Moderators dtel Posted October 13, 2012 Moderators Share Posted October 13, 2012 I didn't want to mess up the other DAC thread so I will ask here. A DAC is digital to analog, that's what it does right ? So a signal from say a satellite receiver going to a DAC with optical cable is a digital signal. I ask this because connected like this any non HD channel plays fine, any HD channel even if it's only in stereo does not play at all. Similar problem.......Bluray player connected to the DAC, CD's play fine, DVD's do not play, except the Eagles HFO ? On that DVD before anything happens when loaded it ask if you want stereo or DD, if you pic stereo it plays. No other DVD's play but no others I have ask until your in the menu, even then when 2 ch is picked they do not play. All is going through optical cables, so apparently the DAC only plays certain digital signals, didn't know there were different signals. I thought digital was digital, 2 ch or multi was the only difference ? The same bluray player streams internet radio, it works great through the DAC. I feel like I missed something simple, even after trying all different settings on the bluray and sat receiver ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzannucci Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 HFO is PCM or DTS. Sounds like your dac doesn't like Dolby Digital or Hires streams and would need to be converted or output in PCM. ODD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 D, let´s start with DAC you are using, what source components and connections and then we can be more specific. many digital formats that are used for videos are not supported by audio DACs. regards, T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 It isn't the DAC. The reciever and DVD will not output those signals... same way it won't output my SACD to a DAC but will only output via analog. This is by design another form of copyright protection. Somebody smarter can correct me if I am wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Can you do a napkin sketch of all your gear and how it is connected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 13, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 13, 2012 Thanks It's a Samsung Bd-C6500, I take the optical output (which they call digital audio out ) and put that into the optical input #1 of a Emotiva XDA-1 The satellite receiver does the same but to optical #2 on the XDA The XDA goes into the EV Dx38 with L & R XLR's then to the Crown D75's with XLR's, out to the speakers. The BD player streams Pandora and Mog, the sound is very noticeably better with about the same volume as before. A CD thru the BD player is much lower in volume now, about 95 Db full volume. I was thinking if the signal was output thru the optical cable it was digital. I did read somewhere that this DAC puts out no sound with anything but 2 CH going in. I left an optical cable connected to my Yamaha RX v730 so I could see what signal was being sent from the BD player, the DVD's were going to the receiver in stereo, and even the signal from the satellite box was stereo with many HD channels, so it's more than just the DAC not playing an incoming multi channel signal. This is the back of the XDA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 13, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 13, 2012 This is the back of the bd player it does not have a coaxial out or I would try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 "A DAC is digital to analog, that's what it does right?" That's my understanding. I understand that a computer sound card includes a DAC to output analog sound to internal or external speakers. "I ask this because connected like this any non HD channel plays fine, any HD channel even if it's only in stereo does not play at all." In my cable TV, I had to get a cable TV box specifically for HD, in order to be able to view and listen to HD channels (I had to do this after analog TV broadcasts were phased out). I couldn't view HD channels without one. That sounds similar to your situation. "Similar problem.......Bluray player connected to the DAC, CD's play fine, DVD's do not play, except the Eagles HFO ? On that DVD before anything happens when loaded it ask if you want stereo or DD, if you pic stereo it plays. No other DVD's play but no others I have ask until your in the menu, even then when 2 ch is picked they do not play." DVD's play both picture and sound very well on both my desktop Dell and Mac laptop. On the Mac, DVDs play well except for poor sound on its internal speakers, and with so-so sound over my Promedia 2.1's plugged into the headphone jack. The 2.1's sound much better when plugged into the Dragonfly DAC which is plugged into a one of the Mac's USB ports. The D/F apparently by-passes the Mac's sound card function. The DVD I just tried plays either PCM or DTS stereo. I'm not familiar with BluRay on computer or component DVD players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 found it... see quote from manual for the Oppo dv-980 "Due to copy-control restrictions and bandwidth limitation, full resolution audio output from DVD-Audio or SACD playback cannot be sent through the coaxial or optical digital audio output. To listen to DVD-Audio or SACD in full resolution, please use HDMI or analog audio connections." