Question on Eagles "Hell Freezes Over"...

[GeorgeM]

I've seen this disc mentioned many times on this and other forums and just purchased it. The jewel case displays it as 'dts 5.1 music disc' that 'requires a DTS-capable playback system.' Duh, makes sense to me!!!! First time that I've noticed that info on a DVD-A.

There's probably some great sound on this disc but I cannot hear it and I'm not sure that it's defective. The DVD player/recorder display indicates the usual track number and elapsed time in the play mode and the appropriate function buttons on the recv'r/amp were selected (as a matter-of-fact I think I've tried them all!) I've tried other DVD-A's, standard music CD's, and movie DVD's and all play without a problem on 7.1 system.

Anybody have any thoughts before I return this for a replacement?

-GeorgeM

P.S. The relevant gear: Panasonic DVD Recorder E-60S and a Yammy RS-V2400.

 

[Beegowl]

Setup

Have you selected "DTS" from the audio setup menu on the DVD?

 

[Unregistered]

You might have to explicitly set your receiver to DTS rather than auto. Its possible that the auto format detect doesn't recognize the signal as DTS.

 

[dsa220]

You might have to explicitly set your receiver to DTS rather than auto. Its possible that the auto format detect doesn't recognize the signal as DTS.

But he should still get sound because the PCM output would be active. Do you have the PCM output activated on your DVD player? As an example, on my DVD player I have the following choices for my digital output, OFF - PCM ONLY - ALL. I have seen others with more choices. It could be you have the PCM turned off and did not select DTS in the begining of 'Hell Freezes Over'.

 

[GeorgeM]

When I setup the DVD Recorder a few months ago it went into an 'auto install' mode and I never (until now) had reason to access the manual adjustments. The default settings for the Digital Audio Output were:

PCM Down Conversion.......OFF........(choice of ON or OFF)
Dolby Digital....................Bitstream.(choice of Bitstream or PCM)
DTS...............................OFF........(choice of OFF or Bitstream)

I changed them to:...........ON
............PCM
............Bitstream

...and the DTS CD played just fine (great sound on this one!).

A couple of questions come to mind; I cannot extract the answers from the manual:

1. In the past I never noticed any sound deficiency when playing DVD DTS movies. Would they not have been affected by having the DTS in the OFF position?

2. What future situation could occur that would cause me to change the settings I just made?

Thanks much guys for your help on this thus far; I appreciate it.

-*

 

[Unregistered]

You need to change them again...

A quick explanation of what those options mean might make it easier...

- PCM downconversion determines the sampling rate to which PCM signals should be downsampled before being sent out the digital out. Given that your choice is only on or off, I would bet that On means 48kHZ as that is the most compatible rate. If you play a 96kHZ or above PCM track, it will be downsampled to 48kHZ if you set it to On. Some DVDs are copy-protected and if they are greater than 48kHZ, the signal will not be sent out the digital out. In that case, if you had PCM conversion set to Off, you would hear nothing. On is a safe bet for working with all discs, but you lose some resolution if you play a track that is sampled at 96kHZ or greater - although you may not be able to detect any difference.

If you have alot of discs with 96kHZ or greater sampling rate, your receiver has 96kHZ or greater dacs, and you remember that a few DVDs might not play if they are copy-protected (and you are willing to make the change temporarily to be able to hear it) then leave PCM downconversion Off.

Dolby Digital - You want it set to Bitstream if you connect digitally to a receiver and want the receiver to do the decoding. When you set it to PCM, the DVD player does the decoding and sample rate that is output is governed by the PCM conversion setting above.

DTS - Same as DD. Bitstream to let the receiver decode and PCM to let the DVD player decode. If the Eagles disc is DTS 96/24 and you have PCM conversion On and the DTS setting set to PCM, the the dvd player will decode the DTS signal, downsample it to 48kHZ, and then send it out the digital out. Goodbye 96kHZ sampling rate and the supposed 'quality' of DTS 96/24.

 

[GeorgeM]

...and thanks again for the additional info!

-*