Surround sound issues

Gilly · 22 Jan 2007 at 23:30

New telly in the front room, surround sound is ace when watching a DVD. Had Star Wars and Alien on it so far.

However, when watching telly the surround sound doesn't work :/ Only works with DVDs

Can't see anything obvious in the book with it, nor in the menus or on the remote. Any ideas?

Simon · 22 Jan 2007 at 23:56

Are the programs in dolby 5.1 stereo?

Gilly · 23 Jan 2007 at 00:15

Yeah, we've tried sky box office and the lot, I believe they're all in 5.1?

squiffy · 23 Jan 2007 at 00:25

Need more info. Kit and how you've connected it.

kefkef · 23 Jan 2007 at 08:35

More info needed, but from memory, you have to set your Sky+ box to output Dolby Digital from the set-up menu, and you have to be connected by a digital cable (either optical or if the box has it, wired digital)

Gilly · 23 Jan 2007 at 10:47

Right I've been and had a look (parent's telly not mine) and I think I see the problem

The setup is LG telly, LG DVD player, Panasonic video player, Sky digibox, DVD recorder.

The telly was sold as surround sound but was sold with an LG DVD player. Its the DVD player that has all of the audio out ports on it, so thats where all the surround sound is coming from - hence it only working on DVDs.

The only outputs the telly has are SCART, DVI, Component and S-Vid.

Unless I'm wrong this means surround sound won't ever work except through the DVD player. Would an amp be required? Has this been sold under false pretences? :/

pinkaardvark · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:03

Gilly said:
Right I've been and had a look (parent's telly not mine) and I think I see the problem

The setup is LG telly, LG DVD player, Panasonic video player, Sky digibox, DVD recorder.

The telly was sold as surround sound but was sold with an LG DVD player. Its the DVD player that has all of the audio out ports on it, so thats where all the surround sound is coming from - hence it only working on DVDs.

The only outputs the telly has are SCART, DVI, Component and S-Vid.

Unless I'm wrong this means surround sound won't ever work except through the DVD player. Would an amp be required? Has this been sold under false pretences? :/

You don't want to output from the telly. You want to output from the sky+ box. Look for an optical or coax in on the DVD player. Beware though that a lot of the DVD Player/surround sound solutions are limited with only one additional or commonly no extra surround inputs

Gilly · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:09

No, there doesn't appear to be any coax/opt in on the DVD player.

I'll be pretty annoyed if it doesn't work as described by the guy at the store. My parents specifically told him that they watched most of their films on Sky and wanted surround for that.

4T5 · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:16

I think it's pretty standard mate. A mate of mine got kitted out with a surround sound set up and was mightily **** off when he realised you only get surround when you play DVDs. Seems pointless to me unless all appliances plug into it and give you surround sound.
If the guy in the shop specifically said you can and you now find you can't surely they are obligated to give you a refund. Get your Big boots on and go down and kick off on your parents behalf.

squiffy · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:22

You should still get Pro-Logic from RCA outputs, if the material has it encoded into the stream.

Corasik · 23 Jan 2007 at 11:52

Sky+ and SkyHD boxes are equipped with an optical SPDIF, and you get Dolby Digital on Sky Movies 1-10 (Not every movie is DD but SM1, SM2, SM9 and SM10 are almost always DD).

I believe the Box Office channels are DD enabled too

Several other channels have the 'potential' for DD, but I believe that Sky is going to be using DD as another 'feature' of the HD channels, rather than increasing the number of SD with DD audiostreams.

There are many different 'levels' of Surround sound packages, from the DVD with integrated amp, minimal features and no inputs (which it sounds like your folks ended up with), all the way up to audiophile level gear costing £XXXXXXX. Personally I would avoid the very lowest level kits, as if the DVD transport ever fails, you lose both DVD and Sound systems in 1 go. The next level up adds a small amp/processor module, which typically has enough inputs for your DVD, Sky+, and VCR etc. Not all TV's have audio outputs, but if your watching Sky, then you use the Sky box's outputs anyway. SKY+ required for 5.1 Digital surround.

kefkef · 23 Jan 2007 at 12:19

Any details on the LG DVD/TV models?

Looking here the only LG home cinema type systems (which i presume is what you have to get 5.1) that have digital in are the higher end DVD Recorder models, all the rest (DVD Only/low end DVD Recorder) have Analogue inputs (Scart or Aux) so wont work with Sky+ for 5.1 sound.

hardc0re_tid · 23 Jan 2007 at 16:29

can you not get a splitter; dvd player and sky+ into the splitter and from the splitter to the sound output?

Gilly · 23 Jan 2007 at 23:03

kefkef said:
Any details on the LG DVD/TV models?

Yeah I'll get you some tomorrow if I get chance.

hardc0re_tid said:
can you not get a splitter; dvd player and sky+ into the splitter and from the splitter to the sound output?

The sound output is from the DVD player itself. Is that what you meant?

Thats why I was asking is a separate amp would help.

SeriousPigeon · 24 Jan 2007 at 15:03

A seperate amp would probably fix all your problems.
But your parents should have been sold that in the first place.

Jez · 24 Jan 2007 at 15:29

Unless the combined DVD player/amplifier has an optical input somewhere on it, sky+ is not going to play ball. You need an amplification system with a digital INPUT on it, then take the digital output from the sky+ box. Ignore the TV, the sound doesnt need to go near it.