question about DTS

[axeman2ooo]

okay spot the noob! go easy on me okay?
bought a secondhand subwoofer/surround unit today. no instruction manual, no sign on a PDF etc online
has the 6 speaker output clips on the back, but input is only via Optical or coaxial plug.
I always thought that optical inputs would support DTS, but so far, nothing. can get dolby on coaxial, optical looks to be broken (cable only, as no light shines through it when plugged in)

nothing is marked on the unit, so not even dolby, let alone DTS.

I have several DVD's (mostly music ones requiring DTS) that I am dying to hear in surround, can anyone help me out?
am I missing something with settings or something?
thanks in advance for your patience...

[aedipuss]

if it doesn't specifically state it decodes dts then it probably doesn't. manufacturers pay extra to get the decoder and usually display the dts logo. coax works fine for dts signals and it's decoded by the surround unit if it can. sounds like you need to use the ac3 5.1 audio streams instead. you will still get 6 channel surround output.

[psx_pirate]

I never seen a dvd that has 5.1 dts but not 5.1 ac3 (dolby digital) ... most dvds either have only the ac3 or both ac3 and dts ... all 5.1 surround sound systems can decode the ac3 but not all will decode dts ... it looks like yours doesn't decode dts ... when playing a dvd you will have to select ac3 (dolby 5.1) to get surround sound ... if you really do want dts (i have it and imo its better than dolby 5.1) then you will have to buy a surround system that can decode dts ... look for the dts logo on the surround systems ... if its not shown then it won't decode it

[jman98]

Any unit that can decode DTS and Dolby will have some kind of marking on it stating so. Who knows what you bought? You have to be sure that your DVD player is set to output the correct signal to the receiver, but for all you know the receiver could be broken or it could be some piece of junk that doesn't play anything, although I don't know why it would have 6 speaker outputs and not support Dolby at a minimum.

[guns1inger]

The DVD spec states that a disc cannot have DTS only. It must have AC3 or LPCM as the primary track, with DTS as a secondary track. That said, it is quite possible to author or a rip a DVD so that it does only have DTS audio. But if you don't have a DTS decoder, you get nothing.