I was in the first batch of owners for the 990 and have enjoyed it tremendously. But I have been dogged with a problem that I cannot figure out. DTS works with my Sony NS975 DVD player without a hitch. It does not work when I connect an Apple Computer. I have tried several including a Powerbook G4, An Intel MAC Mini, and a brand new Intel iMAC. Here is the rub, my 950 can detect the DTS when I connect any of the aforementioned Apple products. I have talked (a long time ago) to Scott about this problem and he could not offer any specific help. So my question to you all, is, has anyone experienced this problem?

Hi aeroguy,
a very interesting problem...
I had a similar situation with my pc at first....
there were so many places to check...
the dvd player used...and it's decoding capabilities...
the audio settings...from audio or video cards plus others...
is the player on your mac DTS compatible ?
Do you get Dolby Digital ?
not 2.0 but the sought after 3.2.1
is your Mac down-mixing into two channel ?
(setting my pc to ''passthrough'' all audio fixed my problem)...
please let us know how your situation evolves...
I'm curious....

Hi Laventura - Been to Montreal, nice city.

The DVD player is a standard OEM Pioneer product stuffed inside the Apple. As I mentioned I have enabled all the bells and whistles on the MACs in both the audio and DVD preferences. I am getting digital out and the 990 responds to all Dolby Digital Modes including EX.

The 990 shows "no input" from a DTS source such as Pearl Harbor or Lord of the Rings when DTS is selected. My 950 does show DTS when I connect it to the MACs.

I suspect one of two things. (1) a basic incompatibility between the MAC and the 990. There are no guarantees offered by either the Outlaws or Apple about this and, for my part, this is fine. (2) there is something wrong with the 990 I own.

The only ways that I can verify which theory works is to either talk to someone else who has tried a MAC with a 990 or buy another 990 to satisfy my own curiosity.

I'm trying the cheaper route first.

BTW the MAC running Virtual PC was able to do the firmware updates for the bass management without a hitch.

If DTS works with your Sony player, then the 990 should work with any digital source that provides a DTS bitstream. The Macs theoretically should not be doing anything to the DTS bitstream, so compatibility shouldn't be an issue. However, what you describe is eerily reminiscent of what happens when a DVD player is connected to the 990 (or any surround processor) and a DTS track is played when the DVD player's DTS output is set to "PCM" instead of "bitstream" (sometimes called "raw" as well). This happens in those cases because the player refuses to output the raw DTS bitstream and instead attempts to decode the DTS to PCM stereo - which is typically a complete failure, since a significant number of DVD players do not include DTS decoders and end up outputting absolutely nothing.

Check your settings in the Mac and look for a way to output DTS as a raw bitstream (might also be called "bypass" in this case, I suppose, but I've done very little with Macs and certainly never tried watching a DVD with DTS).

oye...
the fact you get DTS from your MAC through your 950...sure turns the guilty shadow on the 990...
maybe there's some obscur setting we're forgetting...
or some kind of defect....
but if you get DTS from an outboard dvd player
and Dolby Digital EX from your MAC...
the cheaper route may be
you should just stick to watching DTS movies from a DVD player...
I wish I could be more helpful...

Thanks gonk and laventura - not sure if this has really helped or not, as I stated, the 950 properly detects the DTS and outputs the appropriate signals from the MAC(s). Its the 990 that seems not to recognize the source material. I did read all of the earlier posts on this about the bitstream issues, and I plan to go back over everything after an upcoming move to sunny California.

What I really need is another MAC user out there that is co habitating with a 990 that just happens to have a DVD with a DTS soundtrack. I really can't believe that I'm the only one.....

I'll probably be getting a Mac eventually to replace my existing PC, but it'll be another year or so - not likely to do you much good, I'm afraid. Maybe there's another Mac user around who can chime in, though.

gonk - you will enjoy a MAC

I have reviewed the discussion site over at apple.com by selecting iMAC, and then typing in DTS to the search engine (very nice feature I might add). It would seem that by the experiences of other iMAC owners they are getting DTS output from their MACs. The trick is to set the preferences in the DVD Player to digital output (which I have done).

Being an engineer by profession, if gonk is anything like me he probably likes all those extra mouse buttons. :rolleyes:

Maybe I'll take a look at mom's iBook tonight and see if it even has an optical output and a DVD drive. If it has both, I might try to borrow it and hook it up to the 990's front optical input.
- Oh, I'll be hanging onto a Logitech for my mouse needs when the time comes, and I'll be dual-booting Windows (probably XP) so I can still run AutoCAD at home.

Stick with XP. Vista is a pain!!!

BobZoom - Mac has graduated to a two button mouse and a scroll wheel. Life is good!

aeroguy

Here is a great article about the Apple TV, DTS, Dolby Digital and the Mac.

It seems it all depends on how the source file is encoded. iTunes does not support 5.1 because it does not have a 5.1 decoder. However, WAV files imported into iTunes can be played through Apple TV and decoded through the Outlaw's decoders.

The article is located at http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/147048D8-D8B7-45E7-9A97-3CD5B4C2B75A.html

The sample Dolby and DTS WAV files are at:
http://www.diatonis.com/downloads_dts_ac3.html

I listened to these files and on both occasions the appropriate DTS/Dolbt Digital indicators on my Outlaw 990 lit up.

The 8 minute demos are about 60MB, so imagine a full length movie would add at least 1 GB to the size.

Hope this helps. I am assuming that Apple is taking small steps in creating a true, easy to use Digital Hub and that future improvements to the Apple TV will be made by software upgrades.

Has there ever been a resolution to this issue? It looks like I'll be calling to chat with tech support next week, as I'm having the same issue with my Mac computers and the 990.

My Mac Mini had been connected via optical cable to my Onkyo TX-SR600 (circa 2002). When playing DTS encoded DVDs, I could select the appropriate digital output settings in the DVD player app, and the Onkyo detected DTS immediately without issue. However, the 990 can't detect DTS from the Mac.

Just to further complicate matters, the 990 has no problem detecting DTS from my Sony DVD player... only the Mac.

So the 990 and Mac just don't play nice together.

Has anyone at Outlaw attempted to duplicate this in-house? I'd consider sending a Mac Mini up there for them to test with if there's a chance they can resolve the issue with a firmware update.

- Jason

Have you tried different inputs on the 990? DTS flat out doesn't work with my Coax 1 digital input. I've tried three different sources and DTS worked when connected to the Coax 2 input but not Coax 1 (DD works fine thru both inputs).

--Chuck

cvinfig wrote:

Have you tried different inputs on the 990? DTS flat out doesn't work with my Coax 1 digital input

I run a dts signal thru COAX 1. It works fine, as does COAX 2. It is clearly NOT a D-D signal.
HTH