[upNdown]

I've been shopping for bargains. I recently purchased the Sanyo HT32744 which has a digital audio output that will work with Dolby 5.1. Great. But I also bought the Toshiba SD-H400 DVD player/Tivo unit, which seems to only have Dolby Digital®/DTS® Output.


So if I pick up a HTIB such as Onkyo 660, I'll be able to watch HD broadcast in 5.1, right? But, my DVD's will not, right? Is it safe to assume that the 660 will give me the best sound I can get out of my DVD player, or should I be looking at a non 5.1 system.


Thanks for your patience. All this is new to me and there is a lot to absorb.

 

[Movieman2000]

If I understand you right it sounds like you are trying to differentiate between Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Digital. There the same thing. You should be able to listen to Dolby Digital 5.1 with both your TV and DVD's so long as the incoming signal is in Dolby Digital format.

 

[upNdown]

Hmm, so you're saying that my DVD player would support any format that my DVD's and my receiver/speakers had in common - Dolby 5.1, Dolby 6.1 . . .?


That explains a lot. Thanks.

 

[sic0048]

Your DVD player may have a digital decoder built in (it does if you have 5.1 analog outputs - this is 6 seperate outputs), but most will simply pass the sourse digital output to the receiver. Then the reciever will decode the digital signal into one of the formats that is available on that specific model. So yes, your DVD can pass through any digital signal to your receiver. It is up to your receiver to have or not have the proper decoding software. I believe the 660 is just a 5.1 receiver - meaning that it will decode Dolby Digital, but not DTS-ES as that is a 6.1 signal. Not a big deal as there are only a handfull of DVDs that have DTS-ES encoding.