Good day all

I have digital cable and it is hook up to my 950 thru a digital coax cable .

I wanted to setup the system to play in dolby digital mode but doing so the 950 plays every tv show in stereo i have to set the system in PLII cinema to have the dialogue go thru the center channel but this problem only occurs while i am watching Tv is this normal??



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Alain Pilon

Alain,

That depends on which cable channel you are watching. Generally only the HD channels have Dolby Digital 5.1 like HBO-HD and maybe ABC-HD if it is on your cable system. At other times the HD channel can be in DD 2.0 and the channels below 100 is analog where the analog audio is converted to stereo PCM for Coax output. The digital channels (480I) between the analog channels and the HD channels will also have stereo PCM audio.

What you are experiencing is very normal, and Cliff's pinned down the problem exactly -- every digital cablel channel I've found is broadcast in stereo -- whether it is in PCM or Dolby Digital. The DD stations (of which there are very few) come through as DD 2.0. Time Warner in my area does not include any digital audio on many analog channels (those below channel 100), and those that are in digital are a mix of DD 2.0 and either 32KHz or 48KHz PCM. Even the HD channels will in many cases only include DD 2.0.

If you want to better determine what is happening, watch the 950's front panel when you switch to a channel. If the digital audio signal's format changes, the 950 re-acquires the lock and briefly displays for new incoming format. The top right corner shows the format (32K PCM, 48K PCM, DOLBY D, DTS, ...) and the bottom right corner shows the channels included in the signal (ie: "2/0.0" for stereo with no LFE or "3/2.1" for 5.1). It's only there for a few seconds.

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