check your DVD player's settings to make sure it is output "bitstream" or something other than PCM.

Acadian · February 2008

It is a sub cable, but it's supposed to work for digital coax as well.

The Dolby Digital light is on, on the dvd player....so it seems to be outputting the correct signal....just the AVR i can't seem to figure out.

tcrossma · February 2008

What DVD are you playing? There's 2 things in play here. The DVD player's configuration system which has to be told how to output audio (bitstream or something similar). Then there's the Movies audio setup, that must also be set to DD or DTS.

Your sub cable is going from the Coax out of the DVD player to a Coax in on your receiver?

Willow · February 2008

Have you assigned that particular input on your AVR to accept it?

Acadian · February 2008

1) The movie audio setup is definitely set to DD5.1
2) Not sure if (or how) to set the DVD player's settings
3) Yes, the dig. coax out from DVD to dig. coax in on AVR
4) I did not assign the input on my AVR to accept it....shouldn't a digital coax accept it by default?

EDIT: I was playing both Polar Express and The Grinch (don't laugh, it's all i had on hand...lol).

Willow · February 2008

for DVDP- make sure there is no disk in it. Hit menu on your controler, go to audio set up section.

for AVR, you may need to tell the AVR that ie dig input 1 is for DVD.

tcrossma · February 2008

Well, my guess is that your DVD is not configured output a bitstream digital signal. But it could be other things. Try going in to the "setup" menu of your DVD player and look for an "audio" setting. Make sure it's *not* set to "PCM".

Acadian · February 2008

I'm starting to think it's the DVD player. I downloaded the manual and i am supposed to be able to press an AUDIO button while the movies plays to see which audio format is being output, except the screen says "the disc doesn't allow this" when i press it...how usefull is that.

I have an XBox 360 that i could've tried with, but it died on me tonight of all things....so that could be a few weeks before i get a new one. When it rains it pours!!!

EDIt: i also don't get any 5.1 from my Rogers cable box (using optical)...it still shows PCM on my AVR.

EDIT #2: I got the DVD player to output DD5.1....i'll look into the cable box tomorrow.

danger boy · February 2008

as mentioned above.. in your AVR, you need to assign it the correct audio input.. ie: optical, coax, HDMI, etc.

in your DVD player.. you need to select Bitstream as the audio output, not PCM as stated by tcrossma.

this got me just last night too. I bought a HD DVD player and the default audio option out was PCM.. so I was only getting left and right front audio... even though I was using a optical cable. set it to Bitstream.. and DD 5.1 lit up on the pre amp.

Sounds like you have everything hooked up right.. now you just need to check the menu's in your AVR and DVD player.
good luck.

dephinistr8 · February 2008

<sorry for the redundant post. I see this was answered a bit earlier>
I've seen this happen on when a dvd player is providing the decoding instead of sending the bitstream.
If you dvd is set to bitstream, your receiver should decode the audio and display back what it is decoding.

Acadian · February 2008

As stated in my last post, i got the DVD player to output Dolby Digital instead of PCM. So it works, but i want to make sure i get this...

I guess the DVD player "decodes" the DD5.1 and sends it via the digital coax out to the AVR in. The AVR`s job is to shoot it out to the appropriate channels(speakers)....is this how it is supposed to work? Somehow i thought AVR`s were supposed to be able to decode PCM to the appropriate format (like DD5.1) by themselves???

On another note, i still haven`t gotten my Rogers HD cable box to shoot out DD5.1 (via optical)....it was getting late last night...lol.

Cheers!

tonyb · February 2008

I have had problems before useing digital coax cable.I would suggest just useing the optical cable from the dvd player to your receiver.

tcrossma · February 2008

Acadian wrote: »

As stated in my last post, i got the DVD player to output Dolby Digital instead of PCM. So it works, but i want to make sure i get this...

I guess the DVD player "decodes" the DD5.1 and sends it via the digital coax out to the AVR in. The AVR`s job is to shoot it out to the appropriate channels(speakers)....is this how it is supposed to work? Somehow i thought AVR`s were supposed to be able to decode PCM to the appropriate format (like DD5.1) by themselves???

On another note, i still haven`t gotten my Rogers HD cable box to shoot out DD5.1 (via optical)....it was getting late last night...lol.

Cheers!

Bitstream means that the un-decoded signal is being sent to the AVR, which will then decode it.

If you let the DVD player decode it you'd have to use the Analog outputs on the DVD player (if it has 5.1 analog outs).

As to your cable box, remember that not all channels are broadcast in DD5.1, so make sure you're watching something that is. The cable box also has a "setup" menu that you'll need to go into and set the audio out to a "matrix" format. The default is usually "stereo".

Good luck.
tim

Acadian · February 2008

tcrossma wrote: »

Bitstream means that the un-decoded signal is being sent to the AVR, which will then decode it.

If you let the DVD player decode it you'd have to use the Analog outputs on the DVD player (if it has 5.1 analog outs).

As to your cable box, remember that not all channels are broadcast in DD5.1, so make sure you're watching something that is. The cable box also has a "setup" menu that you'll need to go into and set the audio out to a "matrix" format. The default is usually "stereo".

Good luck.
tim

I did check the settings very quickly LATE last night, so "matrix" it is then.

The only 2 options available on the DVD player were PCM and DD. So DD apparently sends "bitstream" and PCM sends what excalty?

Willow · February 2008

which Rogers box do you have, I've had both the digbox and now the HDbox. I could be of help if needed.

Acadian · February 2008

Willow wrote: »

which Rogers box do you have, I've had both the digbox and now the HDbox. I could be of help if needed.

I have the HDBox, but it's Motorola here....you probably have/had Scientific Atlanta....but it should be the same i figure.

Acadian · February 2008

It works now. Not sure why it didn't before. I checked the settings on the Rogers box....was already Matrix. I switched it, then came back to Matrix and the AVR's little DIGITAL light came on instead of PCM. Go figure! Maybe i had to have it on a 5.1 channel (like HDNet) WHILE i was changing the setting in order for it to work....who knows...lol.

Anyways, thank for all your help guys....maybe i can now move from noob to the next level...lol.

Can't get DD5.1 to play

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