Old surround amp and Bluray
Discussion
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.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.
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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