It is typical to have all 2ch Dolby Digital signals 'spread around' by ProLogicII processing. As far as I can tell, there is no simple way of doing this _automatically_ with the 950.

From what I can tell, you can setup the 950 to either (1) force to a specific input protocol (PCM,Dolby-AC3,DTS) or (2) let is automatically sniff the bitstream and figure out which one.

Of course, I expect like nearly everyone else, I have to set the digital input to 'auto' since the material I send from my DVD player varies from PCM to DD to DTS.

The problem of course is that DD 2ch material cannot be 'upgraded' to 5ch surround material. I have to walk over and manually change the setting. Is there any way to do this automatically, any sort of software upgrade?

I strongly recommend reading here to understand better the very common problem I am facing, and a competitive solution I am hoping you can clone (the Anthem is rather expensive!)

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_10_3/anthem-avm20-v210-august-2003.html

Help?

-Reardon

Use the remote?

Hah... nice try.

My point is, I want to start a movie and sit back... I don't want to have to setup my system each time a play a movie.

Worse, my equipment is all out of sight, and I use IR/RF repeaters to control everything. So I can't even see what the current mode is at any point in time.

Again, what I am asking for is I think rather common: don't make me the user have to setup my system each time I use it. Remember, this is supposed to be home _theater_, we are supposed to enjoy the experience of the films, not the equipment.

-Reardon

Well, you said you had to get up each time to adjust the 950. The remote at least would save you the trip.

However, the answer to your question is no, unfortunately, not with the 950. That's a great feature on the Anthem, but it's also one of the reasons why the Anthem costs so much more.

[This message has been edited by boblinds (edited August 07, 2003).]

The 950 does have some input-specific memory of the surround modes used previously, although it's not always the most intuitive. For example, my DVD input automatically goes back to DD+CRC for Dolby 5.1 mixes and PLIIC-CR for two-channel mixes (either PCM or Dolby 2.0). I have an auxiliary input set to the same digital input that I use for stereo CD playback so that I never need to cycle between the PLII setting and regular stereo. If I did not do that, I would run into the scenario Reardon describes of having to go back and forth between stereo and PLII at times. I do like the system that the new AVM-20 software allows -- it's a pretty slick approach to providing that flexibility.

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