Q What is your recommended choice of connections between coax inputs and optical inputs for DVD and LD? I have heard a few negative remarks on optical connections - limited bandwidth and loss of signal if coiled too tight to name a few.
Also, isn't it true that AC-3 (DD) LD players should not be connected to optical or coax cables because these cannot transmit the analog AC-3 signal? It seems LD players must use the RF connection to get the AC-3 signal. However, aren't DVDs another story entirely? In the DVD format, all of the digital outs seemingly transmit DD. If this is the case, which type of connection gives the best overall sound and picture - optical or coax?
A The
whole connector thing is very confusing. Whenever I go to Fry's
Electronics looking for an adapter so I can use connector "X"
with jack "Y", I have to keep telling myself, "Stay
calm. It's here somewhere". Sometimes I think my dad is right.
All he wants is "On", "Off", and the Volume
Control. The advantages of optical cable are the lack of a ground
loop problem, lack of impedance matching problems, and the lack
of capacitance-inductance problems. Personally, I have not been
able to tell a difference between optical and coaxial connections.
However, as you say, the general opinion is that coaxial is preferable.
If you have a DVD player and an LD player, it may be necessary
to use optical for one player and coaxial for the other, depending
on the jacks that are available. This is what I do with my system,
and it works fine. If there is a ground loop problem, optical
cable can help reduce it. For DD from an LD player, you have to
use a coaxial cable because an RCA jack is all that's available
for the RF output. The other digital coax output or optical output
on the LD player transmits only the bitstream from the PCM digital
audio tracks. No video signal comes through the optical output.
Just the audio. DVD players have coaxial and/or optical digital
outputs too, and they transmit the DD bitstream to the decoder.
So, with a DVD player and an LD player, you could use the LD coaxial
RF output to the RF input on the decoder/receiver, and the optical
output from the DVD player to the DD digital input on the decoder/receiver.
You need to make sure you don't mix up the coaxial analog audio
inputs/outputs with the coaxial digital inputs/outputs. With so
many connections, it is easy to make this mistake, so when first
connecting a new component into your system, keep the volume down
very low to start.
Q While
seeing a demonstration of the Yamaha DSP A1 Surround Sound Processor/Amplifier
at a local dealership, I noticed the salesman was using a DTS
demo disc on a non DTS DVD player. Yet the A1 was still decoding
in the DTS mode. When I pointed it out to him, he did not know
why. He then connected two other non DTS DVD players, and the
A1 unit played those in the DTS mode also. My question is if I
purchase the Yamaha A1, can I use a non DTS DVD player and still
get all the benefits of the DTS format?
A The
DTS demo disc has the DTS in PCM format. This disc will play on
all DVD players. When DVD movies are released in the final format
(supposed to be this month), they will not be in PCM, but rather,
a different format. Only the newer DVD players that say DTS Digital
Output, or some other means of letting you know they are DTS compatible,
will be able to play these discs. By play, I mean the player will
be able to recognize that the disc is DTS, and output the DTS
bitstream through a jack on the rear of the player. Then, you
connect this jack to the digital input jack on the processor or
receiver that has DTS decoding capability. The Yamaha DSP A1 has
DTS decoding built-in, and should be able to decode the DTS from
the DVD. However, we won't know if everything works the way they
say it is supposed to until we have a DTS compatible DVD player,
which should be shortly.
Q Please
explain DUAL LAYER DVDs. Yes or No, If a DVD runs over 133 minutes
do I flip it? Is there a pause like on laser until it reads the
other side, or if the movie is say 3 hours long does it play non-stop,
pause-free with no visual or audio interruption?
A The
first DVDs last year were dual sided, but not dual layer. That
meant you had to flip the disc if the movie was longer than two
hours or so, depending on the amount of compression. If the maximum
amount of compression is used, 133 minutes per layer, per side,
are available. All of the new discs that I have rented are dual
layer. This is called RSDL, or Reverse Spiral, Dual Layer. The
first layer is read from the center of the disc out to the perimeter,
in a spiral. Then the laser lens refocuses to read the deeper
layer, which spirals from the outer perimeter back to the center
of the disc (the spiral is reversed, so that the disc can continue
to spin in the same direction, but the lens follows the spiral
back to the center of the disc). Sometimes I can tell when the
lens goes to the second layer, and other times, I have not noticed
it. Even when it is noticeable, it is a very short delay of one
second or less. With the advent of RSDL discs, we can watch even
the longest movies (e.g., "Spartacus") without having
to turn the disc over. Also, I saw one disc that had the widescreen
version on one layer, and the pan & scan version on the second
layer, all on one side of the disc. However, most films seem to
be released now with just the widescreen version and dual layer,
and no pan & scan version. I did see one disc with the movie
on one side, and a featurette on the other. All DVD players, including
the first ones sold last year, can play RSDL.
Q I am one of those dunderheads who purchased a first generation DVD player. Now I am seeing ones with DTS stamped on them. Also, I think mine offers 8 bit video, and am now seeing 10.
