being that you are the undisputed champ of research and have much more extensive knowledge of dvd players than i do, i wondered if you might help.

if you take the analog SW output of the player directly to a sub, and, of course you have a digital connection from the player to the pre-pro, when you play a movie...where does the LFE signal go?

1. does it go out the analog output?
2. does it go out the digital output?
3. does it go out both outputs at the same time?
4. whatever the answer is, is it the same for every player?

also, is there a way to output a 5.1 DTS-CD through the player's analog outputs?

I'm not sure how I missed this post from a couple days ago, but I certainly did... oops...

So we are using the analog subwoofer output from the DVD player (connected directly to the subwoofer) and the digital audio output from the DVD player (connected to a receiver or pre/pro). Since there is an analog subwoofer output available on the player, then it must have at least an onboard Dolby Digital decoder (possible DD and DTS decoders if it's a somewhat newer player -- my Panasonic RA60 has both onboard, and I think most or all players in production today that have onboard DD decoders handle DTS as well). From what I've seen, unless you disable something in the player's setup, all of the available signal paths are active at once: the stereo analog outputs, the digital audio output(s), and the 5.1 analog outputs. The only case I can think of where this wouldn't be true is some players that ship with the DTS digital output disabled (including both of my Pannys).

So if we have all of the outputs active, then the LFE signal would be in the digital output and the analog output. The analog LFE out would also be carrying any redirected bass from other channels, assuming the player's DD/DTS decoder includes bass management (which they seem to all do, by way of large/small speaker settings and a fixed crossover that is probably set to 80Hz but I suppose could be 100Hz on some players) and you had configured it with any speakers set to small. This should hold true for any player with an onboard decoder, as far as I know.

I don't have any DTS CD's to experiment with, but if the player has a DTS decoder I would hope that the player would recognize the signal from a 5.1 DTS CD and automatically run it through the DTS decoder while also providing the digital audio output. Obviously, if there's no DTS decoder, we're out of luck.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

thanx for the info, sir.

my player decodes a dts movie soundtrack and outputs it through the analog outs, but just a loud hiss with dts-cd. i have, on and off, wondered if anyone else noticed this, or if there is something to reconfigure in the player's menu. BTW, sting's 'brand new day' (DTS-CD) is a disc worth having if you decide to experiment.

is there a way to configure the 950 so that only redirecetd bass is routed to the SW out, with no LFE, in digital mode? i think it's not possible, but your seconding that would stop me wondering.

again...thanx for your help.

Seconded. The only way I can think of for the subwoofer to get redirected bass only is for the source track to have no .1 LFE track present.

I'm a little bit surprised that your player's DTS decoder doesn't work with DTS-CD's. It sounds like the player was designed with a sort of hardwired "format lock" for CD playback (like the 950's ability to lock an input to a single processing mode, only without the whole "optional" aspect)...

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review