I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be able to recieve movies in Dolby EX or D when watching a movie on HBO, or some other movie channel.

Take Matrix 2 for example.

With digital cable, should the 950 detect 5.1 or 6.1? Or do I have to use Neo?



[This message has been edited by Innovator (edited November 25, 2003).]

Does your cable box have a digital out? If so be sure it is supported by your cable box and the 950 see's it correctly. If not, then you will likely not be able to get any EX or DD.

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Stott

If you have a digital audio connection in place and in use, you will get a Dolby signal. I suspect that it will only be a 5.1 signal -- and even if it does have EX matrixing included, there may not be a flag identifying it in the stream. However, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from enabling EX or Cirrus Extra Surround with any signal to get surround back data (I use CES almost any time I'm in surround mode, including Pro Logic II with regular TV watching).

NEO6 will not work with a 5.1 signal -- it (like Pro Logic II) can only be used with a two-channel input.

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

How do you enable EX if it doesn't register as an available selection?

[This message has been edited by Innovator (edited November 25, 2003).]

There doesn't have to be a flag for EX for you to turn it on. You should be able to push the DD button on the remote to cycle through the Dolby modes -- including EX if the 950 is receiving a 5.1 digital signal. (EX will not be listed if the track is 2.0, because the EX processing requires discrete surround channels to operate.)

If you have the digital cable box connected to the 950 using a digital audio cable but still can't see EX as an option, change inputs and switch back to cable and see what the 950's display says when it re-acquires the signal. Odds are that it will say "DOLBY D" in the top right corner and "2.0" in the bottom right, indicating that the program has a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack attached to it. In that case, your best bet is probably to switch to Pro Logic II and enable CES -- this will take the 2.0 signal, produce a 5.1 signal, and then extract a surround back signal from the surrounds to get you to 6.1. You can also use Neo6 to create a 6.1 signal from a stereo input; most people seem to prefer Pro Logic II over Neo6, but you can certainly experiment with it a bit. As I mentioned, I use PL2 and CES with all of my TV watching.

All of this is dependent on a digital audio connection, as stott pointed out above. If you are using analog audio cables, you can't use Dolby Digital processing at all (EX or otherwise).

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

While I don't have a 950, I do have TW Digital Cable with a SA HD3100 Hi-Def decoder I feed the digital output from it to my Outlaw 1050 which is set in 6.1 mode. On movies that I believe are EX, the 1050's display shows dolby digital surround and the rear surround light stays on. When the movies change the rear surround drops off. Consequently, I believe my 1050 is properly getting and receiving the EX flag.

If the 1050 is able to detect the EX flag, I have to believe the 950 is capable as well.

Duh!

I was using the analog out. I switched to the digital coaxial out, and I recieve Dolby D, Ex and all the others surrounds from my cable now :-)

Thanx guys!