PCM audio......Dts.

Zildjianmeister

Zildjianmeister

Junior Audioholic
Hello,
Hoping you can educate me on something. I searched for the answer but not sure I found the correct explanation. I have an older avr. 21 yrs to be exact. It only supports dolby digital/pro logic and does not have DTS. The other night I was playing a few blu rays that had DTS and I had to change to PCM. It's connected via optical. Set the speakers to small as I always do. I fully expected to have two channel sound with only the L/R and sub engaged.

What surprised me was that when I had the avr set for dolby pro logic there was actually a center channel signal and the sub was fully engaged. Probably not LFE. Dialogue was coming out of the center and didn't seem to bleed into the l/r. I thought this would only occur if it was connected to avr via hdmi. If I switched the effect off then it only had l/r stereo with a bit of sound coming out of the sub.

I'm guessing the dts was downmixed into the 3 separate channels but I wasn't expecting it with the optical connection.

Z
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Hello,
Hoping you can educate me on something. I searched for the answer but not sure I found the correct explanation. I have an older avr. 21 yrs to be exact. It only supports dolby digital/pro logic and does not have DTS. The other night I was playing a few blu rays that had DTS and I had to change to PCM. It's connected via optical. Set the speakers to small as I always do. I fully expected to have two channel sound with only the L/R and sub engaged.

What surprised me was that when I had the avr set for dolby pro logic there was actually a center channel signal and the sub was fully engaged. Probably not LFE. Dialogue was coming out of the center and didn't seem to bleed into the l/r. I thought this would only occur if it was connected to avr via hdmi. If I switched the effect off then it only had l/r stereo with a bit of sound coming out of the sub.

I'm guessing the dts was downmixed into the 3 separate channels but I wasn't expecting it with the optical connection.

Z
You said you changed your blu ray player's digital output setting to PCM right? So I take it that you meant it was on "bitstream" before, but now on "PCM", so then yes you should be surprised. You 21 years old AVR should be able to down mix to PL, optical and coax are not HDMI, but are still digital.
 
Zildjianmeister

Zildjianmeister

Junior Audioholic
Thanks Peng!

Well I normally leave it on bitstream by default but since it won't work with DTS I change it over to PCM. I didn't realize it would downmix to PL as I normally just left it in stereo mode. The explanations I found online made it sound like it had to have a hdmi connection or it would be just 2 channel. I must have misunderstood.

Z
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Optical can support up to 5.1 audio. What avr is it?
 
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
You might consider a newer AVR. DTSHD MA and Dolby Digital TrueHD are so much better than the old school Dolby Digital.

Additionally Dolby DSU is lightyears ahead of Pro Logic even in 3.1 or 5.1.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
You might consider a newer AVR. DTSHD MA and Dolby Digital TrueHD are so much better than the old school Dolby Digital.

Additionally Dolby DSU is lightyears ahead of Pro Logic even in 3.1 or 5.1.
This!
If you think the surprise you just got was something, wait until you hear lossless dtshdma or trueHD/Atmos.
Also, nice avatar, but I would have used a “k”.
 
Zildjianmeister

Zildjianmeister

Junior Audioholic
@lovinthehd It's an old Yamaha RXV992. I didn't think optical could support more than 2 channels in PCM mode. So I was a little surprised to have a center channel working.

Yes, at some point I'll upgrade. I'm still debating going with one avr over my current setup of an avr and my integrated. Probably cheaper to keep the integrated and add another avr at a later time. That's another story for another time. :oops:

"Also, nice avatar, but I would have used a “k” - LOL
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
@lovinthehd It's an old Yamaha RXV992. I didn't think optical could support more than 2 channels in PCM mode. So I was a little surprised to have a center channel working.

Yes, at some point I'll upgrade. I'm still debating going with one avr over my current setup of an avr and my integrated. Probably cheaper to keep the integrated and add another avr at a later time. That's another story for another time. :oops:

"Also, nice avatar, but I would have used a “k” - LOL
Got me, that is supposed to be the limit for pcm, it's limited to lossy for 5.1. However, you said you were using Dolby Pro Logic, so you were upmixing the 2ch, yes?
 
Zildjianmeister

Zildjianmeister

Junior Audioholic
Yes. The center channel was engaged only when pro logic was selected.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Thanks Peng!

Well I normally leave it on bitstream by default but since it won't work with DTS I change it over to PCM. I didn't realize it would downmix to PL as I normally just left it in stereo mode. The explanations I found online made it sound like it had to have a hdmi connection or it would be just 2 channel. I must have misunderstood.

Z
Optical and coax do support 5.1 and 7.1, you can still select 2 channel stereo if you wish.
 

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