[Cantona]

I have bought a new TV today with a surround sound speaker kit.

However, when I have connected it all up, all I get is the two front speakers i.e. left and right, working. The centre, and rear left and right speakers do not have any sound coming out of them.

I have tested the speakers and sound comes out of each one during the test, but when watching tv only two have sound coming out.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

[Jim Rae]

Yes - you haven't got your TV audio set up properly...

You need to go into the audio menu and select Dolby Surround or ProLogic before it will work.

Only DVDs, Stereo Videos or some ProLogic TV programmes will trigger rear speaker or centre responses.

What is the source for your surround sound?

Sorry, it's an instruction job...

[blue73]

Jim Rae is spot on,
Check your setup manual.Though you might not hear anything through you rears or even your front left/right as some program material is still (confusingly) sent out in mono. Crazy yes. though there is light at the end of a very very long tunnel. Sky has said all its movie channels are going to be broadcast in widescreen, Brilliant, but who is in charge of pressin that button in the office to make brand new episodes on discovery or what ever stereo/ surround..

[Milky Joe]

remember also you wont get prologic from an analogue terrestrial system i dont /think/. It has to be from digital tv..

[Orbitalzone]

You should get Dolby Pro Logic from analogue NICAM broadcasts and video recordings of those programmes if recorded on a NICAM Hifi stereo video recorder..the same applies to Sky digital and Freeview channels if the digibox is connected via a scart lead to TV and video and the program is in surround sound.

The TV may have a button that selects either stereo or surround sound, so check the manual as mentioned by Jim.

On some surround sound programmes the surround sound is very slight, so rear speakers may only provide background noise, like a clink of a glass or door opening.

[whitemouse75]

hello, i also need help regarding surround sound...i have my panasonic didgibox connected to a technics amp via the 2 phono plugs, but i cant get pro-logic or any surround on any channel...i can either choose all sound through the centre speaker (pro-logic setting) or through front l + r speakers (stereo setting) its been like this for 3 years, but i remember 8 years ago having perfect surround sound on a differant system, so why am i stepping back in time???

[ajlittle75]

pro logic (surround) sound can be processed from any stereo source as it is encoaded into the left and right channels, there are details here

[RedEarth]

I have a Yamaha Dolby Digital/ProLogic receiver which I bought about 18 months ago as part of a HTIB kit. I am thrilled to bits with it, but having read this thread, I am a little confused.

It has Yamaha's CinemaDSP built-in which has a selection of modes. Some are cinema-oriented and will either process the sound as Dolby Digital (if it detects a DD5.1 bitstream on either of the digital inputs) or Pro-Logic. If I've selected one of these modes for an analogue source (e.g. the TV), it always seems to process it as Pro-Logic, i.e. most speech will come out of the centre speaker, with ambient sound coming from the front and rear speakers, REGARGLESS of whether the source in ProLogic-encoded.

There are also 3 music-oriented modes which use the four corner speakers (not the centre) and the CinemaDSP processor can be disabled completely, in which case only the front left and right speakers are used.

My question is, do other brands of amplifier actually detect ProLogic encoding on the 2-channel source and set the mode automatically? I think I would prefer the way mine works, because the modes using the centre channel always sound much better for TV viewing than those which use only the left and right, although these are better for music (e.g. radio, CDs).

For digital sources, it will process the signal as discrete 5.1 channels if it picks up a DD5.1 bitstream or as prologic for a PCM signal, but only on the Cinema modes. Otherwise it will downmix to 2 channels and then process it as it would for analogue sources (I think).

[ajlittle75]

there is nothing wrong with your set up at all, it sounds as though it is working well and doing everything as it should, it is actually quite similar to the way mine is set up.

[whitemouse75]

redearth, my amp sounds almost exactly the same setup as yours, although my problem is when prologic is set, sound ONLY comes through the centre speaker, so there is no ambient sounds from any other speaker, therefore the "surround" effect is lost..any idea what the problem is, because it works fine from other sources vcr etc, so i assumed it was a sky "quirk" and yes it is set to output stereo on the setup screen!!

[RedEarth]

From my VERY BASIC understanding of ProLogic, I think the reason for only getting sound on the centre channel may be due to the fact that the input signal is mono, I get the same effect when listening to mono TV broadcasts. Does this happen all the time with your Sky box? Try listening to it without pro-logic, i.e. just through 2 stereo speakers (or headphones would be ideal). You should be able to tell whether it is mono or stereo.

[whitemouse75]

hi,
every single channel on sky works just via the centre speaker, although with prologic off, the 2 front speakers work fine, but this doesnt sound right...why dont i have surround!!!! its really bugging me!!

[Deanparkr]

A decent pro Logic decoder or Pro logic 2 decorder will bring 2 channel sound into 4 channel surround sound. Providing either Pro Logic or Pro Loigic 2 is enabled on your amp.

if you have pro logic surround sound but you are getting very little sound from your rear speakers you can do two things

1) Turn up the volume of the rear speakers and turn the volume of the center speaker down (but not by too much) This will create awider sound image. with more rear sound.

2) Upgrade your Amp to pro logic 2. pro Logic 2 sounds very simaller to dolby digital and can delver either 2.0/3.1 sound or 5.1 sound from ANY Stereo source.

Many manufactors like sony include DSP modes such as cinema studio, Virtual Multi Dimension, Surround, if you have these options turn them on with your pro logic (2) setup.

[Roz]

We had the same problem as the original poster just last weekend after buying a home cinema kit... all speakers were working okay until you tried the dts and prologic settings on the thing... after 6 HOURS of fiddling we found out he'd not connected the coaxial cable to the right socket... well worth checking sockets and plugs a few times when things don't go right even if you think they are right.

Now very happy with the sound.

Roz