Pcm

[miggs29]

I know that may have asked for this before but I am still confused. Why is it that I see PCM on my receiver for most of the stuff that I watch from Directv. I see dolbydigital (not PCM) if the movie is in 5.1, but sometimes the movie says it is dolby in "5.1 where available" but sometimes my receiver still says PCM. I have my directv DVR set to send the signal out as dolby digital, but why am I seeing PCM on the receiver these other times? Still very curious......

 

[fmw]

The receiver doesn't detect any dolby surround when it displays PCM, I would imagine, so that programming probably doesn't have any surround sound encoded in it. Not everything DTV transmits has Dolby Digital output. My own receiver says "stereo" when no surround encoded content is present. It says "Dolby Digital" for surround encoded DTV programming and "THX Cinema" for the "higher" forms of surround found on DVD's and HD discs.

 

[MDS]

"In Dolby Digital 5.1 where available" is what most movies say. The key is where available. DD isn't always available from the networks.

With my cable, the movie channels are either DD 5.1 or DD 2.0. The Music Choice Channels broadcast both Analog and DD 2.0. The other channels are a mix of Analog, DD 2.0, and 48 kHz PCM. I've noticed lately that channels that used to always be analog, like HGTV, are now being broadcast in DD 2.0.

Satellite is all digital so even if the signal from the networks is Analog the sat provider converts it to PCM.

 

[miggs29]

The receiver doesn't detect any dolby surround when it displays PCM, I would imagine, so that programming probably doesn't have any surround sound encoded in it. Not everything DTV transmits has Dolby Digital output. My own receiver says "stereo" when no surround encoded content is present. It says "Dolby Digital" for surround encoded DTV programming and "THX Cinema" for the "higher" forms of surround found on DVD's and HD discs.

Thank you for your help. So, if the signal is not encoded as DD then I will always see PCM. Are there any other signals other than PCM and DD that my receiver should see? I want to make sure that I don't have a setting set wrong. Sorry, for all the questions. I am pretty new to this.

 

[fmw]

I would assume it would accept DD II and DTS except, possibly for the newer versions. Your manual should give you information about the codecs it can handle.