DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 issues

[DonK]

I am having issues with HellBoy II (Blu-Ray) coming through on my receiver. This movies audio is listed DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1.
Movies listed as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 work fine. I.e. Tomb of the Dragon Emporer.



I have a Sony bdp-s350 player with the latest firmware applied.
My receiver is an older JVC RX-1024V. The receiver

This is my only movie to date that does not output Dolby Digital (5.1) to my receiver.
I do have it for the intro screen to the menu. After the play is selected sound is lost.
My receiver does not support DTS but does Dolby Digital and Dolby Surround.

Until now I was happy with the Dolby Digital 5.1.

I am using an optical connection to the receiver and the appropriate settings are set.
I did experiment to see if changing the settings would work. I found none that will.

Is there supposed to be some backward compatibility to Dolby Digital from 7.1?

Is this an issue with new Universal Studio releases. Other studios?
Or is it an issue with the equipment.

[MrBoylan]

Originally Posted by DonK

I am having issues with HellBoy II (Blu-Ray) coming through on my receiver. This movies audio is listed DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. Movies listed as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 work fine. I.e. Tomb of the Dragon Emporer.

I have a Sony bdp-s350 player with the latest firmware applied.
My receiver is an older JVC RX-1024V. The receiver

This is my only movie to date that does not output Dolby Digital (5.1) to my receiver. I do have it for the intro screen to the menu. After the play is selected sound is lost. My receiver does not support DTS but does Dolby Digital and Dolby Surround.

Until now I was happy with the Dolby Digital 5.1.

I am using an optical connection to the receiver and the appropriate settings are set. I did experiment to see if changing the settings would work. I found none that will.

Is there supposed to be some backward compatibility to Dolby Digital from 7.1?

Is this an issue with new Universal Studio releases. Other studios?
Or is it an issue with the equipment.

Hi, Don,

Well there is no requirement on Blu-ray to include a Dolby Digital track, and it looks like Universal did not include a Dolby Digital track on Hellboy II - only Dolby TrueHD MA 7.1 and regular DTS 5.1. Since your receiver does not decode DTS, therein lies the problem.

You can get audio out of this disc a couple of different ways - either use the analog stereo left/right outputs connected directly to an available input on your receiver, or set "DTS" to "Downmix/PCM" in the BDP-S350 audio settings. Your best bet is probably to set DTS to "Downmix/PCM" since your receiver cannot decode DTS.

Because you have an older receiver, you should probably also set "48 Khz/96Khz" output to "48 KHz/16 Bit" (also on the BDP-S350, under Audio Settings) as this will make sure the PCM output is limited to a format that older receivers can handle. Also set "Downmix" to "Dolby Surround" so that the 2-channel output will be surround-encoded.

The drawback to this approach is that you will not get discrete multi-channel surround sound from DTS soundtracks. The best you will get is matrix-encoded surround from the 2-channel output. But really you have no other options are this point due to limitations of your receiver.

It might be time to consider a receiver upgrade as the sound capabilities of Blu-ray far exceed those of standard DVD and there are quite a few titles that utilize DTS surround soundtracks. Make sure to get one that includes HDMI audio support including decoders for DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD. This way you can bitstream the output from the player and let your receiver handle all of the decoding.

Good luck and report back with the results!

Later,

-Chris

[DonK]

Thanks Chris.

I have tried all of the settings you suggested.
None worked.

The only thing that did work was connecting the RCA jacks.

Happy New Year,
Don

[MrBoylan]

Originally Posted by DonK

Thanks Chris.

I have tried all of the settings you suggested.
None worked.

The only thing that did work was connecting the RCA jacks.

Happy New Year,
Don

Hi, Don,

Well I'm glad that worked, at least. But what you're saying is very strange. Setting DTS to "PCM" and setting "48 Khz/96Khz" output to "48 KHz/16 Bit" forces the player to convert the DTS track to a 2-channel PCM track at 48KHz/16 bits over the fiberoptic output. This is very similar to the standard CD player's digital output of 44.1KHz/16-bit. If that JVC receiver can't decode a 48KHz/16-Bit PCM track, then it would be the first I've seen that cannot do this.

