Hi There,
I have an onkyo surround cinema system and a panasonic plasma tv. All works fine through hdmi connections. However,
I have just purchased a foxstat hdr and connected that by hdmi and optical. The question is when I switch everything on and I am on "normal" channels ie bbc1 no problem sound comes out of all speakers , however, when I switch to bbc HD channel the sound only comes out of the front speaker? I have checked all leads but like I say as soon as I switch back to standard bbc 1 its fine . Does anyone have any ideas?
Cheers

What do you mean by the front speaker, 5.1 has three, one right, one left and one centre. What you get depends on whether the audio is DD2.0 or DD5.1. Assuming your amp is set up correctly to get surround sound from a DD2.0 source you need to turn on the prologic 11 surround sound decoder otherwise all you will get is stereo from the left and right front speakers.

Hi Graham,
sorry i didn't explain that very well. Yes I have 3 speakers
at the front and 2 rear, what I meant to say was it only comes out of the centre speaker when on HD , however I will recheck the amp to make sure the prologic is set correctly
Just thought it strange that tha dvd , and normal channels worked no problem
Thanks

Paul

If you are watching something with heavy dialogue and very little surround audio then a true DD5.1 broadcast may well send all (or at least a great majority) of the output through the centre speaker and very little ambient audio through the front and rear left and rights. Whereas a PCM stereo signal may be being decoded by DPL and sending audio to all five speakers in a more balanced fashion - so louder audio is heard through the other four speakers. Doesn't make it right though - if it should only be centre-speaker based dialogue, then it is DPL which is wrongly sending this to all five speakers because a true stereo signal wouldn't touch your centre speaker at all, it would be evenly split over the front left and front right.

DD 2.0 is rare on DVD's. SD channels use a different audio compression system. The sound is compressed using mpeg 1 layer 2 which your hdr decodes to lpcm stereo just like you will get from a CD. If DD2.0 is only coming from your centre channel somethings wrong with your setup.

Hi guys,
Well after going through my manual for the amp I didn't realise all the different settings available. upto now I suppose
I have been lucky as when I swith on the tv or play a dvd its
always been "surrround sound" it was only after getting the humax that I tried HD and found the sound to go quiet and from the front centre speaker only. After playing with a few settings all is well so thankyou all for your help as I wouldn't have thought of looking there. phew modern tech for a silver surfer is VERY demanding lol
Cheers
Paul