5.1 Audio Question - sorry if it's in the wrong place!!

[andyg]

Am trying to understand the connections on the new amp that I've bought on ebay (which will arrive sometime this week) but am a little bit confused with regards to some of the conections.

My existing amp is quite old now - made in 2000. Anyway, it still sounds good for its age but I wanted an upgrade. So, I've gone for one with DTS & Dolby Prologic II support.

The thing that's confusing me is that my DVD player has six phono plugs on the rear of the unit (for Dolby Digital 5.1 - which I'm currently using with the old amp) plus an optical connection but the new amp only has optical connections (which I will be using) plus 2 channel inputs.

I assumed that every DVD had a DTS 5.1 soundtrack but I've since read that this is an optional extra that not all DVD's have, so, how do I get 5.1 on a disc not having this DTS soundtrack? Does the optical connection transfer both DTS 5.1 & normal 5.1 or will I be getting a simulated 'Dolby Prologic II' 5.1 output for non DTS DVD's from the two channel input? If so, this seems a bit like a one foot forward, two steps back upgrade.

Can someone help?

[guns1inger]

Yes, the optical (or coax) digital connection will carry AC3 as well as DTS to the amp. The 6 output channels you have at the moment use the decoder in your player to send discrete audio to the amp. Many players can do this, but only decode AC3 and not DTS. Some do both. Using the optical connection means the digital stream will be sent to the amp and decoded by the decoders in the amp instead.

You will be getting full AC3 and DTS, not simulated.

You should still use the two channel outputs connected to the amp as well, as these will be used for PCM audio, or perhaps, as in my case, mpeg1-layer2 (mp2) audio, if the amp doesn't decode it.

You will have to change the setup in your player to make sure that AC3 and DTS audio are both directed to the digital outputs. Consult your manual on how to do this.

[andyg]

Many thanks for the reply guns1inger. That's made it a lot clearer now and am a lot happier knowing that I'll still have the same quality I've got but also have DTS and Prologic II improvements.