Surround Sound Question
Pepperoni Man
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Hi All
Just purchased a Pioneer Surround Sound system. Nothing great and mainly want to improve the sound of the TV for normal viewing but also want to watch a few films with surround sound
A couple of questions that I hope you good people may be able to answer
In the settings for surround sound I have available
Off
Virtual 3D (min, mid or max)
Extra Power Mode
5 Speaker Mode
Dolby ProLogic II Movie
Doby PLII Music
Front Surround Mode
While it's easy to work out what some of these categories are and the guidance manual helps I'm not sure what to set the thing to when watching a film on DVD with the sound track labelled 5.1
The other question I have is that I have noticed on the Sky EPG some films are labelled as being shown in DD which I assume to be Dolby Digital? Again I'm not sure whether
A) I can receive DD on my HD Box and surround set up and
What of the above settings I should use assuming I can
Thanks
Just purchased a Pioneer Surround Sound system. Nothing great and mainly want to improve the sound of the TV for normal viewing but also want to watch a few films with surround sound
A couple of questions that I hope you good people may be able to answer
In the settings for surround sound I have available
Off
Virtual 3D (min, mid or max)
Extra Power Mode
5 Speaker Mode
Dolby ProLogic II Movie
Doby PLII Music
Front Surround Mode
While it's easy to work out what some of these categories are and the guidance manual helps I'm not sure what to set the thing to when watching a film on DVD with the sound track labelled 5.1
The other question I have is that I have noticed on the Sky EPG some films are labelled as being shown in DD which I assume to be Dolby Digital? Again I'm not sure whether
A) I can receive DD on my HD Box and surround set up and
What of the above settings I should use assuming I can
Thanks
0
Comments
My amp has a 6 channel surround setting and it sounds great with cd's.
PL2 Movie and Music are options for creating surround sound from non 5.1 sources although if the amp is set to either of these it should auto switch over to 5.1 if a 5.1 source is played.
Trial and error a bit I think.
Sky HD supplies its 5.1 tracks via digital optical only .
The main problem with all in one systems is that they often lack the range of inputs that you get with separates.
If your Pioneer has an optical input connect the Sky+ box using that connection and set the Sky box to DD.
If it doesn't then you won't get 5.1 from Sky.
You'll need to connect using another connection ( HDMI if the Pioneer has one) and then you'll get standard PL2 surround .
The manual will likely explain the other settings but Extra Power mode will likely boost the bass but don't do that if you have neighbours.
Also worth checking if the Pioneer accepts DTS sound.
Panasonic all in ones won't accept DTS sound from external devices so with a DTS track you get only PL2 instead of full surround - inconvenient if you have Bluray as most are DTS.
5 Speaker Mode creates the same sound from all 5 speakers - with the exception of the sub so I don't think that's the one to go for
Thanks for the tip about Sky!!
DD on Sky can mean anything from DD2.0 to DD5.1, this can be output over optical/coaxial/HDMI, the later connection only being on certain HD boxes with appropriate software update.
Try a DVD/Bluray or flick through some HD channels on Sky to test.
I would be surprised if it didn't support Dolby on the HDMI ins. But seems it might be a case of suck it and see.
pro logic is 2 channel to 5 speaker conversion. which will give you surround sound from 2 channel analogue audio i.. but you really want the 5.1 version if available, from the digital input (optical or coax). i would have thought "5 speaker" but it seems not ........
..... i think most Freeview hd channels are only 2.0 sound anyway due to bandwidth restrictions. in which case there is nothing to feed into the digital input. your best bet - as suggested above - is experiment with a dvd or bluray player and film dvd which will have a 5.1 soundtrack ......
if you are using analogue audio 2.0 then this is still surround sound but you will need pro logic mode. many people seem to think this is stereo sound only with "faked" surround but its actually phase encoded full surround sound.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/ultimate-surround-sound-guide-different-formats-explained/
spiney2 will of course argue differently.
ProLogic can however take a simple two channel mix and recreate a fairly convincing surround effect.
If the original source was a true multichannel surround mix encoded down to two channels then the surround effect it recreates is very much more convincing and very close to a true discreet surround mix (ie one with 6 or more separate channels)
Thanks Deacon - Experimented and yes that audio button seemed to do the job. On the film I was watching it switched from 5.1 in English to an alternative of stereo in Spanish! . Seems the options I listed are alternatives to the default setting that you mentioned as well.
The Sky bit is still confusing me - the HD box is connected to the telly by HDMI but not connected to the Pioneer unit
Thanks all for your contributions!
Sky box needs to be connected to the Pioneer unit.......
Leaving the HDMI cable in place you could just connect an optical cable between the two, then enable Dolby Digital in the Sound menu on the Sky box - alternatively you can connect the Sky box to the Pioneer unit via a single HDMI cable (providing you have a compatible box) and let the sound system do the switching, you still need to enable Dolby Digital on the Sky box.