I recently rented Fantastic Four (the original not silver surfer) in blu-ray. Four audio it only had DD in Spanish and the only choice for English was DTS. My setup is a coax from the player to a Lexicon DC-1 without the DTS upgrade. I sent the movie back without watching it because I could not get English audio. Am I going to run into this problem with other blu-ray movies?

I recently rented Fantastic Four (the original not silver surfer) in blu-ray. Four audio it only had DD in Spanish and the only choice for English was DTS. My setup is a coax from the player to a Lexicon DC-1 without the DTS upgrade. I sent the movie back without watching it because I could not get English audio. Am I going to run into this problem with other blu-ray movies?

Newline and Fox will have this issue for you. Some others here and there for other studios like Lionsgate.

Sounds like it's time to upgrade.

Sounds like it's time to upgrade.

Exactly

I had the same problem with "A night at the Museum". Video looked great on BR but the sound really took away from the experience. I'll stay away from that one too for now. I am looking to upgrade my Theater Amp but need something w / at least 5 hdmi 1080p inputs.

Sounds like its not a BR issue but the studio making the disc.

DTS is one of the mandatory required disc codecs, so it's not a BR issue or a studio issue. Regrettably, most (all?) Blu-Ray players can not convert/transcode incompatible audio to Dolby Digital for full backwards 5.1 compatibility.

So, if you play a DTS track... set your player to decode it (to PCM), and live with 2-channel PCM audio available via optical. Your DC-1 can then apply Dolby Pro Logic processing to it. Not great, but better than silence. :D

You'll also run into "no 5.1" problems on any discs with PCM only; thankfully, there are only a few.

Wow there is actually people still with receivers that don't decode DTS? I guess you learn something new everday.

I have been searching for an upgrade to replace the Lexicon but have not found a processor/preamp that has the right set of features. And since I am not 100% sure what that set is I have not even seen anything that looks like it might be the right product. Seems like audio components are behind the curve in the move to high dif.

High end like the Lexicon was when it was new.
At least 3 HDMI inputs.
HDMI 1.3 (is this necessarry?)
Supports the right set of audio formats (I am still confused about what that set is)

THere are some former Lexicon owners in the Integra 9.8 Onkyo Pro 885 threads who have switched and are happy.

BB

Newline and Fox will have this issue for you. Some others here and there for other studios like Lionsgate.


MGM as well (which are distributed by Fox, but are a separate studio)

Wow there is actually people still with receivers that don't decode DTS? I guess you learn something new everday.

that and many of the first DTS receivers won't accept DTS at 1.5Mbits/second.

Newfi,

I thought the DC-1's could decode DTS.

I'm in the same boat as you looking for a new Amp. Got the "Time to upgrade" comment(s) too. I won't buy another BR w / DTS only until I get a new Amp...Really took away from the show. Guess I have some Homework now:)

Check out the NAD T175 pre-amp. It has gotten rave reviews and it has the Audessey Pro EQ (better than those found in Denon, Onkyo, etc).

Island Time,
DTS was a $500 upgrade on the dc-1 that was made available after I purchased mine. I never got around to going back to the dealer to get the unit upgraded. The upgrade is no longer available.

that and many of the first DTS receivers won't accept DTS at 1.5Mbits/second.

Are you sure because DTS call for 1.5Mbps as min spec? Also all LD's with DTS, DTS CD's, and the first DVD's with DTS were all 1.5Mbps. So how would they play?:confused: It wasn't until later that DTS approved the 1/2 rate spec for DVD.

Exactly. Until Saving Private Ryan was released in November '99, 1509kbps (DVD) and 1235kbps (LD/CD) were the only DTS bitrates available.

There is a small handful of more recent decoder models (introduced when only 754kbps titles were being released) that have problems with 1509kbps DTS, but none of them are early-generation decoders and all are outside spec thanks to lax testing by their manufacturers.

It isn't necessary to buy a new receiver or pre-amp to enjoy BD, not that it isn't a good idea if you can afford it. Some BD players can be set to transcode all digital audio output into DD or even down-mix to two channel PCM. My Panasonic DMP-BD30 will; there probably are others.