[Mike99TA]

Hey everyone. Hopefully this will be a fairly easy answer, and maybe I'm already doing everything right - I just don't know.


I've had a Harmon Kardon AVR-235 receiver (7.1 capable) for awhile now. Furthermore, I have a home theater room that also has a 7.1 setup with all speakers connected into the receiver.


Most of my sources into the receiver are using fiber optics for audio. I have a Curtis Mathes Blu Ray Player I bought recently ($99 at meijer during a sale!). The issue is, when playing Blu Rays (So far only a couple that I've tried, Pineapple Express and Drillbit Taylor - were the next 2 on the Netflix list), the audio always shows up as "Dolby Digital" and activates 5.1 audio.


My question is, what is the best way to get the best quality sound and also try to activate 7.1 as often as possible? The Blu Ray player right now is set to Raw audio output. I can change it in the player setup to output PCM but then the receiver registers it as something other than dolby digital. Dolby PLIIx I think. I think in this case (going off memory here) it does activate the 2 rear speakers though I'm not sure if this is reducing my overall sound quality or not.


Furthermore, I'm not sure if my receiver has an option to try to use the rear speakers all the time regardless, or if that is a bad option quality-wise. The long and short of it is - I'm not 100% dead set on having 7.1 all the time, especially if it will reduce my sound quality, but I do have the rear speakers there mounted and connected, and so if I can have them activated somewhat realistically without negatively affecting sound quality then I would like to do it.


Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Floyd05]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99TA /forum/post/16861616


Hey everyone. Hopefully this will be a fairly easy answer, and maybe I'm already doing everything right - I just don't know.


I've had a Harmon Kardon AVR-235 receiver (7.1 capable) for awhile now. Furthermore, I have a home theater room that also has a 7.1 setup with all speakers connected into the receiver.


Most of my sources into the receiver are using fiber optics for audio. I have a Curtis Mathes Blu Ray Player I bought recently ($99 at meijer during a sale!). The issue is, when playing Blu Rays (So far only a couple that I've tried, Pineapple Express and Drillbit Taylor - were the next 2 on the Netflix list), the audio always shows up as "Dolby Digital" and activates 5.1 audio.


My question is, what is the best way to get the best quality sound and also try to activate 7.1 as often as possible? The Blu Ray player right now is set to Raw audio output. I can change it in the player setup to output PCM but then the receiver registers it as something other than dolby digital. Dolby PLIIx I think. I think in this case (going off memory here) it does activate the 2 rear speakers though I'm not sure if this is reducing my overall sound quality or not.


Furthermore, I'm not sure if my receiver has an option to try to use the rear speakers all the time regardless, or if that is a bad option quality-wise. The long and short of it is - I'm not 100% dead set on having 7.1 all the time, especially if it will reduce my sound quality, but I do have the rear speakers there mounted and connected, and so if I can have them activated somewhat realistically without negatively affecting sound quality then I would like to do it.


Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Make sure the blu-ray player is set to bitstream (optical in your case). Dolby PLIIx expands a 2 channel source to 7.1(or 6.1), so the quality of sound is not comparable to DD or DTS(which is a true 5.1 or 6.1 source). Dolby PLIIx in my opinion is best suited for listening to 2 channel music or television not broadcast in DD). It is always better to listen to DD or DTS(when available) than Dolby PLIIX. Way better sound quality, Period.

 

[Mike99TA]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Floyd05 /forum/post/16862905


Make sure the blu-ray player is set to bitstream (optical in your case). Dolby PLIIx expands a 2 channel source to 7.1(or 6.1), so the quality of sound is not comparable to DD or DTS(which is a true 5.1 or 6.1 source). Dolby PLIIx in my opinion is best suited for listening to 2 channel music or television not broadcast in DD). It is always better to listen to DD or DTS(when available) than Dolby PLIIX. Way better sound quality, Period.

Ok I'll check the blu-ray player tonight and set it to bitstream (I'm assuming that will be an option). Is there anything I should change/set on the receiver as well? Wondering if I have other sources that could benefit from a change (like my xbox 360, etc).

 

[flickhtguru]

Floyd05:


PLIIx does convert 2 channel stereo sound to 7.1, but it also converts 5.1 DD, DTS, and even 5.1 Dolby True HD to 7.1. It also does this without effecting sound quality. It leaves the 5.1 source untouched all it does is the receiver uses an algorithm to derive left and right back surround speaker sound from the left and right side surround speakers.


