I have a Panasonic DVD A100 (purchased in 1997) It is a first generation DVD player. It has an optical output. Digital Suround works, but when i place a DTS disc (tried a few) and select DTS, it will not play. Blank screen and the play icon flashes on the screen. The receiver Digital Surround icon also flashes.

I tried my Playstation2 with the current setup and it recognizes DTS and plays. So I think i have it narrowed down to the DVD player.

The DVD player has a setup menu, but only options for language,parental,subtitles and screen size. No choice for Audio via Digital,Surround, and DTS like other players i have seen.

Please help

I would venture to say that more than likely your DVD player does not support DTS. Most of the time, if your player does support it, the DTS logo will be somewhere on the front.

My old first-generation Pinoeer DVD player did not support DTS.

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Have to agree with BartleyR7: the first generations (<1999) of DVD-player didn't support the DTS-bitstream. If there isn't a label on the front, back or in the manual your chances are zero!

The first generation DVD players are not DTS compatible, only Dolby Digital. you may have to upgrade your DVD player. basically all the DVD player are DTS and Dolby Digital compatible.

maybe i'm wrong about this, but as long as there's a digital out, you should be able to play DTS digital streams out AS LONG AS YOUR RECEIVER CAN DECODE DTS. the digital out doesn't care how it's encoded or decoded, it's just passing a digital signal which could be whatever (DD 5.1, DTS, etc.)...

the machine needs to specifically pass the DTS bitstream...

Yep. The only way to get DTS (or even DD for that matter) out of your DVD player is to have it pass the bitstream out via the digital out (or I suppose you could use an internal decoder for DD). Unfortunately, those first-generation DVD players did not do this.

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quote:<HR>Originally posted by hahn:
maybe i'm wrong about this, but as long as there's a digital out, you should be able to play DTS digital streams out AS LONG AS YOUR RECEIVER CAN DECODE DTS. the digital out doesn't care how it's encoded or decoded, it's just passing a digital signal which could be whatever (DD 5.1, DTS, etc.)...<HR>

As noted above, this isn't exactly correct.

On a somewhat unrelated note, for DTS audio Compact discs you only need a digital connection and a DTS decoder. But for DTS movies, you need DTS pass through on the player (it will have a DTS logo on it) and a DTS decoder.

Not sure if all first generation players are like that, but if it doesn't have the DTS logo, it won't work.

-David

Forgot to add:
You should be careful about "testing" your player and receiver for this stuff. If your receiver can't handle the DTS signal, but you try to put it through anyway, you can damage your equipment.

Also, many early DTS discs defaulted to the DD or surround track on the DVD. If a menu came up asking which audio track you wanted to play, DTS was NOT selected by default. This caused some problems with the Eagle's Hell Freezes Over concert DVD.

[This message has been edited by Blade (edited December 27, 2000).]

I've got an older Sony DVD I bought in China; it does DD just fine but will not do DTS (even though I've got a DTS amp). I guess we've both just got to get new players (I'm saving for a Progressive Scan)...

I bought my dad a home theater in a box for Christmas, which does have DTS decoding (Kenwood HTB-503). When hooking everything up, I noticed that his DVD player does not seem to support DTS. It is a lower end Toshiba, and has no DTS markings anywhere on it....I used a digital coax cable in the install, and put in the Eagles DTS disk for a demo. His system accepted the DTS signal (DTS lit up on the reciever), and it sounded great. So, maybe first generation players do not do this, but just because your player does not say DTS, it may still be able to pass the signal.....

Hope this helps.

Although most of the first generation DVD players did not support DTS (DD 5.1 only) some of the high end players did. I know because when I was shopping around for my current player which I bought in late 1998 I saw some models that did output DTS. I did not buy one at that time due to budget or lack there of, and the fact that at the time I had no clue about digital surround sound. Therefore although my player passes the DD 5.1 bitstream it will not pass a DTS bitstream. If I want to watch a DVD with a DTS soundtrack then I have to use my PS2, which being new does like all current DVD players support DTS.

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