Page 1 of Can`t hear DTS! Help needed!

Hi all,

I have recently bought a surround sound system, and thought this might finally mean I could hear DTS tracks on my DVDs (having previously just been greeted with silence when I tried them through the TV.)
The system is all hooked up, and seems to play DD5.1 and 2.0 with no problems. However, the DTS track (on several discs I`ve tried) is still silent. I have looked through my player`s setup menu, but can`t find anything under audio options that looks likely (and I`ve experimented with turning different combinations on/off) - as I understand some players have a DTS option that needs to be checked before it comes active.
Thing is, my player claims to have "DTS SP-DIF Digital Output" and has the DTS logo on the front(you can see the specs in a PDF here), but I don`t really get (dumb question time) why it only claims to have 2 channel stereo sound - or is this a totally separate issue from DD5.1 & DTS?
The specs mention "Coaxial digital output for external Dolby Digital and DTS decoders", but even if the player didn`t have an encoder, wouldn`t my surround set act as one?
Anyway, the manual (which looks fairly standard) doesn`t mention anything about DTS. I have the player hooked up through standard phono cables (the only option, really), and the only other inputs on my subwoofer/amp unit are for aux and game. I don`t think it has an input for a digital coax lead, but as I understand it that shouldn`t matter (sound quality issues aside, but it shouldn`t make the difference between hearing and not hearing DTS - although maybe I`m wrong on this!)
Any ideas? I`ve tried many combinations on the setup menu, but nothing is obvious for what might need to be enabled. Thanks in advance for any replies...

Dazza.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 11th May 2005, 11:04

If your amp does not decode DTS then your stuffed as the player only outputs a DTS signal

Hi Dazza.

I think you`re getting a bit confused as to what connections you need between your DVD player and your surround sound system.

Without some kind of digital link between your player and your amplifier (either optical or coaxial) you will not be able to decode either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 sound.

Is your surround sound system quite new? If it is then it should have some sort of digital input.

If it doesn`t then the only other way to decode the surround sound from your DVD discs is to use your players internal processor but to do this you would need the proper six phono inputs on your surround system and if there`s no digital input I`d be surprised if you`d have this either.

Without either of the above options you may still get plain dolby surround from your system, but sadly not full blown digital 5.1.

Hope this helps.

Cheers Pete.

Look closely at the DTS logo on your system. DTS are sneaky sods. Manufacturers have to pay a premium to include a DTS decoder in equipment, but DTS like their logo on equipment so you often find it on equipment that only outputs a bitstream that can be decoded by a proper DTS amp.

If it says Digital DTS Surround on the logo, that means it actually decodes the signal.
If it says DTS Digital Out, that means it doesn`t.

I`ve read the specs for your Ronin player, and that`s just a bog-standard DVD player. I`m not too sure about that 12-bit video comment, as digital video`s supposed to be 24-bit, but I digress. Tell us something about your amp system as that`s more the problem. If it doesn`t have an optical/coax digital in, it won`t decode matrixed sound properly anyway.

J Mark Oates

This item was edited on Wednesday, 11th May 2005, 15:54

Thanks for the replies, guys. I`ve been doing a bit more reading around, and I can see that the budget player in question only sends the DTS signal out... there I was, making assumptions just because it had the official logo stamped on the front!
It (the amp) doesn`t appear to have a optical/coax digital in, but I`ll take another look (this is someone who couldn`t see the phono jacks on their Sky box first time they looked!); either way, I`m pretty happy with it as it wasn`t a big outlay and DVDs are sounding so much better through the speakers than they used to through the TV.
Off-topic: that Ronin is quite a nice little player for the money, but lately the drive has gone really noisy so I think it`ll go back before the guarantee`s up.
Thanks once again for the replies...

All the best,

Dazza.