Audio Noob Questions

[Gunslinger08]

So I just recently purchased the Onkyo HT-S6100 system. http://www.onkyousa.com/model....6100&class=Systems&p=i. I don't know a ton about how all of these codecs/technologies work and which ones are best (Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, PLIIx, etc.). I have the ability to set "listening mode presets" for each of the inputs on the receiver. I can map different processing technologies to different input types.

Input types:
- Analog/PCM
- Dolby Digital
- DTS
- D.F. 2ch
- D.F. Mono

Processing technologies:
- Last Valid (assume this tries to automatically figure it out)
- Direct
- Stereo
- Mono
- PLIIx Movie
- PLIIx Music
- PLIIx Game
- Neo: 6 Cinema
- Neo: 6 Music
- Mono Movie
- Orchestra
- Unplugged
- Studio-Mix
- TV Logic
- All Ch Stereo
- Full Mono
- Theater-Dimensional

I'm really at a loss for what I'm supposed to select here and what will sound best. Most of my viewing time is spent watching HD broadcasts from my Dish Network VIP 722 receiver and DVDs and Blu-Rays from my PS3, both connected via HDMI.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

You can play around with the Processing technologies options, but you're probably going to want to keep those off.

I assume that your Dish Network receiver will be outputting Dolby Digital? Your receiver should detect that signal and play back Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital EX for 7.1

For DVDs, you'll get Dolby Digital or DTS depending on what track you select and what's available on the disc.

For Blu-Ray, I believe you'll want to do multichannel PCM for the PS3.

The Processing Technologies are probably most useful when you're dealing with a stereo source and you want to get a "surround" effect from it. Since all your sources should be multichannel already, you shouldn't have to mess with those.

 

[Gunslinger08]

It seems like 95% of HD programming on Dish is in stereo. The majority of the time, I only hear any rear channels in random commercials. What would you recommend to take advantage of the surround speakers for stereo inputs?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If it's sending stereo and you want to make use of the other speakers, you might want to try one of these

I know what these are for sure and they usually do a pretty good job (the Music variants tend to do less focusing to the center speaker and keep it more on the front two speakers from my limited experiments)
PLIIx Movie
Neo: 6 Cinema

Maybe try this one just to hear the difference... this would be sending the same stereo signal to all the speakers and a mix for the center
All Ch Stereo

These ones might be worth checking out too, although I'm not totally sure what they'll do
TV Logic
Theater-Dimensional

 

[Gunslinger08]

It seems like my Dish receiver sends Dolby 5.1 (according to the display on my audio receiver), but I very rarely hear anything from any of the surround speakers. Is it possible to send only stereo sound over Dolby 5.1?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I haven't had much experience with Dish Network, but I would guess that even though you're getting a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal, only the front left and front right channels may actually have sound on them? I believe that's normal since not everything that you're playing back from Dish Network will be a surround sound source.
So your receiver is saying Dolby 5.1 or Dolby 2.0 when you're not hearing surround information?

If you select Dolby PLIIx Movie when it's Dolby 5.1 (with really only stereo playing back normally without a Processing Technology enabled) if it will handle things correctly. I guess having a 5.1 signal detected but with empty channel information could potentially mess things up? I haven't played around enough with situations like this to predict what your best course of action will be.

You can certainly play around with the settings to see what you like the best.

I would hope that if you do enable PLIIx Movie for your Dish Network receiver that once you actually do get some programming that's encoded with DD that the Processing Technology choice will be overridden and just give you the pure DD track.