Why is Theater Compensation a global setting?

Seems to me that Theater Compensation should be a setting for individual inputs, rather than a global system setting. If I set it on for watching DVDs, then pop in a CD, it's still on, and I have to wade through the menus to turn it off. I should be able to set it ON for DVDs, but OFF for music, tv, etc. At the very least, having a button on the remote that can turn it on and off would be very useful so I could flip it on and off at will, and program my MX-500 to handle it.

Perhaps this could be addressed with a firmware update? Of is there a button already to do it that I missed?

Mark

Theater Compensation, also known as Cinema EQ, comes into play only when decoding Dolby Digital sound tracks. T. Comp., DRC (Dynamic Range Control), and Dial Norm (Dialog Normalization) are all done in the DD decoder and the settings have no effect on other audio formats.

Excellent! Thanks, Cliff.

Mark

So Cliff, it is not applicable for DTS soundtracks?

Yes it is applicable for DTS movie soundtracks, but DRC and Dial Norm are not.

Thanks Cliff, I guess I need to read up on all the different modes. I always just watched DVD's with no added enhancements or corrections. Guess it's best to experiment and see for one's self their preferred method. But I guess even that could vary from DVD to DVD, depending on how it was mastered.

Cliff, I tried Theater Comp. while playing a CD with optical input selected, and "bypass" mode selected, and then went to the system config menu and flipped back and forth between Theater Comp. ON and OFF, and turning it definitely does cut highs. The same effect is seen when "stereo" mode is selected. And, bizarrely enough, the same effect is seen when I choose the analog input for the CD input! The only place I could tell where it did not have an effect was in the 7.1 inputs. So it appears to function on digital signals that are not dolby digital or dts, or even analog signals, but for the 7.1 inputs. I take it this is NOT the way it's supposed to be, right?

Can anyone else confirm this behavior or am I just imagining I hear this effect?

Mark

Mark,

How did you get to the system menu system while in "bypass mode"? Bypass should turn off the DSP including any tone controls and the video circuits.

Unless your home theater room is overly bright you should not need to use the T. Comp anyway.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but, I have an S-video from the monitor out to the TV. Then I press the "stereo" button on the remote to toggle between "stereo", "bypass", "upsample", and "5 channel stereo". I set it to "bypass", and on the front panel, it shows "CD" and "OPT1" and "digital". Now, if I hit the "menu" button on the remote, the OSD shows up just fine. In fact, the CD players setup OSD can also be shown (if I had switched from DVD to CD so that the last active video input was from the player, e.g., if I had had it on TV then switched to CD, the TV video would still be on the screen). So I go to the system config menu and toggle between Theater comp on and off and hear the effect.

That reminds me of another peculiarity. I have the default for CD input now set to bypass. If I switch from another input to CD, it should be in bypass, right. And if I hit the "stereo" button, the front panel shows "bypass". If I hit that button any time after that it goes to the next mode, which is "upsample". That gets me wondering if it's actually defaulting to the setting before "bypass" which is "stereo". In other words, does the button display the current mode the first time you hit it in any input, and only thereafter switch to the next mode, or does it always switch to the next mode. There's no way to confirm which mode it is in, unless perhaps going to the config input menu section and seeing what's set there at any particular time.

I hope these questions are not ridiculous, but the manual doesn't really address these details.

Mark

I asked Scott about this today, and he will be checking where in the signal chain the Theater Comp. is applied. I'll post again once he lets me know.

Mark

There is a chance I may be trying a "phantom" center with my next set of mains, and wanted to know how the 990 reacted when it got a DD signal, and sensed no center channel connected. Will it default to applying DRC in this case, and if so is there a way to force the 990 to not use DRC? Not sure if this is exactly what Grok was asking many moons ago, but if more was learned on how DRC and Theater Comp in with the 990 maybe this came up.