Hi Guys,

I'm thinking of buying a new AV with HDMI inputs in order to take advantage of the HDR's surround sound DD5.1 capabilities with HD TV programmes. Could anyone with these facilities already be kind enough to give me a quick breakdown of which HD programmes/channels transmit in DD5.1, as I gather not all programmes do (and there is no info in the schedules about this as far as I can see). For instance do most films in HD also transmit in DD5.1, and what about dramas and documentaries etc? Am aware of music programmes such as Jools 'Later' programme being in DD5.1, as that was the subject of much debate on this forum and others about the sound clipping problem, which I understand has now been overcome with the latest software download?

Any comments much appreciated, thanks.

Freeview uses AAC 5.1 surround not ac3. Some boxes will re-encode to DD5.1. A newer amp may well support aac directly. ITV-HD currently only transmit stereo sound, the other HD channels are a mix of stereo and 5.1. The stereo tracks generally have prologic 11 surround sound.

The HDR Fox T2 will do the mapping to dolby digital 5.1 and your LF light comes on, on your surround sound processor. Having all three alternatives, sat, virgin and now the Humax I'm not too sure whether the Humax sound is that good instead of the rest. This has been said elsewhere in relation to the latest software update. It's horses for courses if you are in a cable area and can afford Virgin then you probably have the best option for quality but less choice over Sky. The Humax has it's attractions of the Humax portal with the Iplayer and the internet radio. I replaced my old Pace twin with the Humax since I keep the sound stream seperate for radio, like the internet radio on it, and the iplayer gives you a bit more than the Virgin one which sometimes doesn't have all BBC programmes on it. The radio player is on the Humax which isn't on Virgin.

Thus I suspect for real TV audio quality at this point you wouldn't select the Humax over other options especially with the transcoding for DD5.1 and the negative reports of the TV sound with the latest release of the software, elsewhere it's fine.