Page 1 of Dolby Digital Dropout in Pearl Harbour

Has anybody else out there experienced a dropout of the DD signal at the start of pearl harbour or any other DVD`s ?

I`d like to know as I`m compiling a letter to the Dolby Labs & the distributors.

Stiggy

Dolby are already aware of the encoding-related problems associated with Pearl Harbor. It`s very much a software issue although the receivers made by Onkyo and Denon are supposedly affected the worst.

I`ve been friggin` around half the night trying to get DD to work on Pearl Harbour.

I`ve also found that Dolby Digital does not work on Jurassic Park 3 - except Dolby works fine if you choose the French soundtrack. The DTS works okay, fortunately.

I`ve been putting this down to my crappy Matsui 110 player but after seeing your post I realise that the discs could be the cause (I`ve also got a Denon amp!)

This item was edited on Monday, 21st January 2002, 01:20

Yes, Jurassic Park 3 was the other high-profile title with the same issues. You should still hear the audio on the intro logos and company idents, but as soon as the film itself starts it will depend on the tolerances of the amp. Denon/Onkyo blame the unorthodox encoding of the discs in question and the software producers haven`t denied it (so make of that what you will). Apparently they used some sort of irregular formatting on the DD tracks (possibly for economy) which unfortunately makes them incompatible with certain receivers. I`ve seen several different sources report the same story, so I think the main details are accurate.

Yep there is definitely a problem with Pearl Harbour region 2 at least. I have the Denon 1802 amp and it will play the menu sound fine, but once I select the film to play there is no sound unless I put it full blast and even then it is quiet.

I can get sound by putting the amp on pcm mode but this defeats the object of buying a dd 5.1 amp.

If you do a search on www.deja.com for pearl harbour sound problem, then there is some stuff on there about it. There are also two links to sites that explain the problem, and one confirms that there is a problem with JPark3 and that there will b more problems in the future.

Do u know if the region 1 pearl harbour has the same problems?

Cheers

The really strange thing is that the DD 5.1 soundtrack works fine if you listen to the French soundtrack for Jurassic Park 3 (through my Denon 1602) - is this encoded differently somehow?

I see I`ll have to check very carefully which DVD`s I`ll be able to buy in future. Why can`t life be simple!

Unfortunately life never seems simple where DVD is concerned. The question is what can we do about it ? & what should we do about it? I have the Denon 1602 (recommended by Westy!) & am pretty P****d that it doesn`t work with Pearl Harbour & JP3. No doubt we will have many more titles coming out that will be incompatible. Does anybody know of the legal aspect of returning the Amp as it obviously doesn`t do what it say`s on the tin !(I got mine from Hifi Junkies a couple of months ago).

This item was edited on Tuesday, 22nd January 2002, 22:14

A difficult one this. As a retailer of Denon and Onkyo amongst others I now have my first coustomer with a pearl harbour problem. Now obviously I will try to do my best for him no mater what the legal isuses.

At the end of the day it will boil down to who is at fault. The dics or the amp manufactuer ?

From what I am reading and hearing it is looking like a code problem on the disc. If that is the case the amp manufactuer can not really be held responsible. To break this down to a really basic level, if the same dics manufactuer now desides to bring out a new dics that can carry alot more infomation. Great, one problem though. These new supper info dics are 6" discs and won`t fit in your current DVD player. Do you go back to your DVD player retailer and say " This DVD player you sold me won`t work with this disc" or back to the disc retailer and say "This disc won`t fit in my player"?

At the end of the day there is no black and white answer to this one but as Dolby Labs, the disc manufactuers and the hardwere bods know about this hopfully they can get together and get it sorted.

All the best,

Andrew.

I bought a Denon AVR 1602 and experienced the same problems, with Pearl Harbour sound, using a Denon 1602 and Toshiba SD210 player. The DTS sound track is all but inaudible. I could not find any further information on the Denon web site and have mailed them to ask what their solution is. No reply so far ...

Does anyone have any further details on this problem. Any updates from the manufacturers?

Andy

Still being investigated AFAIK.

Try contacting Dolby (it says here in What HiFi p26, April 2002 edition) :

http://dolby.custhelp.com or Denon owners can ring 01234 741200