Hello all,
I've got a few questions regarding digital signal lock between my 950 and a Scientific Atlanta 3250HD set top box. I am currently using a digital coaxial connection to my 950 from the stb. The stb is setup to output "Dolby Digital" in its' settings menu. (I've had it set up to output "Other" (PCM) and with that setting, the best I can get on all channels is 48k PCM with the 950 using PLII-C surround mode. So that's not an option.)
So here's the problem, it takes a while or my 950 to lock onto the digital signal. In addition to that, when I change from a channel that has a "real" DD signal (3/2.1) to a channel that is not a "real" DD signal (two channel only, but apparently tagged as a DD signal) the 950 will not automagically go into PLII-C, but ends up in stereo mode. (When going from one channel that is two channel DD to another, the 950 maintains the surround mode.) So I always have to change the surround mode from Stereo to PLII-C. Kind of a hassle. Anyone else experience this?
I realize that I could fix the lock delay issue by setting up the 950 to default to DD. But the problem is that not all the channels I receive are tagged as DD. Channels 1-99 are normal 48k PCM, and channels 100-whatever are tagged as DD even though they are not all 3/2.1. So If I default the 950 to one or the other, I will not get audio for half of my channels. I wonder if I switch from a digital coax connection to an optical connection it might make a difference with the lock delay. I doubt it. Any ideas?


Thanks in advance,
Scott

i used to have to use digital and analog connections for my hd cable box. analog for low and digital for high channels (high being the actual digital channels and hd channels). the new box i have doesnt require that connection, but on the non digital channels the audio is way better via analog. perhaps that could solve your dilema...

For this sort of device, you will definitely need to leave the 950 in auto-detect. The HD channels and many of the higher tier digital channels use Dolby Digital (although as you have noticed many of them use DD 2.0 rather than 3/2.1), but the analog channels do not carry a digital audio signal at all. In these cases, the box creates a PCM digital audio signal, making it impossible to lock the 950 in one mode. The drawback to auto-detect, as you've encountered, is that whenever you move from a PCM channel to a DD channel the 950 will have to re-acquire the signal, with the resulting audio delay. As you guessed, using optical instead of coaxial will make no difference whatsoever - the digital signal is the same, even if the method of delivering it changes somewhat. Because of this delay (and the associated irritation it causes with my wife), we normally leave the 950 on analog inputs unless I'm watching something I want to use the digital audio for.

When we do use the digital signal, however, I have had no problem with the 950 remembering that I use Pro Logic II with CES-Cinema on all two channel sources. Set the 950 to auto-detect and use the digital input. For each mode you might encounter (DD 5.1, DD 2.0, PCM), set the 950 to the surround processing you are interested in. The 950 should remember these unless you change them.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm thinking I might try a system reset as my 950 is definitely not remembering that I last listened to a DD 2.0 signal in PLII-C and always goes back to stereo mode when switching from a DD 3/2.1 encoded channel. Bummer. If the system reset doesn't do it, then I guess it's off to tech support.

Thanks again for the input and I'll be sure to post my results.

Later,
Scott (Still a VERY happy 950 owner.)