Anomolies...or am I insane?

So I'm on my third 950 now, and I'm still trying to believe, want to believe. Maybe you guys can tell me if I'm loosing my mind. So I have the 950's V1 input (sat) set to optical 1 with a DTS neo6 default, which sounds great. Some HBO programs are broadcast in DD, which is also great, but here's the twist. When the 950 detects a DD signal on satellite the display indicates Dolby D with 2/0 underneath (indicating stereo I believe). I will then get a true stereo signal from the L/R mains.

When I then use the menu, or the Dolby button on the bottom of the remote, to select DPLII I get the 3/2.1 indicator underneath DPLII indicating a DD signal (I believe) and I get what sounds like DD with sound from all channels.

All connections are correct and I have DD enabled in the satellite receiver settings.

I really enjoy the sound and features of this unit, but I am baffeled by the quirky behavior here (I still can't get colume punch through to work on the remote). Any help would be greatly appreciated.....particularly if I'm just misunderstanding something or screwing something up. Thanks.

Using your optical connection you cannot use DPLII on a 3/2.1 signal. DPLII only works on 2.0 signals. My 950 has a coax digital cable plus stereo analog cables connected. This is because I find the dialog too indistinct on many 3/2.1 TV programs as well as some DVDs. When I feel the need I press a button on my MX-500 remote and switch over to DPLII-M on the stereo cables. This may be blasphemy to some but I know what sounds best to me and that's all that counts.

aej - Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are saying but that sounds correct to me. A lot (most?) of the DD on cable and satellite is only two channel. Selecting DPLII just extracts the extra channels from the stereo signal. So what you say sounds correct to me unless I'm missing something obvious.

Dolby Digital allows any number of channels to be used. As obie points out, most cable broadcasts and many satellite broadcasts use Dolby 2.0 -- which is just "stereo" with a new name. Pro Logic II can give a very convincing "near DD" effect, particularly with Pro-Logic encoded tracks (such as the DD 2.0 tracks you are getting on HBO). I've never noticed the second line of display when turning PLII on (I generally leave it on for the cable input), but it sounds like the 950 is telling you the truth -- it is using PLII decoding to create a 3/2.1 (or 5.1) signal from the DD 2.0 source. After a could of seconds, it should quickly settle back to:

VIDEO2 DPLII-C
OPTICAL1 -10

That means that the source is now being decoded with Pro Logic II (it's still a DD 2.0 source, but the 950's telling you what processing it is using rather than what the original signal is); it will continue to use PLII on this source until you change it to something else or the input signal changes to a DD 5.1 signal (which PLII can't work with, as Garrett points out).

The volume punch-through confused me a little at first, too (in fact, I initially learned the volume commands to each device using my old 1050's remote). You have to set punch-through on each device that wants to use it. Unlike some universal remotes that have a single "on/off" sort of function for punch through, the 950's remote allows you to enable punch through only on the devices that you need it for. Side effect: if you want it for all of them, you have to turn it on for each of the seven other devices. So to enable punch through on the SAT device, press "SAT" and "MUTE" together, then press "VOLUME UP", then press the "AUD" button to assign the volume up/down and mute buttons from the "AUD" (950) to the "SAT" device. Repeat for the other device buttons in place of the "SAT" button.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

I think you guys cleared up the issue for me. I believe either HBO or DTV (whoever is responsible for that) are not entirely accurate in the labeling on the program info. More and more programs on HBO are being labeled, some even indicating "5.1 Dolby Digital" in the introduction to the program. Some are actually decoded and indicated as '3/2.1' but most seem to be DD 2.0. It seems like the premier shows are done in 5.1 and the reruns throughout the week are 2.0. Does this fit with others observations? I appreciate the breakdown, it helps tremdously!

Gonk, you are the man! You'd think after setting up three remotes due to all the returns and problems I've had I'd know that. Thanks again.

P.S. I won't post again until I learn how to read-particularly the manual (my helper monkey typed this for me).

That does sound very similar to my experience with digital cable and the 950: only a few programs actually show up in full surround. We have the deal where you get 6 or 7 HBOs, plus the West Coast versions of each of those that repeat the same programming 3 hours later. I noticed that the only one that gave me 3/2.1 was the main HBO, never the Signature or Classic or whatever the others were. Even the West version of the main HBO channel would not show as 3/2.1, even thought the same movie on the regular HBO 3 hours earlier *did* give me 3/2.1. Didn't really notice about the repeats being different, but it wouldn't surprise me.

It is kind of deceptive, though I think they probably say "broadcast in 5.1 surround where available" or something similar to get around it...

Howdy!

I've been using my new 950 for a few days now and noticed something really annoying that I hope there's a fix for:

If I set ProLogic II as a default on the optical input from my DirecTV HD sat receiver (into V1 SAT) everything is fine when viewing DD 2.0 or PCM 48 kHz channels. When I go to HBO-HD the 950 reverts to DD 3/2.1, of course, which is fine. Unfortunately the 950 remains in DOLBY D when I then switch to any other channel, so that I get front L/R only on DD 2.0 channels or PCM 48 kHz channels. I have to go into the menu and select PL-C II again every time I tune away from HBO-HD. Most irritating.

Does the 950 look for metadata to determine what it's supposed to do? Is DirecTV sending incomplete metadata and thus causing this problem?

[This message has been edited by HiDefDave (edited January 06, 2004).]

On my Comcast cable when switching withing the upper digital channels both Dolby 3/2.1 ans 2/0.0 are correctly identified. When I switch to the lower analog channels like CNN I briefly loose sound, the PCM flag shows, and Dolby PLII-C kicks in. Never loose the center channel, and no user input is required (other than changing the channel).

Thanks for the reply. I suspect that I surmised correctly.