Out of curiosity, when you set DTS to "PCM" in the Digital Audio Output menu and set "48 Khz/96Khz" output to "48 KHz/16 Bit", what appears in the JVC receiver's display when you play that movie? Does it say "unsupported" or anything at all on the front panel? Or is it just blank?? And what happens when you play a regular CD (any old stereo CD) through the player, connected via the digital output - what appears in the display then?

In any case, you should definitely think about getting a receiver that will support the latest codecs over HDMI audio. This will make things sound a whole lot better and will make your connections simpler with just the one HDMI cable.

Regards,

-Chris

[mtnbiker92271]

I have the same issue and cannot figure out what the problem is, I tried to call Sony and they were no help also. I have a sony s350 blu ray player i just got from dell. If i play a normal dvd, dolby digital works every single time from my receiver. My receiver will display dolby digital ex. If i play a blu ray movie, then the menu screen will show dolby digital ex but when the movie starts it swaps to neo 9 to simulate dolby digital. Only a few blu ray movies actually work correctly. So do i need to upgrade my blu ray player or my receiver. My receiver supports dolby digital but does not say master audio or hd on it, like the new ones do.

Thanks

[MrBoylan]

Originally Posted by mtnbiker92271

I have the same issue and cannot figure out what the problem is, I tried to call Sony and they were no help also. I have a sony s350 blu ray player i just got from dell. If i play a normal dvd, dolby digital works every single time from my receiver. My receiver will display dolby digital ex. If i play a blu ray movie, then the menu screen will show dolby digital ex but when the movie starts it swaps to neo 9 to simulate dolby digital. Only a few blu ray movies actually work correctly. So do i need to upgrade my blu ray player or my receiver. My receiver supports dolby digital but does not say master audio or hd on it, like the new ones do.

Thanks

Actually your problem sounds a bit different. You are still getting sound from all Blu-ray discs, right? Only you're only getting 2-channel sound from some and 5.1 channel from others?

You don't mention what receiver you have (brand/model) nor how you're connecting it (fiberoptic or HDMI or analog), nor what specific movies work vs. which ones do not. All of this would be helpful to know. But I have a pretty good guess what's probably happening.

If you're connecting your Blu-ray player using a fiberoptic (Toslink) digital connection, then your problem is most likely that you are watching Blu-ray Discs that have multi-channel PCM soundtracks. Multi-channel PCM signals cannot be sent over a fiberoptic connection so the player will drop down the output to stereo (2-channel) PCM, and then your receiver will kick in its matrix surround decoding to try to get something into the back channels (though, of course, it will not be discrete surround sound). As to why the trailers show "Dolby Digital" - this is pretty common. The trailers, and even the menu sound is frequently delivered on the disc in Dolby Digital format, even when the movie itself has a multi-channel PCM soundtrack or even a DTS soundtrack.

To test this, try switching the audio track on the disc over from "multi-channel uncompessed" or "multi-channel PCM" to one of the other available options and see if the sound (and your receiver's display) changes. Usually Blu-ray Discs that have a multi-channel PCM soundtrack *also* have a compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack as well. If you switch over to this soundtrack on the disc, then your receiver should get the discrete surround soundtrack. To do this, hit the "pop-up menu" button on your remote while watching the movie and get into the audio or set-up menu options on the disc itself (not in the player's set-up menu).

If you want to take full advantage of the sound capabilities of Blu-ray discs then you have a couple of choices:

1. Buy a Blu-ray player that has multi-channel analog outputs (one that does its own on-board decoding of DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and multi-channel PCM) and plug this multi-channel output into your receiver's multi-channel analog input (assuming it even has one). Some options include the Sony S550, Panasonic BD55 or Samsung BDP-2500. Your Sony S350's analog output is limited to two-channel. Again, this is only an option if your current receiver has a multi-channel analog input.
2. Upgrade your receiver to one that supports HDMI, including audio decoding from the HDMI inputs.

Anyway... try out the above and let us know if it helps. Then you'll just need to remember to swtich over the disc's audio track to one that can be transmitted over fiberoptic digital connections. And if you really want the best quality surround sound then either a player or a receiver upgrade is most likely going to be your best choice.

Regards,

-Chris