DTS Question

I need some help on this whole Dolby Digital/DTS thing.

The other day while watching the Beatles Anthology, I forgot to switch on the Dolby Digital soundtrack. By accident, I switched on the DTS soundtrack. It's nothing against DTS, my Philips FR 965 AV receiver only has (I know, not the most audiophile piece of equipment, but I am happy with it) Dolby Digital capability.....or so I thought.

This was my first viewing experience with my new Sony DVP-N500V DVD/SACD player so needless to say instead of expecting the normal silence I got when I would try to get a DTS signal on my old Panasonic player (I lead a boring and love to do things that I know won't work), you can imagine my surprise when I got complete discrete information from the DTS signal with the Sony player.

It was definitely a multi-channel DTS mix and it sounded really good. Thinking maybe that there was a "problem" with the discs I tried another disc - same result. And another and got the same result. Then tried discs unrelated to set and guess what - the DTS program was alive.

My question is how is that happening? My receiver's manual is actually a manual for 3 other receivers as well, the high end model out of the book being one that accepts both DTS and Dolby Digital signals.

When I had my Panasonic player, it only had the regular Audio out and the coaxial and optical outs (I used the coxial out). With my Sony player, I'm using the discrete 6 channel input. That's the only difference I can think of as to why I can get the DTS signal. My Panasonic player didn't have the six channel input so I could never hook it up that way. Is there perhaps a DTS decoder in my receiver but there's just no way to activate it manually?

Any light shed on this subject would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Craig

 

I would imagine that the Sony has a built in Dolby/DTS decoder - but as I don't know the Sony model you have it is probably just my over active imagination

All the best - Andrew

 

I thought I mentioned it in the above post, it's a Sony DVP-NS500V. It does have onboard Dolby Digital/DTS decoders. But so did my Panasonic player (can't reference the model # - don't have it any more).

My thought was that if the player wasn't connected to a DTS input, there would be no signal.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Craig

 

Hi Craig

I was just meaning I have no specific knowledge of the Sony DVP-NS500V (although that's the model I bought for my brother ) - the important bit is the decoded DTS output , the setup you describe is perfectly capable of DTS playback - enjoy

All the best - Andrew

 

Ok, stupid reply for the day.

If I were to remove the 6 ch input and hook it up via the coaxial input, would I still get the DTS sound or would we return to silence? I don't want to do this for two reasons:

1. My coaxial audio cable went with the Panasonic Player.
2. I'd lose my multichannel SACD sound.

Thanks!
Craig

 

I think you would revert to either silence or some white noise type of sound. think you have more than two reasons not to do it now

All the best - Andrew

 

You are correct. The player is decoding the DTS and sending it out the 5.1 outputs. That is one advantage of that player! You can play M/C SACDs, and DVD-A DTS tracks, as well as DTS CDs!!

 

You want to use both the 5.1 analog output and one of the digital outputs to your receiver. Likely on DD your receiver offers more complete bass management, channel timing and other options not offered in the 500V's analog output. For SACD you need an ICBM bass managment box to get complete bass managment over your SACD's including mono and stereo disks. I have the 500V and love its performance. I find that the digital to analog PCM converter for CD's in this player is far superior to the one in my highly rated Denon 3802 Receiver, so use of the analog only outputs is not a bad thing.

Richard.

 

On many dvd players, to get DTS signals from its OPTICAL output you have to tell the player (via its operating menu) to do so. Otherwise, you'll get nothing. On my Panasonic DVD-R31 player, I had to do exactly that. This prevents that loud "white noise" if the receiver is older and doesn't have DTS decoding.

As far as players with on-board DTS decoders, I don't know.

[T]

 

Thanks to everyone for all their quick replies!

Craig