Wasn't sure where to post this but...I buy most of my cds off of ebay. Is there any way to tell if a SACD is only in stereo versus multi-channel? Also, I have a cd made by Silverline. The title is "E-Klek-Trik" by David Diggs. The case and the cd itself says it is a dvd video/audio. On the back of the case it says "Supports DVD-Audio, Dolby digital and DTS formats". I'm not sure I understand what supports means here. There is no menu that allows you to pick from different formats.

I have a Pioneer DV-578A player and a 990. I can only get it to play via the 7.1 connection.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

With SACD's, the case will provide all that you need to know. The logo standards are actually fairly clear and companies have been good about following them as far as I can tell. If it is multichannel it will say so explicitly. Without having the disc in hand, though, it can be tough.

The DVD-A disc sounds a bit odd. I'd try using the player's Audio button to switch between audio tracks, but if you can't get any digital audio output then it either doesn't have DD and DTS or the Pioneer is seeing a DVD-A track and ignoring the standard DVD-Video side (where the DD and DTS tracks live). Even then, a DVD-A track should be downmixed to stereo and output via optical/coaxial, so it is a bit curious.

So Gonk you are saying that I should be able to play a dvd-audio with an optical connection? I can't..it will only play thru the 7.1. Also, on one of the menus for DD out you can choose between DD or DD>PCM and DTS out: DTS or DTS>PCM. Does it matter which of these are chosen?

Thanks

You should get something typically - the DVD-A playesr I've had have provided a downmixed stereo signal via digital output.

The player menus for the Pioneer's I've seen are a little different, but the settings there should be "DD" and "DTS" - you don't want PCM, as that will decode and downmix to stereo. The control I was referring to, however, was not part of the player setup menu. The player should have a button on the remote that allows you to change audio tracks on a DVD without using the disc's menus. It is typically labeled "Audio" on the remote. I'd be curious to know what audio tracks the Pioneer indicates are available with that disc.

Gonk...found the button. It shows:

PPCM 96khz24bit 3/2.1 ch And will not allow me to make any changes.

The manual says some dvd-audios will only output thru the analog cables.

It sounds like you've found an unusual disc - and one with a woefully inaccurate case, as clearly there is no DD or DTS data present. If I had to guess, I'd guess that it is either an MLP track (the audio format used on DVD-Audio) and the player has decoded it to multichannel PCM, or it is just an uncompressed audio track of 5.1 PCM (similar to what is provided on many Blu-ray discs). The latter would explain the lack of a menu and the lack of digital output.

on my oppo player I can only access the dd or dts tracks on a DVD-A if my player is set to read as a DVD-V player.many dvd-a discs have a menu that dvd-a players can read, and another menu for dvd-a players.
Maybe you cant reach the menu on the disc with these options because the pioneer reads the disc with dvd-a capabilities.

just found the option in the pioneers manual.
in OPTIONS SETTINGS choose DVD-Video in the DVD PLAYBACK MODE.
I bet you will find your dd and dts tracks.

Jonas

That was it. Thanks alot.

You to Gonk.