Mike99TA:


Use PLIIx for converting either 2 channel stereo or 5.1 audio to 7.1. This doesn't hurt sound quality at all and since it is 7.1 it will create a more enveloping experience. PLIIx is also the only matrix format I know of that produces true 7.1; meaning the rear speakers are in stereo most other formats that matrix sound make 6.1 so both back speakers play the same thing; mono sound. PLIIx is your best option for every kind of stereo or 5.1 movie; the only time I recommend not using it is if you go HDMI and you have an HD sound capable blu-ray and receiver and you have a blu-ray disc with 7.1 DTS HD MA. 7.1 DTS HD MA is the highest quality sound period its one of a few HD sound formats but the only one which is actually made in true 7.1 without the use of matrixing.

 

[Tulpa]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99TA /forum/post/16861616


The issue is, when playing Blu Rays (So far only a couple that I've tried, Pineapple Express and Drillbit Taylor - were the next 2 on the Netflix list), the audio always shows up as "Dolby Digital" and activates 5.1 audio.

It sounds like those Blu-Rays themselves are 5.1. Yes, the Blu-Ray spec allows for up to 7.1, "up to" being the key phrase. Most are still in 5.1, albeit with lossless soundtracks.


flickhtguru gave good advice. Kick on PLIIx if you want 7.1 on a 5.1 source. Many argue that you need a 7.1 source, but I think that's silly, as it severely limits the movies you can watch.

 

[Mike99TA]

Thanks for all the input guys - Busy night last night so I didn't have time to mess around with anything, but tonight I'm going to go check my receiver settings and set the blu-ray audio and see how it works. Thanks again!

 

[sdurani]



Quote:
Originally Posted by flickhtguru /forum/post/16864856


7.1 DTS HD MA is the highest quality sound period its one of a few HD sound formats but the only one which is actually made in true 7.1 without the use of matrixing.

It's not the "only one", since Dolby TrueHD and PCM can also do discrete 7.1 and be bit-for-bit identical to the master.

 

[sdurani]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99TA /forum/post/16861616


The Blu Ray player right now is set to Raw audio output. I can change it in the player setup to output PCM but then the receiver registers it as something other than dolby digital.

Setting your player to "PCM" will convert everything to 2-channel, so that's not something you want to do. "Raw" is the same as "Bitstream", sending the undecoded soundtrack to your receiver, so that's the setting you want to keep.

Quote:
I do have the rear speakers there mounted and connected, and so if I can have them activated somewhat realistically without negatively affecting sound quality then I would like to do it.

As others have said, PLIIx is the answer. Just keep in On all the time; the number of channels in the source material will be scaled to the number of speakers in your set-up. Nothing more complicated than that.

 

[Mike99TA]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sdurani /forum/post/16867670


Setting your player to "PCM" will convert everything to 2-channel, so that's not something you want to do. "Raw" is the same as "Bitstream", sending the undecoded soundtrack to your receiver, so that's the setting you want to keep. As others have said, PLIIx is the answer. Just keep in On all the time; the number of channels in the source material will be scaled to the number of speakers in your set-up. Nothing more complicated than that.

That makes more sense then. On my receiver I always thought that if I hard set it to DPLIIx it would be degrading the sound quality, so I always left it on auto detect (or digital or whatever my default is).


Hopefully I can set it to DPLIIx and it will stay on that setting instead of resetting everytime I turn it off/on.

 

[sdurani]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99TA /forum/post/16870062


I always thought that if I hard set it to DPLIIx it would be degrading the sound quality

As others have mentioned, it doesn't degrade the sound. When applied to 5.1-channel material, the critical front soundstage is left untouched. 3 channels, 3 speakers; nothing to process. The only thing that PLIIx does is steer the contents of the 2 surround channels across 4 surround speakers. The concept is pretty easy to understand.


With a 5.1-speaker set-up, sounds that are mixed roughly equally in both surround channels usually end up phantom imaging in between both surround speakers. If you're seated in the sweet spot, you'd typically hear those sounds come from behind you. However, if you're seated on either side of the sweet spot, then the phantom rear image will collapse to whichever surround speaker you're closest to.


With a 7.1-speaker set-up, PLIIx extracts the sounds that would normally phantom image behind you and sends it to the speakers placed behind you. Now, no matter where you're sitting, those sounds will always appear to come from behind. Same directionality, but the imaging has been made more stable. Can't get that using only 2 surround speakers.