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 13, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 13, 2012 Well that stinks, surprising being a 5.1 DTS signal can go optical. Probably more copy control than bandwidth, must be something in the Hd signal on satellite also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 14, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 14, 2012 Update I tried a bunch more concert DVD's, from what it looks like any DVD that says PCM stereo 2 Ch works. If it does not say PCM and just says 2 Ch stereo is does not work ? So if it is not PCM what is it for 2 CH ? [:S] I have to say the DVD's that play sound great Found this http://www.ehow.com/info_12211466_dvd-pcm.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 dtel, you have a Samsung similar to mine. I have the BD bitstream everything unprocessed and let my pre-amp run everything. PCM should also work, it just will not show DTS, ect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdog Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I looked up the manual for your Bluray player with google. Pages 34 and 35 have the info you need. Go to the players menu and set digital output to PCM. Depending on what your DAC will do you may also need to set PCM down sampling to a bitrate your DAC will accept. Also set the Downmixing mode to normal stereo as on page 36 of the manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 ...didn't know there were different signals. With digital...the sky's the limit. It's all a matter of code. As it applies to audio, the popular ones are: PCM DTS bitsream DD bitstream PDM / DSD USB HDMI (encrypted) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 14, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 14, 2012 dtel, you have a Samsung similar to mine. I have the BD bitstream everything unprocessed and let my pre-amp run everything. PCM should also work, it just will not show DTS, ect. I think a pre-amp would probably do a better job of sorting things like this, but I am not using a pre-amp, just a DAC with a volume control. see next post [Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 14, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 14, 2012 I looked up the manual for your Bluray player with google. Pages 34 and 35 have the info you need. Go to the players menu and set digital output to PCM. Depending on what your DAC will do you may also need to set PCM down sampling to a bitrate your DAC will accept. Also set the Downmixing mode to normal stereo as on page 36 of the manual. Once again I feel like a dumb qss and happy at the same time. [] It's working perfectly [:$] Bobdog THANK YOU I tried every setting in the bd player but not in the right combination apparently ? In the book is shows it should play PCM through the optical either set to PCM or Bitstream on the chart on page 35, but it does not work on bitstream. Now it does not matter if the DVD is even set to dts 5.1 it changes it to PCM 2 Ch. Now any DVD and even the BD disc is working, perfect it's what I was hoping for. Thank You All I need to do is switch it back to bitstream if I want to play through the avr for a movie or dvd, easy enough we hardly use either. So I guess some dvd's that puts out PCM 2Ch work on bitstream and the ones that do not you need the bd player to change it to PCM. It always amazes me how much really useful help this forum provides, thousands of different configurations with all type of equipment, and a bunch of common sense. [Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 See, it took just a bit... of extra work[Y][H] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 14, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 14, 2012 See, it took just a bit... of extra work Your right, and it always goes back to at last resort, read the instructions stupid........and read them again ! [:$] I have to say it definitely sounds better ! [8] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Just to clarify, you're trying to watch/listen to all this stuff with a typical 2 channel stereo speaker setup? When you run PCM, you don't get the surround sound encoding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted October 15, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 15, 2012 Not really the 2 Ch is mostly for music. I will have to switch the setting in the bd player to watch movies or multi channel music. The satellite box still only plays with the DAC when on non HD channels which is not a big deal, I could probably change it in the menu also but it would mess up multi channel to the avr. It's rare I want to listen to the satellite in 2 Ch anyway. I found a optical splitter which I use in two places, one out the bd player and another out the satellite receiver, both split and head out as two optical lines. One going to the avr and another to the DAC, and out from the satellite receiver with one going to the DAC and the other to the avr. This way the avr and dac can share the bd player, they can even both work at the same time. I did leave out talking about the splitter when I was having problems, but to be sure I removed them until i figured out what I did wrong, it was not the splitter so I put the splitter back and they work fine, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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