When Dolby Digital goes wild

[Van Basten II]

Not sure if there is a link but since i bought a LCD television and the gear that goes with it, HD cables and cable box with HD access, my old home theater system started doing a weird thing. When i want to listen something in Dolby Digital 5.1. I end up with a curious sound mix where the background sound is heard clearly but not the voices. If i listen to a sport broadcast, i will hear the crowd the whistles, players but not the broadcasters. I know that could be a good thing. But unfortunately the same thing applies to fiction where the dialogue can not be heard but you hear the other sounds, doors, sound effects etc.

Anyone encountered that problem and more importantly how to fix it if there is a way ?

[medjuck]

Dumb question perhaps but do you have a center speaker?

[Van Basten II]

I have 5 speakers plus the subwoofer. I mentionned the LCD tv thing because prior to that it used to be working and could watch DVD in 5.1 without any problems.

[RDK]

Coincidentally... earlier today we were watching a DVD with the 5.1 stereo on and all of a sudden the center channel dropped out. Nothing serious, but the speaker wire came off inexplicably. All I'm saying is check your connections.

You mention your new LCD - do you have the audio going "through" the HDTV? That could be the problem there. I generally prefer a set-up where the audio - when I'm listening in 5.1 that is - goes straight from either my cable box or DVD player into the receiver/amp.

[Claude]

This certainly has something to do with the center channel. It could be the configuration.

I have a stereo setup, and configured my Blu-ray player accordingly, which means that surround sound on DVD and Blu-ray gets downmixed to stereo. I recently watched the "Edward Scissorhands" Blu-ray, which has 4.0 sound (rather unusual for movies). I couldn't hear any dialogues, only sound effects and music, both through the HDMI connection (to the LCD) and the digital out (to the stereo digital/analogue converter).

In order to hear the complete sound, I had to change the surround configuration in the player, to indicate that I have a center speaker. This isn't logical (probably a bug), but it did the trick. With 5.1 DVDs I never had the problem.

So I would suggest to try out different surround configurations in the source device (cable box). Some of the configuration menues also have a test program to try if all the channels work.

Edited August 31, 2009 by Claude

[Kevin Bresnahan]

If you are feeding your LCD TV with an HDMI cable, there is a handshake between the cable box and TV where the TV tells it "stereo". If you use a coax or optical digital output from the cable box simultaneously with the HDMI, the handshake can (with some boxes) cause problems with a 5.1 broadcasts.

[Van Basten II]

I think and fear that Kevin hit it on the nail, does that mean i will either have to get rid of the digital connexion for the sound if i want to restore the 5.1?

Thanks of course to all of you for your input, will fiddle around with the tv configuration.

[AllenLowe]

I would get rid of the whole surround thing - I don't know why it's a preferred set up, when things sound much more natural in 2 channel -