Thread: Discovery HD surround sound

Has anyone else noticed that DHDT is not showing Dolby Digital surround sound?? I just replaced my surround receiver which was blown up with a Yamaha HTR-5730 and noticed this. I can't say when it changed but I know my old Yamaha showed DD when I had Discovery on. I tried all the Voom exclusive HD channels and they all show DD. I know everything is setup correctly, coaxial cable from Voom to receiver, and audio settings are correct.

I have yet to send an email to Voom, I just wanted to know if anyone else here had seen it?

Not all programs on Discovery HD Theater are DD5.1 some are just DD2.0. I haven't come across one that is just stereo.

Where you watching this snake show (Anaconda? or maybe it was hunting the Killer Cobra?) on DHDT? I think those were DD2.0. Also isn't toslink supposed to be clearer for surround sound than PCM coax?

I can honestly say that fiber optic versus coax I hear no difference.. I compared them before with my DVD player and heard no major changes.

I was not aware that Discover mixed 2 and 5 channel surround. I was watching last night the Wild Urban or whatever.. I will pay closer attention..

I can't comment about the sound but last night I watched Truk Lagoon and all I can say is wow! PQ was fantastic.

Bob

Originally Posted by cmslick3

I can honestly say that fiber optic versus coax I hear no difference.. I compared them before with my DVD player and heard no major changes.

You are not supposed to hear the difference, it is EXACTLY the same digital data on both mediums. Digital is digital. Often people have worse results with optical because the Toslink is kind of a sad example of fiber optic technology.

I install fiber optic network cabling and equipment at work. We must polish the fiber ends and examine them with a microscope to make sure they are done correctly. The connectors are cleaned with alcohol and blown with canned air before inserting them into the jacks. Everything has to be perfect-the connectors are made of ceramic and are manufactured to SUPER high tolerances. Even then, we sometimes have problems.

Toslink on the other hand, is often run quite casually with huge amounts of dust present in the connections. The cable ends are often dirty. On top of that, there is no error checking system present in a toslink system. Improperly installed, you are likely to have jitter problems. Coax on the other hand is much more tolerant of poor installation procedures-that is why I said people often have worse results with Toslink optical.

The main reason for fiber being used rather than copper is the distance that fiber can be run. I don't know why it has been pushed so much for audio uses. Ground loop hums are not really an issue when dealing with *digital* audio signal.

I really just wanted to say that, properly installed, coax and optical should sound EXACTLY the same.

--Dan

Considering that the toslink cable I use is like 3ft long I don't worry about busting out the electron microscope. I used to use PCM coax, because the sales guy at the store said it was what I needed back then. After a while I became curious and used the optical cable, I noticed a difference instantly the sounds where a bit crisper.

Last time I was in Orlando I made my friend get a toslink for his cable system and him, and his unaudiophile unvideophile wife were shocked by the difference.