I have a question in regards to DTS surround sound.
I have a home theater system that has the capability for DTS surround, as does my DVD player. I know that one way to get that is by having the 3 RCA stereo cables connecting the two. But I also thought that I could get that to work with an optical cable and it’s not working.
Is the RCA cable option the only way to get this to work? And is it truly that much better than Dolby Digital?
it depends on your reciever, i have an Onkyo TXSV-535 and a Panasonic DVD player, it’s hooked up to the Onkyo’s optical-in port and i can get DTS signals just fine
as far as sound quality goes, there’s too many variables, your personal hearing range, the quality of your speakers, the acoustics of the room, etc…
i will say this, DTS is compressed far less than Dolby Digital and eats up more space on the DVD, compare two DVD’s side by side (Saving Private Ryan DTS Vs DD) you’ll notice the DTS disc has fewer “special features” like commentaries and documentaries, as there’s less available space to put extras
a great example is the Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD, it has both DTS and DD, switch between the two audio tracks and decide for yourself, i find the DD mix has a more compressed, muffled sound to it, and the DTS mix has a much more open, spacious sound
given a choice between 2 identical DVD’s, one with DD and a ton of extras, and one with a DTS soundtrack, and fewer (if any) extras, i’ll buy the DTS version
Right now I have it hooked through an optical cable - if I put in my Nine Inch Nails “And All That Could Have Been” DVD and choose the DTS option, I get no sound. That leads me to believe that either I’m doing something wrong or I need the RCA cables.
You might need to turn on the optical out in a menu somewhere in the DVD player’s setup menus.
I had to do that with my Sony dvd player. I didn’t on my older Toshiba.
check your reciever’s setup manual, you might need to tell it which digital audio port to “listen” to
my Onkyo has both Coax and Optical digital audio connections, i had to tell it (in it’s setup menu) that i wanted it to use the optical audio port with the DVD player, i can assign the coax digital audio to another input if i want (CD, another DVD player, etc…)
another silly question, does your NIN DVD have a DTS audio track?
If your DVD player is “DTS Compatible”, it may have its own internal DTS decoder, and output the result through the analog output jacks on the back of the machine. However, it should also have a a digital out (probably optical and RCA).
If your receiver does not have DTS capability, then your only recourse is to use the analog jacks on the DVD player. If, however, your receiver has its own DTS decoder, then you can hook up your DVD player with the digital out to the digital input on the receiver, and let the receiver decode the DTS.
If you have a DTS receiver and you’re not getting anything out of the digital out on the DVD player, you probably have your DVD player’s internal DTS decoder working. Go to your setup menu, and select “DTS Pass-through” or whatever the equivalent phrasing is.
If you have a good receiver, you’re probably better off using the digital output on the DVD player rather than letting the DVD player decode your DTS. The receiver will likely have better bass management and do a better job. Plus, the receiver may have other modes the DVD player doesn’t have, such as DTS ES (for 6.1 channel sound).
The main difference between Dolby Digital and DTS is compression. Dolby Digital compresses a 5.1 channel surround track to 384 kbps to 448 kbps, while DTS uses much higher bit rates up to 1.4 Mbps for CD’s and 1.5 Mbps for DVD. As a result, DTS soundtracks are theoretically better quality than DD, but whether it’s audible or not depends on your system. Also, occasionally a movie will be released with a sub-standard DTS soundtrack, and the DD may actually sound better.
It should work fine with the optical cable (digital) or the use of a single RCA connector cable (coaxal). Just for the record, I once connected my DVD player to my receiver with a coat hanger and got Dolby Digital and DTS working just to see if I could. You don’t need a fancy Monster Cable (but I don’t recommend that you connect it permanently with a coat hanger either).
I imagine you have a setting wrong with your receiver. Look for an auto selection method for digital input (what kind of receiver are we talking about? Is it DTS capable or DTS ‘ready’–there is a difference)
DTS is superior. I know that debate rages ad nauseam over at the Home Theater Forum (where I have been a member for years) but I have listened in on many unbiased A-B tests and DTS in many instances walks all over Dolby Digital. Saving Private Ryan is a perfect example of this.
DTS on Laser Disc sounds better than all of them (except SDDS, but there’s no home version of that yet).
Does your DVD player have the DTS logo on it anywhere?
Let me know.
Yeah, when you put it in, the first screen is an option between DTS and Dolby Digital Stereo.
I’ll have to look closer at my receiver and the manual for further information, but both my DVD player (it’s the Humax Tivo DVR that’s been advertised in the recent Best Buy ads) and my home theater system (RCA brand …I wanna say it’s the RC2600) have the DTS logo on the front of them. I’ll have to check through all of my settings on both to see what I can find.
I’ve tried to look through the settings on my home theater system and can’t figure out why it’s not working. I have my PS2 through the first optical port and my DVR through the second and I can get them to work fine through “DVD: OPT” and “DVD: OPT2”, but the little display only shows the left and right speakers activated (even though sound comes through all of them).
I don’t know, I’m not at home right now, so I’ll check them out later tonight.
I had a similar problem with my home theater, the DVD player was hooked up to the receiver with an optical digital cable, and I couldn’t get DTS to work even though they were both DTS capable. I don’t have the receiver hooked up right now, but I checked the manual and it says (in small letters)
I always meant to try it using a coaxial digital cable, but never got the chance. The manual doesn’t actually say that DTS won’t work with optical, though.
Like others have said, you usually have to go into the DVD players on-screen menu and select “optical” for audio output.
Also note that once this is set it is the only connection you will need for audio. All DTS, Dolby Digital, ProLogic, Stereo, Mono will pass through the optical connection.
Laser Discs could handle DTS? Did any models have an optical out?
If I remember correctly, mine did. It was a pioneer model (long since dead and gone), but I cannot remember the number precisely.