Dolby Digital not working?

[drwhom]

I have a Sony audio home theater. It is a new one. I set the player to Auto, so the receiver decodes what the input signal is. When I watch a Dolby Digital DVD or show from directv and I have my setting to Auto shouldn't the display show "Dolby Digital"? It doesn't. The speaker display on the front of the receiver should show all five speakers lit up, right? It isn't. I am only hearing my rear speakers when I set the mode to Dolby ProLogic II. But isn't this just an enhanced 2 channel setting?
I have the RCA audio jack and the orange digital audio going from DVD to receiver. This is correct?
Sorry if I'm not precise enough, I'm a t work and can repost with the exact Sony model if necessary.

Dr Whom

 

[MDS]

PLII will be engaged if you set that as the default surround mode for 2 channel sources. The 2 channel source can be analog, PCM, or DD 2.0. If you are always getting PLII when playing a DVD that is definitely DD 5.1, then the problem lies in your setup.

You said you had the orange digital coax cable connected, but did you set the dvd player to output 'bitstream' instead of 'pcm'? If set to PCM you will get a 2 channel downmix and it sounds like that is exactly what is happening. You also have to tell the receiver which digital input goes with the input the player is connected to. If the dvd player is connected to the 'dvd' input and the coax digital cable is connected to 'coax 1 digital input' you must make the assignment in the receiver's setup to tell it that coax 1 goes with the dvd input.

Note also that for DirectTV or cable, the signals are digital but are not always 5.1. Sometimes they are PCM or DD 2.0, in which case you can only get surround by using a matrix decoder like PLII.

 

[philh]

What I'm absolutely amazed at, the DVD players DO NOT recognize a digital cable connection and automatically set the output to digital. Every single one I've ever checked is not set to digital.

 

[drwhom]

Dolby Digital working

Thank you for helping me. It worked.
Unbelievable, the difference it made!
A follow-up question regarding my DirecTV connection. Currently, I only have the RCA plugs outputted to my receiver and am not receiveing Dolby Digital when watching a show broadcasting in it. My DirecTV receiver has an optical audio output. Will I receive the DD connecting the optical output to my optical port in my receiver?

Dr Whom

 

[shokhead]

Got to use a dig out to get DD.

 

[philh]

Thank you for helping me. It worked.
Unbelievable, the difference it made!
A follow-up question regarding my DirecTV connection. Currently, I only have the RCA plugs outputted to my receiver and am not receiveing Dolby Digital when watching a show broadcasting in it. My DirecTV receiver has an optical audio output. Will I receive the DD connecting the optical output to my optical port in my receiver?

Dr Whom

Only if what you are watching is DD broadcast. But you will need the optical connection to receive it when DTV broadcast DD