Is DTS really a better format, and will
one be able to tell a marked difference between it and DD? Also,
what about the difference between 8
and 10 bit?
It seems impossible to keep up with all the new technology changes these days. I also purchased an Sony ESP-800 Decoder, and then noticed that several had been returned to the store. No one would say why. Am I missing something? Is this not a good decoder? Do you know anything about it?
Last question is, I also purchased a Sony
"Digital Ready Receiver". Will I have to start all over
with new everything for DTS?
A Don't
beat yourself up for being an "Early Adopter". It is
an important group that drives the industry. Yes, we will have
to get new players, but we have been enjoying DVD movies for a
year. Ten bit video will have more dynamic range in the picture
than 8 bit video. It does not affect the audio. Twenty four bit
audio will have more dynamic range than 16 bit. It's the same
principle. I don't know why some of the Sony decoders were being
returned. It could be a problem that affected some units and not
others. If yours is operating fine, don't worry about it. Your
"Digital Ready Receiver" has a set of 5.1 input jacks
on the rear for connecting an outboard decoder. You can use a
separate DD decoder and DTS decoder, since they have pass through
jacks for two decoders, or you can use a combined DD/DTS decoder.
When it says, "Digital Ready", this means that it has
the set of input jacks rather than decoding built-in.
Speaking of DVD players, we have yet another change coming this Fall. There have been some new DVD players announced that will play the discs in progressive scan format. This means that all 480 lines (NTSC TVs call it 525, but actually only 480 are visible) of each frame will be displayed at the same time, rather than interlaced where half the lines are displayed in one field and then the second half of the lines in the next field. These players are being released for Digital Televisions (DTV) which are also going to be sold starting in the Fall. The image from these DVD players on the DTVs will be much better than from the current DVD players on our current NTSC interlaced TVs for several reasons. One is that the signal will be processed by the TV digitally without having to go through conversion to analog. Secondly, the scanning lines of the image will be less noticeable. It will be like a line doubler image, except that all the lines will be actual data rather than computer generated. The good news is that all of our DVD software (movies) are already in the progressive scan format. Current players output the data in the interlaced format since our NTSC TVs will only handle that kind of signal. So, if you get the new player and a DTV, all of your DVD movie collection (and all of the DVD movies for rental that are in the video stores now) will play in progressive scan format.
As to which of the digital formats - DD
and DTS - is superior to the other, it has been difficult to really
tell so far, since DD is in the right analog channel and DTS is
in the digital channels of laserdiscs. Plus, DTS tracks have tended
to be somewhat louder than DD tracks. I think when DTS DVDs are
released, we may be able to get a better handle on this question.
However, even if one is obviously better than the other, it is
not a situation of winner take all and the other disappears. We
are likely to have both formats for quite some time, and most
receivers after the beginning of 1999 will likely have both format
decoding capability built-in. I think this will be a matter of
just getting the movie and enjoying it in whatever format it is
available in, because there is no choice. If we were to see all
DVD movies available in both formats, then it would be worthwhile
to do in depth analyses, but that is not going to happen.
Q First,
I must thank you for the advice I have received from the staff
at SHT&HF. It has been very helpful in upgrading my HT system.
I have
replaced my subwoofer with a Sunfire MKII. Also, I added a Sunfire
Cinema Grand to my Sherwood R945 receiver. What great advice!
Now, I'd like to upgrade my speakers. Currently I have an older
Klipsch HT set (about $1,200 - 4 years ago). I'm planning on spending
$2,000-3,000 for the new ones. My questions are: 1. Is $2,000-3,000
enough for some good sound? 2. You advised getting five of the
exact same speakers for Dolby Digital. However, the THX web site
offered some confusing information. What do you think? see below:
"Will Home THX Dipole Surrounds work with these 5.1 channel digital formats?
Yes. The Dipole Surrounds' design emulates the soundfield of an array of loudspeakers exactly as those found in mixing theatres and movie theatres. In movie theatres, these "surround arrays" provide a big surround sound experience. Because surround placement in the home is limited to a few speakers close to the listener, the THX Dipole Surround is the best way to provide a big surround experience. Sound effects and pans will have correct directional cues, and surround ambiences will be open and enveloping. With the newer "split surround" formats it is even more important that surround cues and pans do not "collapse into a box"."
Lastly, which speakers do you recommend
in my range?
A For
Pro Logic, dipoles work very well. However, with digital surround
(DD and DTS), the sound in the rear is very specific and focussed,
sometimes too much so in fact. I like dipoles, but some consumers
do not. What I have found is that digital surround works best
(for me) with the same speakers in the rear as in the front. For
my listening room, this means direct (monopoles), floorstanding
speakers, not dipoles or bipoles. Because of the way my room is
set up, I can't easily use dipoles in the rear. But even if it
were simple, using dipoles in the rear and direct speakers in
the front would mean a different sound quality between the front
and rear. For a smooth transition of sound effects that move from
front to back or back to front (like a jet flying overhead), having
all the speakers the same is best (in my opinion). Of course,
in most circumstances, the center channel speaker has to be different
than the others, but having those other four speakers identical
really helps. The soundstage will enlarge with dipoles, but it
would probably be best to have dipoles in the front and rear,
rather than just the rear. Digital surround sound has complicated
the whole situation of choosing speakers, but it is really a matter
of sound preferences, budget, and layout of the room. Certainly,
$2,000 - $3,000 will get you some very fine speakers. For mini-monitor
size, the B&W 602s are great. Excellent floorstanding speakers
in your price range include the NHT 2.5i and Platinum Audio Studio
3.
