Hi all,

Newbie here.

I have a 990 to which was previously connected an Oppo OPDV971H DVD player. I've replaced it (the Oppo) with a Panasonic DMP-BDT310. I know that the 990 can't leverage the high quality audio out of HDMI (but my 978 can/will, any day now, ha ha ha ha ha )

I the meantime I have the optical output I can use and would like to know what settings for the 990 I should try to use - will it automatically sync to the best quality or do I need to guide it?

I've got 5 channels (FL,C,FR,RL,RR) to work with as far as speakers go.

The stated audio decoders on this machine are:
DTS-HD Master Audio Essential,
Dolby TrueHD,
Dolby Digital Plus,
DTS-HD High Resolution

I don't recognize any of them as options on my 990.

I saw on AVSforums.com this review stated:

The Sound menu has options for Dynamic Range Compression; PCM Down Conversion for 96kHz audio material; Downmix allows you to choose how you would like multi-channel audio to be dealt with as stereo - either as straight stereo or surround encoded and there's an option for setting Audio Delay. We also have 7.1ch Audio Reformatting which will scale 6.1, and below, surround encoded audio up to 7.1 when set at auto. Under the Digital Audio Output area you can choose to send your Dolby/DTS/MPEG audio sent Bitstream or PCM - Note: setting BD-Video Secondary audio to 'On' and sending your HD audio bitstreamed will result in them being sent as plain old Dolby Digital and DTS.

What to do? Any advise anyone could offer would be appreciated.

Thanks & regards,

Andrew

Plug it in and set the 990 to PCM or bitstream and then play with the Disc player to decide how you like it. You can swap the 990 between PCM and Bitstream as needed for your best sound. The 990 will take the digital audio input and convert it to the audio soundfield you have chosen as the default for that device.

Well, the bad news is the 990 won't support any of the high res sound formats you listed. But then, neither will the optical link in either bitstream or PCM.

So I would suggest putting the Panasonic in Bitstream, change the Downmix to 5.1 and put the 990 in Dolby Digital mode. If it's like my Panasonic this should put everything in Dolby Digital 5.1 format. (Note: DTS would require the 990 to decode DTS)

Otherwise try PCM (which is 2-channel output) with the 990 in PL II Movie mode (Pro Logic 2).

I believe the 990, like my 970, will automatically try to match it's setting to the input so once you get the Panny set up the 990 should just work.

Be ready for MAJOR improvment when you get HDMI support and can get full high def sound. For now you're stuck with plain old Dolby Digital or DTS. (Although the 990 could matrix up to 7.1 using PL IIx.)

Many BD players have really dreadful setup menus. Panasonic may not be the worst, but they're not the best, either. (OPPO probably deserves that honor, as they have clearly-defined and separate HDMI audio and digital audio outputs.) There are two settings involved for audio, and ideally they should be separate. That may or may not be the case.

First, there is HDMI audio output. This output supports the different modes you mention (DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution) as well as multichannel PCM. The internal decoders offered by this player allow it to decode those formats to multichannel PCM and output via HDMI. If you enable secondary audio, you are asking the player to mix two audio streams - the primary one and the possible secondary one. Many players can't decode the lossless formats and mix two streams, so they pull out the lossy core track (Dolby Digital or DTS) and use that instead. If the player can decode lossless and mix a secondary stream, however, setting the HDMI output to bitstream would force it to then re-encode, and that will always happen with a lossy bitstream. If you start using HDMI audio output, I'd recommend leaving secondary audio set to "off" unless you really need it for something. When setting secondary audio to "on", you should probably also set HDMI output to PCM so you don't ask it to re-encode (assuming the player even allows the combination of secondary audio and bitstream output). The only time I can recall that I've needed to have it on was when I was going through the bonus features on The Pacific mini-series discs.

Second, there is optical and/or coaxial digital output. This can only support Dolby Digital, DTS, or stereo PCM. In this case, you don't really care about the lossless decoders. This is the output you are using, so it's the one you care about. You want to get the lossy core tracks (the highest resolution format you can use with optical and coaxial outputs without manipulation). If in doubt, I'd suggest picking bitstream everywhere it is available. The Model 990 will recognize Dolby Digital or DTS and behave appropriately.

THANKS for all the helpful responses!