My Fabulous New Discovery Playing DVD Audio

[Johnny Canuck]

I was just fooling around with my settings on my DVD player while listening to Metallica on DVD Audio. I thought I would turn the "DVD Video Mode" to ON as it has always been OFF. My instruction manual says that turning it on gives me the option of playing DVD Video content on DVD Audio discs. So, I gave it a whirl.

So, to my amazing surprise, and don't laugh if this is something really simple, "Dolby Digital" flashes up on my Denon receiver. I now have the option of listening to DVD Audio discs in 5.1 Dolby Digital. I flipped back and forth between digital and EXT IN on my Denon remote, and the Dolby Digital sounds a lot nicer. I have had this set up for over a year and never knew I could do this.

I have 3 DVD A discs: Santana Supernatural, Fleetwood Mac Rumours, and Metallica. I played with all of them, and behold, I do have the option of Dolby Digital. I am very happy about this!! Do you guys do this too? or do you prefer EXT IN?



This Metallica DVD A is the best sound I have ever heard. Very heavy...especially the song after "Nothing Else Matters" Just shook the hell out of me. "Enter Sandman" rocks too.

 

[supervij]

Before I had a universal player, I already owned three DVD-Audios: The Blue Man Group's Audio and The Complex, and The Polyphonic Spree's Together We're Heavy. I owned them because I saw on their packaging that I could play the DTS layer. And man oh man did it sound sweet!

But the universal player was purchased because I knew I would someday be dabbling in SACDs as well, so now I could listen to both the DTS layers on my DVD-Audio discs, as well as the hi-res DVD-A layer. Flipping between the two, I think I prefer the DVD-A layer. The sound is not a huge step upward, just a baby step or two. It's a bit richer, the sound stage just a bit more defined, the instruments just a little bit clearer.

So for me, I prefer the "Multi Ch Input" over the digital (in my case, DTS/dolby digital 5.1). But it's not the hugest of differences.

However . . . I can say that I prefer the DTS layer over the dolby digital 5.1 layer on the Blue Man Group's Audio disc. The sound is far more dynamic and richer. Without a doubt.

But that's just me. And bear in mind it might be my equipment's fault, which is probably low-end to most of the people in here . . .

cheers,
supervij

 

[MACCA350]

Johnny Canuck wrote:
I flipped back and forth between digital and EXT IN on my Denon remote, and the Dolby Digital sounds a lot nicer

Your Still listening to the Dolby Digital track when in EXT IN mode if your just flicking between the EXT IN and the digital input on your receiver. Unless you select the High-Rez MLPCM Track from the DVD menu, you will just be comparing the difference between having your dvd player decoding the Dolby Digital track or your receiver decoding the same Dolby Digital track.

In most cases selecting the digital path will give you a better sound for Dolby Digital due Analouge verses Digital path and the fact that receivers normally have more adjustments for things like bass management, room eq, etc, than the dvd players.

But the Hi-Res tracks of DVD-A's will not pass over the standard digital(coax/optical) connection due to copyprotection(this is the part of DVD-A that really sucks ), unless you use the Denon Link(2nd or 3rd edition), or other similar links (I beleive Sony have their own version).

cheers

 

[claudermilk]

But the Hi-Res tracks of DVD-A's will not pass over the standard digital(coax/optical) connection due to copyprotection(this is the part of DVD-A that really sucks ), unless you use the Denon Link(2nd or 3rd edition), or other similar links (I beleive Sony have their own version).

cheers

Am I missing something? My understanding was that it was SACD that made this stipulation, not DVD-A? I guess I need to play with settings with one of my DVD-As in the player...

 

[Johnny Canuck]

I think claudermike is right. I am getting high res Dolby Digital..in 5.1 surround. i am selecting multi channel on the DVD audio menu. What is odd is that i am adjusting a "DVDVideo" setting on my DVD player menu and I am getting Dolby Digital sound. I don't understand this.

I have my DVD player hooked up both with an optical connection and the 3 x 2 analog connectors (and an additional 2channel rca as well). When I play a DVD A I usually select the multi channel on the disc itself, and then EXT IN on my remote. Last night i did this thing and got Dolby Digital for the first time and the sound was much better. Are you saying this in not true high res DVD audio? Whatever it is, it sounds better. I think because my denon has better converters or whatever you call them than my Panasonic DVD player. Better bass management, and you can use Room EQ which you can't using EXT IN.

I argued for months with these guys at work who said they had 5.1 with DVD Audio and never had the analog connectors. I think I see how they did it now. I think I will go buy a DTS audio disc now to hear those.

 

[WndrBr3d]

DVD-Audio discs usually have the following audio tracks:

Dolby Digital 5.1
DTS 5.1
LPCM 24-bit/96khz
LPCM 24-bit/192khz

You're going to get HIGHER QUALITY from the LPCM tracks (lossless compression), but unfortunatly the SPDIF standard does not have enough bandwidth to transfer LPCM 24-bit/192khz over digital, so you have to rely on your DVD players DAC and use the 5.1 Analog outputs.

Listening to the Dolby or DTS tracks will not sound as clean/clear as the LPCM tracks because both formats are a lossy compression.

 

[Johnny Canuck]

Maybe in theory. Dolby Digital gives you better bass management, and Room EQ if you want (I always have room EQ off).

All I know is DD kicked *** on analog with my system.

I have yet to hear a DVD A with DTS. I looked today for anything I would like. ANYTHING!! No titles I would buy.

So, I bought Offspring Greatest Hits Dualdisc. It's 5.1. I'll report later.

 

[MACCA350]

Ok, thaught I'd try, I put my Denon 2200 DVD player in 'DVD Video' Mode for DVD-A's and now I cant even select the Ri-Res Multi-channel MLP track (Queen's - A Night At The Opera) in the DVD menu. I can only select the DTS or Stereo track.

So I changed the player back to 'DVD Audio' mode and now I can select the Ri-Res Multi-channel MLP track. I selected it and sure enough I had no sound through the digital optical connection, so I pressed EXT IN on the 3805 and presto we have music, as expected.

See here for some info on the subject.

cheers