5.1 Dolby Digital sound format issues?

[Andy Safholm]

I have a dolby digital satellite receiver/av receiver. When watching a football game in 5.1 my receiver doesn't decode it as 5.1. It does recognize my optical cable coming from my satellite receiver to av receiver. I also checked the sat receiver and it is set up for dolby digital. It sounds better than pro logic but I am curious why I am not getting the 5.1 sound experience. Any thought?

[paul_pci]

My guess is that, though you have reason to think otherwise, the game is not encoded in 5.1.

[BRANDONH]

I have a dolby digital satellite receiver/av receiver. When watching a football game in 5.1 my receiver doesn't decode it as 5.1. It does recognize my optical cable coming from my satellite receiver to av receiver. I also checked the sat receiver and it is set up for dolby digital. It sounds better than pro logic but I am curious why I am not getting the 5.1 sound experience. Any thought?

Was the game being broadcast from a local channel with you receiving it from the Satellite.
Does it decode on say HBO 5.1?

[recoveryone]

I have a dolby digital satellite receiver/av receiver. When watching a football game in 5.1 my receiver doesn't decode it as 5.1. It does recognize my optical cable coming from my satellite receiver to av receiver. I also checked the sat receiver and it is set up for dolby digital. It sounds better than pro logic but I am curious why I am not getting the 5.1 sound experience. Any thought?

There a number of items you may need to check:

1. Does you Sat provider support 5.1 broadcast
2. Does the Sat Box decode support broadcast in 5.1 ( most do, but you never known)

Dolby digital settings does not mean 5.1 sound just means that the signal is being sent digitally. You can receive a number of Dolby Digital signal:

1. DD stereo
2. DD Surround (Left, Right and Rear combined)
3. DD 5.1

I get all of the above types from my cable provider (adelphia) most of my HD channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) I do get true 5.1 sounds on their sports and printime shows when broadcasted. On my other HD channels (PBS and ESPN) I get Dolbly Digital Stereo. Lately I notice that UPN is now being broadcast in Dolby Digital Surround. This is where your AVR comes into play. If you can set you AVR to auto it will configer the input signal for you. And will switch the DSP from Dolby Pro logic to Dolby 5.1 when it gets that signal. On my system I will get a picture of what type of signal I'm getting:

5.1= FL,FR,C,RL,RR,S
DD Stereo= FL,FR
DD Surround= FL, FR, SR

And if the signal is not sent as above then all I get is the digital mode on ( for the connection type) and my system stays in DPL mode. Other than 5.1 my system still processes the other signals in DPL. But I do get better seperation and clearer when a supported format is being broadcasted .

[Andy Safholm]

Thanks for the informative info!! Very helpful.