few ?s about dvd players

[cheapskete OCer]

Im starting to think my xbox360 isnt a great dvd player. for video or audio,I have a pioneer 1015tx receiver, i run it in 7.1 with my polk speakers and klipsch sub.I noticed the other day while watching saw 3 that was in DD EX when i was in the thx mode the thx select EX mode was lit up. but when i changed over to DD EX mode it was in prologic, is that because the 360 is only 5.1? i was looking at some expensive dvd players(more than i want to pay) and they all said they were DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1,now i know they are not mixing movies in 7.1 or 6.1 yet, but if the dvd is DD EX shouldnt my reciever play it in DD EX, rather being in prologic?hopefully someone can clear that up for me, my other question was im looking for a dvd player 200 bucks tops, my hdtv does not have hdmi inputs only dvi and component, but i would like an upconverting player with DD and DTS a great picture would be nice too. Thanks for any advice. I was looking at this one actually http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h_specifications.html

 

[Seth=L]

Im starting to think my xbox360 isnt a great dvd player. for video or audio,I have a pioneer 1015tx receiver, i run it in 7.1 with my polk speakers and klipsch sub.I noticed the other day while watching saw 3 that was in DD EX when i was in the thx mode the thx select EX mode was lit up. but when i changed over to DD EX mode it was in prologic, is that because the 360 is only 5.1? i was looking at some expensive dvd players(more than i want to pay) and they all said they were DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1,now i know they are not mixing movies in 7.1 or 6.1 yet, but if the dvd is DD EX shouldnt my reciever play it in DD EX, rather being in prologic?hopefully someone can clear that up for me, my other question was im looking for a dvd player 200 bucks tops, my hdtv does not have hdmi inputs only dvi and component, but i would like an upconverting player with DD and DTS a great picture would be nice too. Thanks for any advice. I was looking at this one actually http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h_specifications.html

If you are using the digital output on the 360 you should get DD EX. You must make sure the 360 is set to bitstream, not PCM.

 

[no. 5]

i was looking at some expensive dvd players(more than i want to pay) and they all said they were DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1,now i know they are not mixing movies in 7.1 or 6.1 yet

well, yes thay are mixing moives in 6.1 (there are not many though), I doubt DVD's will ever be in 7.1.
any DVD player connected to the reciever with a optical or coax cable will send the 6.1 audio to the reviever, even if the DVD players box only says "DD 5.1" or "DTS 5.1".

 

[Seth=L]

well, yes thay are mixing moives in 6.1 (there are not many though), I doubt DVD's will ever be in 7.1.
any DVD player connected to the reciever with a optical or coax cable will send the 6.1 audio to the reviever, even if the DVD players box only says "DD 5.1" or "DTS 5.1".

I have a CD player from 86' for instance that has a digital output. It will play DTS encoded CDs, and that player was built before DTS even existed. Any DVD player will output these surround formats unless they have been set-up not to do so. The error isn't the 360, only the settings of either the receiver, unlikely, or the 360, very likely especially if the default settings were not optimal for us home theater enthusiasts.

 

[MDS]

So the prior posts have already established that the fault does not lie with the xbox being used as a dvd player, but are you sure that the movie is actually encoded with DD-EX?

THX-EX and DD-EX are essentially the same thing. THX-EX predates DD-EX. Both can be used to play 5.1 discs in 6.1 or play discs that are actually encoded in DD-EX. The only difference is that THX-EX will also use the THX post-processing routines (re-eq, adaptive decorrelation, and whatever the third thing is (can't remember off the top of my head)).

THX-EX and DD-EX are tricky because:

- If the receiver is in THX-EX mode it will use it regardless of whether the disc itself is actually 5.1 or encoded with DD-EX. That seems to be the case here as you said the THX indicator is lit.

- DD-EX discs are supposed to have a flag on them that tells the processor that the disc is EX encoded. Some discs are EX encoded, but don't have the flag. So your receiver may have options in its setup menus for how to deal with it. The options are usually 1) always use DD-EX even if the disc contains no flag or is not EX encoded 2) only use DD-EX if the flag is present and 3) Never use DD-EX - you have to manually select it even if the flag is present.

Given that ProLogic II is being used, I'd guess the disc is not EX encoded or it contains both DD 5.1 and DD-EX encodings and you have to select which one from the disc menu. It could also be that the receiver is set to only use DD-EX if the flag is present and the disc is EX encoded but lacks the flag.

 

[cheapskete OCer]

well my receiver has an ext mode options for off/on/auto i had it set to auto when the thx ex was on and the dd ex was not. so for some reason it picked up[ on the thx mode to thx ex otherwise my receiver says thx cinema 2 when its not in true dd ex so now im even more confused. lol and as far as DTS the 360 does not support it as far as i know i looked all in the system options and for audio they only give stereo and DD options no DTS

 

[Seth=L]

Sounds like they would have to go out of their way for it not to do DTS. When it is bitstream all that matters is what is at the other end, i.e. the receiver or decoder. The 360 isn't doing any decoding, just sends out binary information that are to be interpreted by a decoder. It is possible to disable DTS or Dolby Digital, but I am not sure how they do it.

 

[jcPanny]

DVD Upgrade

Check out the Secrects of HT DVD benchmark. The Oppo players rate much higher than the X-box 360 when used as a DVD player. Since you already have a 360, you might consider adding the HD-DVD player to it. It wont be is good as the Oppo on regular DVDs, but HD-DVDs will look better then most any upscalling DVD player.

I have the entry level Oppo DV-970HD and I am happy with the purchase.

 

[cheapskete OCer]

where do i check out the benchmarks?

 

[MDS]

Secrets

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com