Q I have a Denon 3200 receiver with 5 NHT Superzeroes and a NHT SA1 amplifier connected in parallel to 2 NHT SW1 subwoofers. My question is how do I adjust the subwoofer in DPL vs DD. The 3200 has a speaker balancing mode which can be used to adjust all speakers including the subwoofer in DPL using an internal test tone. The 3200 also has LFE adjustment which you can back off the subwoofer for DD.
Using a SPL meter, I have to set the subwoofer
to -8 using the internal test tones of the 3200 for DPL. Do I
have to also set the LFE adjustment on the receiver to -8dB using
a DVD test disc like Video Essentials or does the DPL setting
of -8dB also affect the LFE setting as well? I had read in another
magazine a while back the setting the subwoofer in DPL would also
set it for DD. However, if this is so then why is there a LFE
adjustment on the 3200? I had a difficult time telling if there
was an interaction between these settings while I was playing
a DVD source. This is very confusing
A As
I understand it, there's an adjustment for the subwoofer output
itself, but the LFE channel is not necessarily a subwoofer channel,
since you could theoretically route it to the main speakers in
the 3200's setup menu if you don't have a subwoofer, or even send
the bass to both the main and subwoofer channels. The LFE channel
adjustment lets you choose how much of the BOOM you want when
you get your CRASH, BOOM, BANG, without simply turning up the
bass which would also affect voices and such. Whether the LFE
channel is actually used this way, or is just a monaural mix of
the bass content of the other five channels, depends on the movie.
I would suggest that you set your subwoofer
level for how you like it with DPL, and then adjust your LFE channel
to taste using some AC-3 material, leaving the subwoofer level
where it is. The LFE channel adjustment can be a neat feature,
since if you've set the subwoofer level and crossover to blend
with fuller-range speakers, you can leave it alone.
Q I
recently finished installing my home theater system. It's composed
of Jamo THX One, Onkyo TX-DS939A/V, Onkyo M504 Amplifier, and
Pioneer DVD player. The system parameters of the Onkyo are confusing,
and the analyzer setup doesn't satisfy me. How do I tune this
system? Do I stick with the analyzer settings or do I manually
set them to my liking?
A The
analyzer is just a starting point. After that, fine tune the system
to your personal preferences. SPL meters are useful for finding
out if one speaker is louder than the other because it is near
a wall, or finding bumps and dips at various frequencies that
you can adjust with an equalizer, but after that, your own tastes
always take priority.
Q I am planning to upgrade to DD & DVD and have 2 questions if you please --
Current system includes:
Sony TA-E1000ESD preamp/Dolby Pro Logic
(2) Rotel RB-850 power amp (subwoofer & surround-both are
mono-blocked)
Parasound HCA-800II (Left/Right)
Adcom GFA-535 (center channel-monoblock)
Velodyne VA 1012
Philips CDV487 (laserdisc/CD)
Sony 32XBR-10
(1) What are the pros and cons of buying an LD/DVD combo player vs. just a DVD player to add to my system?
(2) What are the pros and cons of adding an outboard DD processor vs. buying a receiver with built-in DD and using my current amps? (I guess I'll need to buy 2 more power amps so I can use all in monoblock mode.)
A Laserdiscs
seem to be going the way of the Dodo long before anyone thought.
The local video store where I rent says that in the last month,
DVD rentals have finally surpassed laserdisc rentals. They get
about 10 new DVDs each week, compared to just 5 laserdiscs. One
national chain says they will not be purchasing any laserdiscs
for sale after the end of 1998. However, there is a tremendous
library of laserdiscs out there if you have access to a video
store that has the library and rents them. Since you already have
a laserdisc player, I would suggest getting a dedicated DVD player,
and one that has DTS capability.
There are three main advantages of having
digital surround decoding built-in rather than as outboard. One
is convenience. You only have to power up one box. Secondly, the
DSP soundfields of the receiver will usually apply to digital
surround too, since digital surround is part of the receiver's
circuitry. Third, there will be less hum and noise with the one
box solution, since interconnects have to be used with outboard
processors, and there is always the chance of having a ground
loop. The disadvantages of one box solutions are that they will
be less flexible in terms of adding new technologies, and the
built-in power amplifiers are usually not on a par with outboard
power amplifiers. During the last year or so, we have been very
pro on the outboard option. However, now that DD and DTS will
be standard features of new receivers towards the end of this
year and beginning of 1999, plus the fact that some of the manufacturers
are finally getting the message about our desire for massive power
built-in, I think we are going to find some one box components
that are really excellent.