Toshiba HD-A2, 5.1 Surround?

[slickz]

All i can get is pro logic, not dolby digital. I am using an optical cable to my receiver(rca rt2250b). But it may also be possible it doesn't support it. I have used the optical cable from my dvd player and blu-ray player and it works fine.

So question is, does the A-2 do 5.1 surround?

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by slickz

All i can get is pro logic, not dolby digital. I am using an optical cable to my receiver(rca rt2250b). But it may also be possible it doesn't support it. I have used the optical cable from my dvd player and blu-ray player and it works fine.

So question is, does the A-2 do 5.1 surround?

Yes but it converts most audio sources including Dolby TrueHD and DD+ to DTS. DTS supports 1.5 mbps for optical output while DD can only be up to 640 kbps. Only if the source is plain DD 5.1 it will be output as DD. Maybe your receiver doesn't support DTS?

[deano86]

Make sure you didn't accidentally set your digital out to PCM stereo, make sure it is set for bitstream

[frogmeat69]

Originally Posted by deano86

Make sure you didn't accidentally set your digital out to PCM stereo, make sure it is set for bitstream

^+1 , he's a smart fella!!

[slickz]

okay, I'll try it tomorrow and let you know

[slickz]

Hmmm it must be my reciever, because i just bought fast & furious on blu ray.. and it does the same thing, but when its on the Menu it goes Dolby Digital 5.1

[kannisto]

The menu could well be in plain DD 5.1 but if the movie's audio is in DD+ or TrueHD A2 would normally be feeding DTS to your receiver through optical connection. A3 was different in that regard as it would convert DD+ and TrueHD to plain DD at 640 kbps for optical out.

[JAC35]

I can confirm A2 does convert TrueHD to DTS my receiver lights up as such. You should still get DD 5.1, have you tried a regular DVD with DD 5.1?

I don't recall what it does with DD+ but it sound reasonable that it would convert that too...

I miss that conversion, I wish the A-30 did that, although I a have a new HDMI amp that I'm just waiting to pull the trigger on some new speakers for anyway.

[allargon]

Originally Posted by JAC35

I can confirm A2 does convert TrueHD to DTS my receiver lights up as such. You should still get DD 5.1, have you tried a regular DVD with DD 5.1?

I don't recall what it does with DD+ but it sound reasonable that it would convert that too...

DD+ goes to DTS as well. I can personally confirm that.

[doublejack]

I know this question is a few weeks old now, but I wanted to add another confirmation that this is the normal behavior of the A2. The problem is that your receiver (rca rt2250b) does not support DTS. I also have a receiver (Polk Audio RMDS-1) that does not support DTS and that's why I sold the A2 I initially purchased in favor of an A3. The best audio I could get 90% of the time with the A2 was extrapolated Dolby Pro Logic from stereo, which stinks relative to DD 5.1

The problem is that many HD-DVD's have soundtracks that are better than vanilla DD 5.1, and all of those better formats get converted to DTS by the A2 before they're sent out on the optical connection. The A3 on the other hand converts all of those superior formats to vanilla DD 5.1. I believe this is actually a fairly common problem (there are many receivers that don't support DTS, but they're generally older now) which is why the A3 functions differently.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by doublejack

I know this question is a few weeks old now, but I wanted to add another confirmation that this is the normal behavior of the A2. The problem is that your receiver (rca rt2250b) does not support DTS. I also have a receiver (Polk Audio RMDS-1) that does not support DTS and that's why I sold the A2 I initially purchased in favor of an A3. The best audio I could get 90% of the time with the A2 was extrapolated Dolby Pro Logic from stereo, which stinks relative to DD 5.1

The problem is that many HD-DVD's have soundtracks that are better than vanilla DD 5.1, and all of those better formats get converted to DTS by the A2 before they're sent out on the optical connection. The A3 on the other hand converts all of those superior formats to vanilla DD 5.1. I believe this is actually a fairly common problem (there are many receivers that don't support DTS, but they're generally older now) which is why the A3 functions differently.

I think A3 takes the 1.5 mbps DTS core track in case of DTS-HD and DTS-HD MA and sends that through the optical connection, so those DTS based formats don't get converted to DD 5.1 through optical, but Dolby TrueHD and DD+ are converted to DD5.1 and most U.S. releases were using those Dolby formats. The difference in behaviour is specially related to DD+ and Dolby TrueHD tracks.

[Blacklac]

I'm pretty sure the optical connection will transcode, like the 2nd Gen players are alwys DTS over optical and 3rd Gen are always DD over optical. Not sure about 1st Gen. No matter what is input. DD+ from an A2 will output DTS over optical. There is a ton of info on this over at AVS.

[kdigit0l]

First gen also outputs DTS over optical.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Blacklac

I'm pretty sure the optical connection will transcode, like the 2nd Gen players are alwys DTS over optical and 3rd Gen are always DD over optical. Not sure about 1st Gen. No matter what is input. DD+ from an A2 will output DTS over optical. There is a ton of info on this over at AVS.

A3 user manual says on page 21 that when you use SPDIF (optical out) with bitstream setting, DD is output when original audio is DD+ or TrueHD. And if original sound is in DTS-HD, the sound is converted to DTS bitstream. If the AV receiver does not support DTS, select "PCM".

I don't have an A3, but I have a Japan model RD-A301 which is a Toshiba 3rd generation recorder & player, and the playback capabilities are pretty much identical to A3 as far as I know. It also outputs DD through optical for DD+ and TrueHD and DTS for all DTS based formats.

[Blacklac]

Although I have not tested this myself, it is widely stated on AVS that, in this case, the manual is wrong. They def transcode audio. With the A2, TrueHD and DD+ would be transcoded to DTS. The 3rd Gen players transcode all DTS-HD to DD. However, you can bitstream DD and DTS (lossy) natively with all HD players. This is why, when 3rd Gen players were out, 2nd Gen were highly sought after being they put out higher bitrate audio over SPDIF (1.5MBPS vs 640kbps 3rd Gen).

Again, I have not personally tested this, as I have never had to use optical. This has been tossed around AVS as common knowledge since the players came out.