DVD player to Receiver Hookup

[lakeman]

I have a Panasonic DVD/CD player with both analog and digital audio outputs. I wish to connect the DVD analog audio output to the analog CD input on my receiver and connect the DVD digital audio outout to the digital DVD input on my receiver. This should allow "saving" different receiver audio playback settings for playing DVDs and CDs. Will anthing go up in smoke if I make such connections?

 

[Az B]

No problems, in fact everyone that has a SACD or DVD-A player has exactly the same hookup, with a few more cables of course.

 

[lakeman]

Thank you for setting my mind at ease.

 

[lakeman]

DVD to Receiver Hookup

Hello Az B: At the same time I posted my question about DVD hookup on the Panasonic DVD player, I sent a question to Panasonic Online Help and finally received the answer below: There is an error in their reply. Perhaps the second "digital output connection" should read "analog output connection".
According to Panasonic, I can not accomplish what I desire with the two different hookups to the receiver.

Panasonic reply follows:

Thank you for contacting Panasonic. It is possible to have that dual
connection, but it is not recommended. When a digital connection is made,
some settings have to be toggled in the audio setting menu. Hence,
everytime you wish to change from a digital output connection to a digital
output connection, the process of having to change some audio settings
have to be made. We hope that this information would be able to help you.

Thank You,
Panasonic Consumer Support

Their reply is confusing. Why would changing audio settings [ PCM Digital Output: ON; and Dolby Digital: Bitstream ] for the digital outputs on the DVD player affect the analog outputs of the DVD player? Anyone care to enlighten to this confused Panasonic owner?

 

[MDS]

What they are saying is that you will have to access the dvd menus to change settings if you hook it up the way you intend and that will be quite a bother and they don't recommend it.

When playing DD/DTS you have two options: Bitstream or PCM. If Bitstream, the signal is sent as a stream of bits that the receiver will decode. If it is set to PCM (or OFF, whatever your player menu says), the dvd player will do the decoding and downmix it to 2 channels.

Now, if PCM output is ON, then after decoding, the dvd player will send the 2 channel mix out the digital out. If PCM is OFF, then it will do digital to analog conversion and use the analog outs. So you will have to change that PCM setting everytime you want to use the analog outs.

In contrast, there is no problem using both optical and coax digital outs if the player has both and connecting one to the dvd input and one to the cd input on the receiver (without changing your menu settings).

 

[lakeman]

Thanks, Anonymous. Excellent explaination. Unfortunately, the DVD player does not have both coax and optical outputs. I can live with using the coax digital output and make the change to the center channel volume on the receiver when I change from CD to DVD viewing.

The DVD player also has the 6 outputs for Audio Out 5.1 ch. Should I be using those outputs instead of the digital coax output, thus letting the DVD player convert to analog [ PCM ] instead of the receiver?

 

[MDS]

The 5.1 analog outs are for dvd-a or sacd (the industry does not allow dvd-a or sacd to passed digitally - copy protection fears) or for connecting to a receiver that can decode dd/dts but doesn't have any digital inputs (a very old receiver).

You could hook those up as well, but I doubt you will be able to assign them to the CD input. On my Onkyo receiver, there is a separate input labeled 'MultiCh' and when that is selected it takes the signal from those 5.1 analog inputs.

The settings for multi-ch are independent of the dvd input and I suspect yours is similar. That would allow you to save different settings. If your dvd player outputs both the digital out and the 5.1 analog outs simultaneously, it will work without changing menu settings. If not, you are back to changing menu settings. Note that you could also use the regular 2 channel analog outs of the dvd player and connect them only to the L/R of the multi-ch input of the receiver.

Try it and see what happens. You won't hurt anything. The worst that will happen is you get no sound.

 

[lakeman]

Thanks for the continued explaination. I will try the multi-channel hook up when I need to reconnect with the arrival of my HDTV cable box in the near future.