Disc or device.

[Davemcc]

I trying to play my copy of Starship Troopers, but I'm confused about the way my system is acting. At first, this disc would not play anything through the center channel. Well, it used the center channel for the big studio intro, but not for the program material. The mains and surrounds all worked fine, but no dialog. I tried a different disc in this configuration and it worked as it should.

I checked all my settings: Disc menu=Dolby 5.1 (Dolby Digital); Player menu=Raw output + HDMI audio on; Receiver=Auto input (HDMI).

The receiver would only display the Dolby PLIIC message. There is no way that I can get my receiver to say Dolby Digital on the front panel with this set-up, or any other set-up for that matter. I finally got the center channel to work by changing the player menu to PCM, but that's wrong, right?

Is the disc encoding the issue or is there some other way of setting things up to play Dolby Digital, have the receiver acknowledge DD with all channels working?

Equipment in signature.

 

[Seth=L]

I doubt the disk is to blame. The bitstream is packed, meaning it is a solid stream of data that will either work or not work. There would be no in between stuff. I take it you are playing it back in the Cambridge DVD player? Does the Escient play DVDs, if so try playing it in that to see if the problem is still present, not likely it would have a problem playing it though.

 

[Davemcc]

You are correct. I'm using the Cambridge. The Escient only plays CDs.

The bitstream issue is what's confusing me. I can't figure any reason why the center channel info is not being reproduced, but all the other channels are.

Also, why would it work correctly in PCM and in Multi-channel analog input, but not bitstream? Plus, The Princess Bride plays properly in bitstream. Could it be that the DD encoding on the Starship Troopers disc is faulty? I can exchange the disc if there's a reasonable probability it is at fault.

 

[Seth=L]

I suppose you could try exchanging the disc. I am not familier with Cambridge's DVD players unfortunately.