Jim Lesurf wrote:

You may well be able to adjust the default setting so that the DVD
player always provides a S/PDIF stereo stream even when playing Dolby
x.1 (and DTS if the player understands that). My (cheap) DVD player
allows the user to choose between a default of:

1) 'bitstream'. This will pass out the digital surround information
so an external decoder/receiver can handle it. The problem being that
older stereo DACs like the Meridian 203/263/563 don't understand this
format.

2) 'S/PDIF'. This only outputs stereo, so loses any digital surround
info, but can be understood by stereo DACs.

The names used may vary from one model of DVD player to another, but a
setting for this may well be on a user menu somewhere.

I had a look through the menus. There was some stuff about setting the
output to left/right, stereo, and various options for activating rear,
centre and sub, but I'm not sure that it applied to the digital output.
(Didn't work with my Thunderbirds DVD, anyway - I'll need to track down the
Treasure Island one and see if that's better.)

The manual does talk about connecting the digital out to an AV amp for home
theatre use, so I'm wondering if it automatically switches the output to
suit the type of disk being played.


If starting from scratch a good CD and/or DVD player is probably the
simplest bet. However my experience, like yours, is that if you have
cheap DVD player then an external DAC can make a noticable
improvement.

One thing that strikes me about using a DAC is that the analogue part of the
CD sound is taken care of. If the transport packs in on an integrated
player, it might be neccessary to change the whole unit, and potentially
lose the sound character that one is used to.


--
Wally
www.art-gallery.myby.co.uk
Latest addition: Early Works gallery

In article , Wally
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

You may well be able to adjust the default setting so that the DVD
player always provides a S/PDIF stereo stream even when playing Dolby
x.1 (and DTS if the player understands that).

I had a look through the menus. There was some stuff about setting the
output to left/right, stereo, and various options for activating rear,
centre and sub, but I'm not sure that it applied to the digital output.
(Didn't work with my Thunderbirds DVD, anyway - I'll need to track down
the Treasure Island one and see if that's better.)

Another term to watch out for is 'LPCM'. Some players use this to identify
that the output may be S/PDIF. I'm afraid that the usage of many terms like
these is inconsistent and different makers use them for different purposes,
and sometimes for multiple purposes. This contributes to this area being a
bit of a minefield!

The manual does talk about connecting the digital out to an AV amp for
home theatre use, so I'm wondering if it automatically switches the
output to suit the type of disk being played.

It may do. However my DV player outputs S/PDIF from both 'LPCM' soundtracks
on DVDs and well as 'Dolby x.1' soundtracks. The player is a cheap one and
does not understand DTS, so for that I get total silence from all outputs.


If starting from scratch a good CD and/or DVD player is probably the
simplest bet. However my experience, like yours, is that if you have
cheap DVD player then an external DAC can make a noticable improvement.

One thing that strikes me about using a DAC is that the analogue part of
the CD sound is taken care of. If the transport packs in on an
integrated player, it might be neccessary to change the whole unit, and
potentially lose the sound character that one is used to.

The above is true. However my view is that good CD/DVD players should sound
fairly similar as the object is to let you hear the waveforms as defined by
the data on the disc. Hence the difference from one player to another
should not be very great. This is a council of perfection, though. ;-

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In article , Wally
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

You may well be able to adjust the default setting so that the DVD
player always provides a S/PDIF stereo stream even when playing Dolby
x.1 (and DTS if the player understands that).

I had a look through the menus. There was some stuff about setting the
output to left/right, stereo, and various options for activating rear,
centre and sub, but I'm not sure that it applied to the digital output.
(Didn't work with my Thunderbirds DVD, anyway - I'll need to track down
the Treasure Island one and see if that's better.)

Another term to watch out for is 'LPCM'. Some players use this to identify
that the output may be S/PDIF. I'm afraid that the usage of many terms like
these is inconsistent and different makers use them for different purposes,
and sometimes for multiple purposes. This contributes to this area being a
bit of a minefield!

The manual does talk about connecting the digital out to an AV amp for
home theatre use, so I'm wondering if it automatically switches the
output to suit the type of disk being played.

It may do. However my DV player outputs S/PDIF from both 'LPCM' soundtracks
on DVDs and well as 'Dolby x.1' soundtracks. The player is a cheap one and
does not understand DTS, so for that I get total silence from all outputs.


If starting from scratch a good CD and/or DVD player is probably the
simplest bet. However my experience, like yours, is that if you have
cheap DVD player then an external DAC can make a noticable improvement.

One thing that strikes me about using a DAC is that the analogue part of
the CD sound is taken care of. If the transport packs in on an
integrated player, it might be neccessary to change the whole unit, and
potentially lose the sound character that one is used to.

The above is true. However my view is that good CD/DVD players should sound
fairly similar as the object is to let you hear the waveforms as defined by
the data on the disc. Hence the difference from one player to another
should not be very great. This is a council of perfection, though. ;-

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In ,
Wally typed:
Paul Groves wrote:

I thought the optical out on DVD players was not passing out the same
information as the optical out on a CD player - isn't it trying to
output Dolby 5.1 or DTS info for a 5/6 speaker setup? Or is that only
when its playing DVDs?

My Schneider is a DVD jobbie and appears to default to playing CDs
through the digital out. I tried playing a DVD on it, and got no
sound through the DAC - had to connect to the left/right phonos on
the 5.1 outputs. It might be configurable, but I haven't looked into
that yet.


I actually already have a DVD player, a Toshiba SE-220, which is fine
for DVDs, but the sound quality on CDs is noticeably worse than my
old budget Sony player, so I guess this might be an option.

Hi

You don't need to do anything.

The Toshiba SD-220 behaves fine and outputs normal PCM SPDIF when you insert
a CD - irrespective of any settings in the menu.

As the other poster suggests, partner a good quality second hand DAC with
the Toshiba DVD player and you will be very impressed.

Steve

In ,
Wally typed:
Paul Groves wrote:

I thought the optical out on DVD players was not passing out the same
information as the optical out on a CD player - isn't it trying to
output Dolby 5.1 or DTS info for a 5/6 speaker setup? Or is that only
when its playing DVDs?

My Schneider is a DVD jobbie and appears to default to playing CDs
through the digital out. I tried playing a DVD on it, and got no
sound through the DAC - had to connect to the left/right phonos on
the 5.1 outputs. It might be configurable, but I haven't looked into
that yet.


I actually already have a DVD player, a Toshiba SE-220, which is fine
for DVDs, but the sound quality on CDs is noticeably worse than my
old budget Sony player, so I guess this might be an option.

Hi

You don't need to do anything.

The Toshiba SD-220 behaves fine and outputs normal PCM SPDIF when you insert
a CD - irrespective of any settings in the menu.

As the other poster suggests, partner a good quality second hand DAC with
the Toshiba DVD player and you will be very impressed.

Steve