DTS & Dolby

[silcoxjh]

Here's a quick and hopefully easy one. If I had a Onkyo TX-SR803 AVR that decoded the following: THX Surround EX速, Dolby速 Digital EX, DTS-ES速, Pro Logic速 IIx, and DTS Neo:6 and an LG LDA-531 DVD player whose specs listed DTS as it's only digital audio output, would I be okay on all formats? I would assume that any disc with DTS would be fine since both pieces of equipment can decode DTS. But would the DVD player be able to read a DVD with a Dolby formatted disc? Both of these machines are at the top of my purchase list for the next 45-60 days. Please advise and forgive my newbism.

[N. Abstentia]

The only things you need to worry about are Dolby Digital and DTS. The rest of the things you mentioned are not surround formats, they are DSP's. There's nothing encoded in those 'formats'. They are designed to take a stereo source (like TV) and digitally alter the signal to create some surround ambience.

And actually that DVD player does not decode DTS (dead giveaway is no analog outputs on the back). It passes the DTS bitstream on to the receiver to be decoded, same with dolby digital. So yes, as long as your reciever has an optical input and can decode dolby digital and dts you're fine.

[Woochifer]

Any DVD player manufactured within the last five years will pass a DTS signal to the receiver. So long as you're using a digital audio connection from the DVD player, you will be fine. The DVD player will pass the digital signal from any disc with Dolby Digital, DTS, and PCM (CD audio and DualDiscs with higher resolution tracks) tracks through the receiver where it will be decoded.

The only variable would be if you also want to play SACD and DVD-Audio discs (if you don't know what they are, then don't worry about it), in which case you would just need to buy a universal player and three pairs of analog audio interconnects.