surround sound

[DonRenee]

i have a pioneer receiver 5 channelsi believe it is a vsx603 or 608,anyway when i play dvd's all 5 speakers work great my dts light comes on i believe i am listeing to true dolby.when i have the tv on only the front speakers work i am running 4 speakers with a center channel and sub woofer.my receiver has a ton of inputs and outputs both coax and optical, my tv is stereo with rca jacks and s video from my tv i go to vcr input then back to the receiver in the s-video port.


any help or thoughts

thanks
DonRenee

[yoda313]

Hello,
I'm not sure what your asking. Are you thinking your not really getting dts? Make sure your dvd player has a dts symbol on it as well as your receiver (they both have to decode dts to work). You also might have to activate dts on your dvd player. Check the manual to make sure its active. Also, are you using a coax or optical cable to connect your dvd player to the receiver?
Kevin

[DonRenee]

my dvd players shows the dts symbol when i watch movies my question is when i watch regular tv does surround sound work or no. i only get sound out of the front speakers on tv shows or music channels.

thanks

DonRenee

[Suntan]

I assume you have 2 RCA connections from your TV to a stereo input on your receiver. If so, you will not get true 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS from it because it is just a stereo signal. Your best bet is to switch your receiver to one of the matrix surround settings, Dolby Pro Logic II is probably the best to use unless your receiver has others you like better.

If the stereo signal from the TV is mixed as a Pro Logic stream (still only 2 channels of information, but with extra data within that tells the receiver how to simulate up to 5.1 channels of surround sound) you will get a pretty good surround effect. If it is just a straight stereo signal, at best you will get a weak surround effect and more just a stereo signal from all your speakers.

-Suntan

[yoda313]

Hello,
Thats what I needed, more detail. If you have hdtv some of the shows will be in 5.1 surround sound. You need to hook your optical output to the receiver to watch in digital surround sound.

However, if your like the rest of us mere mortals, regular broadcast tv is in pro logic. You'll get 4 speaker surround with a center channel (and of course mono rear speakers). This is again only on surround broadcasts. Most regular programing like news and stuff is only in stereo.

If your stereo is new enough it will have pro logic 2 which make a fake 5.1 surround out of any source. I would suggest using this if you have it for tv.

Also, make sure your stereo vcr is hooked up to your receiver. Thats how I watch tv in surround, using the vcr. I hope this helps.
Kevin

[DonRenee]

wow thanks,ok then i am running my tv thru my vcr then to the receiver thru s-video, is that right.

DonRenee

[yoda313]

Hello,
Yep, the video route doesn't matter for good sound. Just make sure your using the stereo audio cables from the vcr output directly to the receiver inputs. The shorter the cable the better, less degradation. You can probably hook the svideo directly to the tv (assuming the tv has svideo inputs)for a better picture. That way you won't have to have the receiver on to watch tv.
Kevin
P.S. Welcome to the digital home theatre age