Denon AVR 4306 Zone 2 Out Digital In

[dimes]

As I know from the Audioholics review, unlikes it's predecessors, the 4306 can pass digital input to the Zone 2/3 analog output.

Assume I have a 4306 and a cable box connected only with a digital connection. I have a main listening Zone with 5.1 which I leave in Dolby PLIIx Cinema and a 2 channel Zone 2 in another room. Zone 1 and Zone 2 are both set to listen to the the cable box.

If the cablebox is sending stereo pcm to the reciever Zone 1 speakers would recieve a plIIx upmixed 5.1. Does Zone 2 recieve a straight d/a conversion of the stereo digital connection or does it recieve the front L & R channels after the 5.1 plIIx upmix?

If the cablebox is sending a digital 5.1 signal to the reciever Zone 1 speakers are clearly in 5.1. Does Zone 2 recieve a a downmixed stereo L & R or does it recieve the front L & R channels from the 5.1 input?

Thanks,

--dimes

 

[JonBaker99]

It's not lacking the audio of the center channel so I would guess it is a downmixed 5.1 track.

 

[MDS]

If the cablebox is sending stereo pcm to the reciever Zone 1 speakers would recieve a plIIx upmixed 5.1. Does Zone 2 recieve a straight d/a conversion of the stereo digital connection or does it recieve the front L & R channels after the 5.1 plIIx upmix?

The signal arrived at the receiver in 2 channel PCM so to send it to the zone2 outs it just has to be converted to analog. The same input signal for zone1 is matrix decoded by the PLII decoder for output over 5.1 speakers.

'Upmixing' does not exist - to go from 2 channels to 5.1, a matrix decoder is used to extract the center and surround info from the original 2 channels. Downmixing is the process of folding N channels down into a lower number of channels and conceptually is the same as 'bouncing' the multiple tracks (say guitar, vocals, drum, etc) into 2 channel stereo when the original mix is done.