I just got DirecTV installed on Saturday morning and I love it love it love it (doesn’t hurt that they thru in the remainder of the NFL package for free and I get to watch every game played from here on out!)
But tonight I noticed something that worried me. I’m watching 24, as any sensible American should be doing, when I notice I don’t hear the phones in CTU coming from my surround speakers like I normally do. I pressed my ear to the speakers and nothing. During a commercial I changed over to Showtime…nothing. My stereo receiver hasn’t been changed, but I checked all the settings anyway and nothing.
I’m using a Philips DSX5353 sat. receiver, connected to my vcr via coaxial cable, the same cable I was using when my cable box was connected to it. Does DirecTV broadcast surround? Is it my receiver? How should it be configured to get surround?
It’s probably the local FOX channel that is screwing up the sound (if you get the local channels). I had to put up with just the left front channel for about two weeks on FOX because the local station had some sort of problem. :mad:
Try contacting the station that is providing FOX for your area.
Did you get the reciever that provides surround sound? The basic recievers only put out left and right stereo, not true surround sound. For my set up, I have to change my reciever over to “simulated surround” in order to have sound from all 5 speakers. Just a thought.
That’s what I was wondering. I couldn’t find any specs on the Philips DSX5353 that I have. If that’s the case and it doesn’t do surround (which is stupid in my book, but hell, it was free) can anyone recommend an inexpensive receiver that does?
That’s what I thought Burn. And mine doesn’t have any settings. I guess I have to figure that if it doesn’t say it has surround then it doesn’t. I’ve seen others advertising TruSurround (that pseudo surround stuff) and still others with actual Dolby Digital/surround sound. So I guess I’m gonna have to save my nickels and dimes and save up for the hdtv version…and then get an hd tv…and the 3 LNB dish…but I was planning on doing that anyway.
I’ll ‘suffer’ w/o surround on tv for a while I guess. I’m just gonna miss the sensation of being inside CTU every Tuesday night.
Max…I’m a little confused as to what is providing the amplification to your surround receiver. It seems to me that you must have an AV Receiver as well as the satellite’s. Otherwise how could you have heard surround sound from your old cale hookup? I’ve never heard of a cable box that performs surround decoding.
This is the setup I think you have…Satellite Receiver to VCR to AV Receiver to speakers. If this isn’t the case, let me know.
If this is your setup, then your Satellite Receiver most likely doesn’t output anything other than stereo. In that case, the best surround sound you can get will be Dolby Pro Logic (or Pro Logic II, depending on what your Stereo Receiver is capable of producing). If you need help with the cabling, let me know.
Most, if not all, products that support or decode one of the digital surround formats prominently display the logo on the front panel of the component.
Yes, that is my set up, brain. At first, the cable box was in that chain instead of the satellite receiver. At that point I was receiving broadcasts to my surround speakers. And of course you have to add, cable outlet to cable box (via coax) to vcr (via coax)… Now, the cable box is removed but the cable remains the same. Satellite receiver to vcr (via coax) to AV receiver (Dolby Pro Logic, not 5.1) to 6 speakers (R-L-C-RS-LS-Sub). No signal is traveling to the surrounds at this point.
Ok…with that setup, unless you’re doing video switching with your AV receiver, you should have the following cables coming out of your VCR:
Video out cable to TV (coax or S-video)
Left/Right audio channels out to AV Receiver(RCA cables)
Dolby Pro-Logic only requires these two channels of audio input to create surround sound.
If all your cables are wired correctly (and I’m guessing they are), the only possibility left is that your AV receiver is not currently in “Surround Sound” mode. Pro-Logic receivers typically have a few modes of audio output.
Normal stereo mode. Someties called “direct” or “analog”. you only get sound out of your front left and right speakers. Depending on the quality of your front speakers, this mode can do a decent job of fooling you into thinking your center channel is producing sound.
3-channel mode. You only get sound out of your canter channel and your front left and right speakers.
Phantom center mode. Sound out of your front left, front right, and surround speakers only.
Surround mode. All 5 channels are producing audio.
My guess is that somehow your AV receiver was put into one of the first 2 modes of operation, and it should be relatively easy to get it back to full surround mode using your remote of the front panel buttons.
If that doesn’t fix it, connect the audio out from your VCR directly to your TV, turn up your TV’s volume, and verify that you are hearing 2-channel stereo sound from your TV’s speakers. If you are hearing stereo at that point, there’s a possibility something’s wrong with your AV receiver.