dunno if anyone has had this problem, but i've just bought a DVD player and the sound is very very shiote. all action sound is really loud but speech cannot hardly be heard. I've been told that it due to my DVD player and DVD disks being DD5.1 compatable but the TV is only a normal "stereo" one. I've tried looking thro all the stuff on the player to see if there is anyway to turn DD5.1 off, but it's a no-go. It seem if the disk is DD5.1 then it'll play it in DD5.1 . Short of buying a DD5.1 TV, DD5.1 Amp and all the speakers (cant afford either yet) or replacing all the dvd's ( about 20 ) with non-dd 5.1 versions, is there anyway around this?

say maybe someone knows of a "power on with buttons pressed" type of thing or a downloaded firmware crack????


at the moment it just 'aint worth watching....

damo

Every DVD player is programmed to automatically downmix a 5.1 signal to 2-channel stereo if you use the analog RCA outputs. Some do it better than others.

What brand player are you using?

First of all, you don't need to worry about a different TV. That isn't the problem.

You also can't replace your DVDs with non-surround sound versions. A handful of titles give you the choice of buying DD or DTS versions, but you'll end up in the same positions you're in now.

There are two ways around this. First, several studios give you the choice of going into the disc's audio set-up menu and selecting Dolby Surround 2.0. If the disc has that option, select it.

If not, there may be a setting somewhere in your player's set-up menu (the actual player set-up, not the disc) that allows you to turn off the surround and/or adjust the dialog/center channel. Read your player's instructions to see if you have such a setting.

You might also want to post the brand and model number of your player to see if anyone here can help you with specific settings.

RCA Outputs eh?, right!.. think i have a scart to rca lead some where, i'll give it a try. but if i dont, the player is a Dansai 852. it looks very similar to an LG jobbie saw today but was half the price.


if that helps at all...



i'm just off to dig thro every cable box i have...

will let you know..

D

I have the same problem with my DVD player. Its brand new, just got it 10 days ago. Its a "Samsung DVD-P401 Progressive-Scan DVD Player". At first, I thought it was becos I still havent bought an amp and speakers to complete the system (saving money for it! :-) ). The TV I have is a 25" SONY Wega. Pls. Help!!!!

and it has helped a lot.....

thing is this... if i swap the language track, the balance sounds perfect.. BUT.. i cant understand a word 'cos it's in an alternate language! I had a look at some of my titles and just about all of them have the alternate language track recorded in plain old stereo (which is perfect for my setup) so it would appear that there is still some DD processing going on even on the RCA outputs. However i dont think i can get around that at all, and since the thing is at least working a lot better now i'll leave it alone.

Thanx a lot Josh and Salty... at least i can watch my films now....




Sarmand??.. go get some scart-to-Rca cables..... you know it makes sense...

Daymo

Alot of DVD's have that problem. When I watch a movie on my bedroom player that runs the regular stereo track into the TV most of the music and sfx are much louder than the peoples voices. Pretty annoying when you go from an action sequence that you just had to lower the volume on to a dialogue scene that you can no longer hear....

On a surround sound system this really isn't a problem. Most of the dialogue comes from the center channel. You can just adjust the gain on that channel so that the voices can be heard at a level relative to all the explosions and such.

Again, its not a problem with the player, its just how the disk was created. The audio is just not very well balanced for a downmixed 2.0 stereo signal.

-K

When you are playing the audio off a DVD through a TV and you are having a hard time hearing speech you should turn the dynamic range compression ON (in your DVD players setup) and this will equalize the sound and make the speech more audible. Dynamic range compression is used when you are either watching late at night at lower levels on a surround system or listening on TV speakers that have limited audible range.

Alrighty! I'll try that! Its just about the only things I havent tried yet! The players manual dosent even bother to explain what Dynamic Compression is! It just tells you that you can either turn it "on" or "off"!

The players "Audio Options" menu shows the following:

- Dolby Digital Out PCM / Bitstream
- MPEG-@ Digital OUT PCM / Bitstream
- DTS Off / On
- Dynamic Compression Off / On
- 2X Scan Audio Off / On

1. Which of these should be selected if i have (currenntly) connected the DVD player directly to a TV set.
2. What are PCM & Bitstream?



One more question if you dont mind...
My player supposedly has a "...Dual laser diode optical pickup allows playback of DVDs, CDs and CD-Rs..."
What exactly does that mean?

Thanx a million you guys!

Cheers!
:-)

1. Leave everything at the defaults except be sure DTS is off (can cause damage to your TV's speakers if you try to play DTS without a DTS decoder), Dynamic Compression is ON (when you get a surround systems set it back to OFF unless you are listening at real low volume levels).

2. The PCM/Bitsream setting applies to only the Digital output (optical or Coaxial) so you don't need to worry about this setting with your setup.

The Dual Diode Laser pickup is a single optic that combines two different laser pickup to allow the player to playback CD's, CDR's and DVD's.

make sure Dynamic compression is off.

what is bitstream/PCM

http://www.meridian-audio.com/ara/bitstrea.htm

dual laser means that the system has two lasers one for Dvd's and one for cd's I bet.


try Dolby digital at PCM if it does not work then try bitstream. you can put DTS off if you do not have a DTS decoder on your receiver if you do then set it to on.

set Mpeg to off if possible unless you are in Europe and have a Mpeg receiver to decode the signal then try what i said for dolby digital.

2X scan audio allows the playing of sound when you are fast forwarding at up to 2X. personally I would turn it off why bother having it on.

The PCM/bitstream setting has no effect if you are using the L/R RCA outputs so changing this setting makes NO difference!

Turning the Dynamic Compression Off is giving horrible advise to someone who is connecting their DVD player directly to their TV and has a problem with hearing speech as it is overpowered by other sounds!

Please read the whole thread and understand the persons question before giving bad advise that doesn't apply to his situation!