Hey all,
Was wondering if anyone could help me on this...I just recently signed up for Comcast Digital Cable service in KS and received the Motorola DCT2224 box with digital audio and S video connections. I have an Onkyo receiver. I have hooked up the digital cable box through an optical cable to my receiver's optical in and hooked up the S video connection straight to my Sony 57". I have seen some posts in here about dolby digital audio through Comcast and was wondering: when I select channels 1-100, my audio signal shows PCM. Anything over channel 100 shows both a Dolby Digital signal as well as a Pro Logic signal. The channels above 100 are hard to hear without jacking the volume up. Big contrast in volume. Couple of questions:
1) Why do I receive both a Dolby Digital and Pro Logic signal on the high channels?
2) Why is there such a volume difference? Is there a setting in the cable box I need to address? I have read where people have said they get NO sound when having this type of hookup...I get sound but it is much lower than the "digital" channels.
3) When accessing the high channels, I lost the ability on my Onkyo receiver to select "All Channel Stereo"...I can either just select Stereo, Movie Pro Logic, or Music Pro Logic. If I want full channel stereo, do I also need to hook up the RCA outputs from the cable box to the receiver and switch over when watching the "digital" channels?
4) Is it normal on Pro Logic for the rear surround speakers to cut voices in and out? Is that how it tries to create a "surround" effect?
I am new to all this, but want to make sure I have everything setup right.
I'm not a tech but I think I can answer most of your questions:
1)The channels below 100 are analog and don't carry dolby audio
2) the difference in volume I think is due to dolby compression, but I'm not sure how your receiver is set to handle it
3) the answer to this should be your receiver's manual. There's no reason to believe that your RCA connection should make a difference in the way your receiver handles the signal. It's strange that your receiver wouldn't convert dolby encoded material to "full" stereo, but only to 2 channel stereo... try to review the receiver's settings
4) "cutting voices in and out"? I'm not sure what you mean. I the voice is breaking up (like static on a cell phone) there is a problem with your connection, if voices "come and go", it's normal... let's say you are watching a sitcom, you should hear the dialogue mainly from your from center channel, the audience laughs are mostly from your back surround.
Also, dolby signal could be encoded for 2, 3, 3.2 , 5.1 channels, it really depends on each single show (not network channel)
Thanks for the quick reply. I will look into the receiver manual tonight. I thought I had read that the cable box settings in terms of "compression" may be the issue with the volume. In terms of only getting the 2 channel stereo, I thought I had read others having this same problem...a previous post related Dolby Digital Audio. I want to have all channel stereo for every channel. Anyway, have more investigation to do I guess. On the Pro Logic issue though, I have noticed that voices cut in and out in that mode...like static...especially in the rear speakers. Have noticed this when playing DVD's as well...if I have it in pro logic, voices in the rear speakers "crack"...dolby digital sounds fine though. Hard to explain I guess but I wouldn't imagine it would be connections as every other setting sounds fine??
The voices coming in & out of the rear speakers are definately an issue with Pro-Logic. Basically it means that you're watching a show that *isn't* Dolby Surround, yet the Pro-Logic circuitry is still taking out of phase information and sending it to the rear speakers.
As you've read from others, this happens to everyone and it's not a problem with your equipment, it's a problem with how Pro Logic works.
The solution is simply to turn Pro Logic off, and only turn it on if you know for sure the program your watching is Dolby Surround.
Video Essentials...AVIA...assuming these are DVD's you can get to get your settings setup correctly. Are these really good? I have the Onkyo surround sound package and a Sony 57 inch. Do any of you have these CD's and if so, are they worth the money?
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9156
From: Chicago,IL, USA
Posted: 2003-05-25 22:36
rip2955,
you are correct in assuming that these are DVD's. I opted for the Avia disc and used it to finely tune my Sony 53" rear projection TV and my Sony AVD-S50ES receiver. The video portion will help you correctly set your brightness, contrast, sharpness, color and other video settings. The audio portion will assist you in setting the proper speaker levels and checking the speakers for proper polarity. Although you can do the audio settings by "ear", I found it well worth the $39.00 U.S. in purchasing a sound meter from Radio Shack. I found that it made a huge difference in my picture (almost 3D looking) . Here is a link to Avia to do some reading but if you do a search, you can find the disc cheaper http://www.ovationsw.com/ IMHO it was well worth the $'s spent.
jttar
[ This message was edited by: jttar on 2004-07-06 22:51 ]
Have a 6200 series comcst which up-converts everything.dolby- 720 eetc
[ This message was edited by: brillski on 2004-04-01 01:40 ]
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