Video Asylum

7.1 DVD player into 5.1 receiver

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If I run the coax output of a 7.1 player into the coax input of a 5.1 receiver, will the receiver correctly decode the 5.1 channels of the DVD player or will the whole thing sound like a Beatles record played backwards? TIA

Follow Ups:

RE: 7.1 DVD player into 5.1 receiver - mbr12 20:58:54 01/02/09 (0)
It will be the end of life as we know it.
5.1 receiver - Joe Murphy Jr 22:07:43 01/01/09 (0)
With a 5.1 receiver, via coax, you will only get up to a 5.1 soundtrack -- regardless of whether the DVD has a Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, DTS 5.1, DTS ES 5.1 or DTS ES 6.1 soundtrack. This is because a 5.1 receiver will ignore the Dolby EX flag and the DTS ES extensions in the bitstream.
RE: 7.1 DVD player into 5.1 receiver - David Aiken 18:58:11 01/01/09 (0)
Well, it won't sound like the Beatles played backwards but�

Not every disc you play will have 7.1 channel info, in fact no DVD has. Only some Blu-ray discs have discrete 7.1 info at this stage and a lot of Blu-ray discs are just 5.1.

Dolby Digital EX is touted as 7.1 but the 2 rear surround channels get the same info so we're really talking 6.1 and the info for the rear surrounds is matrixed into the side surround channels. The Dolby Digital EX soundtrack is actually physically a 5.1 soundtrack on the disc. You don't have to worry about any Dolby soundtrack from DVD.

DTS ES discrete is a discrete 6.1 channel soundtrack present on some DVDs. You may encounter 7.1 soundtracks in Dolby True HD, DTS HD MA, or possibly even in PCM format on Blu-ray discs. They're the ones you have to worry about.

If your receiver is a relatively new one it will probably happily accept a 7.1 input and fold the rear surround info correctly into the side surrounds to give you 5.1. Alternatively you can look in your player's settings menu and see whether it gives you the option to restrict output to 5.1 in which case the player will fold the rear surround info into the side surround channels and then pass the resulting 5.1 signal to your receiver.

Either way you will get 5.1 sound from your receiver.

David Aiken

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