It sounds like you may have more than one problem. I don’t know what kind of DAC’s are in your DVD player but the ones in the 950 are very good and should not sound muddy in any of the stereo modes. After a lot of personal listening I’ve found I prefer the DAC’s in the 950 to my cd player. I use just plain stereo not 5 or 7 but IMHO it sounds just slightly better than my cd or dvd player using bypass. I would check and see if all the connections are correct. Just my .02 Hope this helps

Lasher