No Dolby Digital light on Denon AVR-486S?!?

[Denon_Jean]

Hello all,

Well I'm sortta new at this, and given the massive amount of combined knowledge that seems to be around this site, I thought I would ask for help. I have a new Denon receiver and the proper digital coax connection and a Dolby Digital DVD and DVD-player to boot, but that little Dolby Digital light won't turn on when I play a DD DVD. I want to take advantage of the technology, but am afraid something is wrong. They make it sound so simple to get that light in the booklet, but it ain't happening. Can somebody please help?! Thanks in advance!

 

[Buckle-meister]

Welcome to the Forum Denon Jean. Are you getting sound at all? If not, you may need to tell the DVD player through its menu to output sound from the coaxial jack.

 

[Denon_Jean]

Thanks for your quick reply. I did assign the digital coax properly and am getting good sound out of it (out of all 5 speakers I currently have, plus the sub). Is it Dolby Digital, though, I couldn't tell you because that light isn't on. Also, when i press the cinema button under "direct", it can shuffle through all the PLII's and the Dolby one, but doesn't end up staying on the Dolby and goes to another PLII, like the PLII-c. Not sure if it's supposed to do that as well, and it could be tied to my problem with the light!

 

[j_garcia]

What I think he means is you need to set the digital output correctly on the player, not the receiver. Most players should be set correctly for DD by default, but yours may not be. DD and DTS should be set to "bitstream" or "normal" rather than PCM, otherwise you will be getting stereo only.

 

[Buckle-meister]

...when i press the cinema button under "direct", it can shuffle through all the PLII's and the Dolby one, but doesn't end up staying on the Dolby and goes to another PLII, like the PLII-c.

When you flip through PLII to PLIIx etc, you are changing the default decoder that the receiver will use for the input currently being used. Dolby ProLogic II will take any two-channel signal and put it out of your five speakers and sub (5.1 sound). In a similar fashion, Dolby ProLogic IIx will expand two-channel audio to 7.1 sound (assuming you had the additional two surround-back speakers).

Your receiver will 'know' when it is receiving a Dolby Digital signal and correctly override whatever decoder you have selected. It will do so because the Dolby Digital signal is natively 5.1 or 6.1 channels (i.e. made up of multiple discreet channels) and doesn't require your receiver to try and make this up.

As to why the DD indicator doesn't light up, hmm. When you play a DVD, you can still get sound right? It's just the DD indicator that doesn't light up right?

 

[Denon_Jean]

That's right, the sound comes out, but the light doesn't come on...

 

[j_garcia]

If the light never comes on, the most likely cause is that your DVD player is not setup correctly; see my previous post. To add to what Buckle-Meister said, you have to put the receiver into Auto mode for it to automatically select standard DD or DTS. If you "force" a mode such as PLII, some receivers will remember that for that input and use it until you switch back to Auto detect.

 

[Buckle-meister]

...the sound comes out, but the light doesn't come on...

I can think of one way to confirm that it's not simply a defective receiver front panel display (which is highly unlikely):

Even though the DD indicator isn't lit up, what about the little 'speakers' on the display (i.e. L, C, R, SL, SR, LFE)? Are they also not lit up?

If, as J Garcia and myself suspect, that the problem lies either with:

1. The DVD player's menu not correctly set to instruct the player to output the raw data to the receiver, or;
2. The receiver currently being compelled to decode for example in PLII as opposed to being set to AUTO detect mode;

...then only the L and R little 'speakers' on the receiver's front panel will be lit when playing any normal DVD. If however, the L, C, R, SL, SR and LFE 'speakers' are lit but DD (or dts if selected on the DVD disc's own menu) is not, then you may well have a problem.

The solution to points 1 and 2 maybe found in the DVD player and receiver's menu respectively (now if Denon's website only allowed the downloading of their manuals, I could help you find the parts to read).

 

[Nick250]

When I first got my panasonic dvd player I had the same problem. Setting the dvd player to "bitstream" solved the problem. I guess I am just adding to the comments by Buckle & Garcia that one of the first places to look at the dvd player output settings.

 

[keithl1967]

check the dvd player

I had the exact same problem with a cheap (free giveaway) DVD player--while it advertised Dolby digital, it was only capable of putting out a dolby digital 2.1 signal, which is why my receiver (ONKYO) was defaulting to Dolby PLII--because it was only getting a 2.1 signal, regardless of what the actual disc was capable of...you may wany to reserach the DVD player and confirmt hat the digital output does really put out whatever the disc is recorded in...

 

[mtrycrafts]

I had the exact same problem with a cheap (free giveaway) DVD player--while it advertised Dolby digital, it was only capable of putting out a dolby digital 2.1 signal, which is why my receiver (ONKYO) was defaulting to Dolby PLII--because it was only getting a 2.1 signal, regardless of what the actual disc was capable of...you may wany to reserach the DVD player and confirmt hat the digital output does really put out whatever the disc is recorded in...

I don't know why even a cheap DVD player would only output 2.1, unless the material only had 2.1 and defaulted there? Did you ever go back the the movie or whatever you played and check the menu if it even had the 5.1 option?

 

[Denon_Jean]

Hey awesome guys, thanks for all your help. I thought it was the AV, but it was indeed the DVD. Lesson learned I guess. Hopefully the new Logitech Harmony 880 remote I have coming will help the switching of the DVD to the appropriate signals (DD or DTS) easier.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hey awesome guys, thanks for all your help. I thought it was the AV, but it was indeed the DVD. Lesson learned I guess. Hopefully the new Logitech Harmony 880 remote I have coming will help the switching of the DVD to the appropriate signals (DD or DTS) easier.

OK. Now that you found that the DVD is at fault, can you tell us how so? Could not properly select the 5.1 on it? I would have a hard time believing that it can only do 2.1.

 

[Buckle-meister]

Could not properly select the 5.1 on it? I would have a hard time believing that it can only do 2.1.

The DVD player wasn't physically 'faulty'. It was probably just set to output a downmixed signal instead of the native signal on the DVD. The former is what you would use if you only had a stereo amp to connect to (i.e. with no decoders on board). Correct Denon Jean?

 

[mtrycrafts]

The DVD player wasn't physically 'faulty'. It was probably just set to output a downmixed signal instead of the native signal on the DVD. The former is what you would use if you only had a stereo amp to connect to (i.e. with no decoders on board). Correct Denon Jean?

That is what I would suspect happened, not properly directed what to output Problem solved.