WesleyHester
Member
Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Location: Selma, AL, USA
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Most stand alone players like the one you describe will require a receiver with 5.1 analog inputs to amplify the sound for speakers. There are several HTIB (home theater in a box) dvd players that do infact have amplifiers built into them were speakers hook directly to them.
If the player has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder (and it should), then the 5.1 analog outputs need to be hooked up to a Receiver with 5.1 analog inputs. Unfortunately, most inexpensive players with this setup do not have built-in DTS decoders. Furthermore, current receivers have good decoders that can be accessed by connecting the DVD player via optical or coaxial cables with technically better results. Some older receivers may only have 5.1 analog inputs available to achieve 5.1 surround sound (these receivers were transition models between Pro-Logic receivers and current digitial input receivers of today). Today the 5.1 analog inputs on most new receivers are used for hi-rez audio like SACD and/or DVD-Audio.
Short answer: you'll need a receiver with amps builtin and if you have to get one, use the digital inputs and not the 5.1 analog output of the DVD player.
PCM - pulse code modulation and RAW (bitstream) are two types of output for the digital connections of the player. If you do use only the analog outputs (5.1 or 2 channel), the PCM/RAW can be set to OFF. PCM is only used if the receiver doesn't have the proper decoder. RAW is typically used the most often. This allows the audio to be transmitted from the DVD player, through an optical or coaxial cable to the receiver in which the decoder decodes the raw bitstream, amplifies the signal and then outputs descrete channels to the various speakers (simplified version).
Some others can chime in on PCM with more details. I've never had to use it myself.
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