Old surround amp and Bluray

Old surround amp and Bluray

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10 Pence Short

Original Poster:

32,880 posts

216 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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I recently bought a Sony Bluray player and connected to my circa 10 year old Yamaha surround amp via coaxial digital.

On Bluray discs with DTS HD, my surround amp isn't recognising it and just plays stereo. If I play a Dolby 5.1 track on the same disc, it recognises this just fine.

Is my amp too old to recognise DTS HD?

ASK1974

254 posts

131 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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Yep.

nonuts

15,855 posts

228 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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You need to look into the options on the blu-ray player, most likely but there is a configuration option around what format gets outputted via the coax / optical outputs at least one of them should mean you get better than stereo.

Zod

35,295 posts

257 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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nonuts said:
You need to look into the options on the blu-ray player, most likely but there is a configuration option around what format gets outputted via the coax / optical outputs at least one of them should mean you get better than stereo.
Not if there is no non-HD surround track on the disc (my Iron Man BluRay is one that lacks an English language non-HD surround track).

Without a more modern surround amp, the only option is a BluRay player with analogue 7.1 audio out, assuming your old surround amp will accept analogue 7.1 inputs.

OldSkoolRS

6,718 posts

178 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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You can only get 'core' DTS via optical/coax, though it can be at 1.5Mbps which is higher than DVDs which are typically around 500Kbps or less. Whether you can hear the difference depends on how good the rest of the gear is and your hearing of course...

OldSkoolRS

6,718 posts

178 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
Yes, the DTS 'core' is used along with extra data to create the lossless version. If you can't decode the full DTS HD version then the 'core' is still a considerably higher bitrate compared to DVD. Back when I had an older Arcam processor that couldn't decode HD soundtracks it still sounded fantastic using core (via an Oppo player).

TBH though probably a lot of typical living room systems won't really show the difference between DVD DTS soundtracks and HD ones (unless there is a different mix on the same disc of course). Mixtures of different speakers/non ideally located/domestic considerations probably have a bigger impact on degrading the sound. Since I built a pair of 15" subwoofers to put with my MK speakers I've been rewatching quite a few older films off DVD and they still sound fantastic; I doubt many people would find the sound quality poor on this set up, so IMHO it's more about how good the system is rather than worrying about badges.

10 Pence Short

Original Poster:

32,880 posts

216 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
Zod said:
Not if there is no non-HD surround track on the disc (my Iron Man BluRay is one that lacks an English language non-HD surround track).

Without a more modern surround amp, the only option is a BluRay player with analogue 7.1 audio out, assuming your old surround amp will accept analogue 7.1 inputs.
Cheers everyone for your answers, confirms my suspicions.

The player is a fairly cheapy one, so no separate outputs for each channel, just coaxial digital and HDMI.

The surround amp is too old to have HDMI.

The BlueRay discs that came with the player are Harry Potter ones, and the only English track on it is the DTS-HD. For some reason, a few of the other language tracks are available in Dolby 5.1, but no choice on the main one.

I wasn't sure whether all BD discs are like this or whether it was just the Barry Squatter ones.

Zod

35,295 posts

257 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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Most discs have an Englsih language DD or DTS track, but not all.

10 Pence Short

Original Poster:

32,880 posts

216 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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Having bought the system some time ago (mid range Yamaha Amp and a lowly Canton 5.1 speaker system, I'm toying with the idea of ditching the lot and just putting a sound bar in and tidy the whole thing up.

Do most sound bars tend to take a digital/HDMI input, or is that only at the more expensive end? Would love the B&W one, but not sure the budget will cope with it...

OldSkoolRS

6,718 posts

178 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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Pretty sure most soundbars will take a HDMI/coax/optical input, however I'd argue that you probably wouldn't hear the difference between HD and DVD sound on a soundbar (different mixes notwithstanding).

It would be neater, but possibly not sound any better than what you have now, it just depends on what you want out of the change.

conkerman

3,298 posts

134 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
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£1650 buys an awful lot of gear.

£3-400 gets an AV receiver that will do all the stuff you require.

I am not a fan of soundbars.

10 Pence Short

Original Poster:

32,880 posts

216 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
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I currently live in a house where I can't trail cables, so I'm not using the surround speakers, just the mains and centre with sub all crowded around the telly. We also have a 15 month old...

My priorities have changed these days and something neat and tidy wihout gazzillions of buttons is ahead of surround excellence.

For music I've got a reasonable Cyrus/B&W combination, so that's not an issue.