Other Digital Formats
Several other digital formats are not surround sound formats at all, but rather systems for digital 2-channel recordings.
PCM 2-channel:This is an uncompressed 2-channel digital signal such as that used for standard CD recordings and some DVD re- cordings, particularly of older films.
HDCD®: This system uses higher bit rates and a variety of enhancements to improve the sonic performance compared to standard audio CDs. These discs, labeled HDCD, can be played on standard CD players. Howev- er, when the digital signal is decoded using an HDCD decoder like that in the RSX-1057, they will provide exceptional musical repro- duction.
DTS Music 5.1 Discs: These discs are a variation of audio CDs that include a DTS 5.1 channel recording. The RSX-1057 decodes these discs just like a DTS movie soundtrack when played on a CD player or DVD player with a digital output connection.
DVD-A music discs: Taking advantage of the increased storage capacity of the DVD disc, new high bit rate multichannel audio re- cordings are available on DVD-A discs. DVD- A discs may include multiple versions of the recording including standard PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and 96kHz/24 bit (or higher) multichannel recordings using MLP compression. Several of these formats (standard PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS 5.1 can be decoded by the RSX-1057 when the DVD player is connected with a digital ca- ble. However, the existing optical and coax digital connection standard does not provide sufficient bandwidth for multichannel high sampling rate MLP recordings. Therefore, DVD-A discs with these high-resolution audio soundtracks must be decoded by a the DVD player and the resulting analog signals sent to the RSX-1057’s MULTI INPUT.
SACD®: This is a proprietary high-resolution audio standard for use on SACD compatible disc players. As with high-resolution DVD-A discs, the bandwidth is too high for today’s digital connection. Thus, these discs must be decoded by SACD compatible player, with the output sent to the RSX-1057’s MULTI INPUTS.
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MP3: The RSX-1057 also features a decoder for the digital MP3 (MPEG1- Audio Layer 3) compression format. MP3 format recordings are available on the Internet and can be played on portable MP3 players or some disc play- ers that can read CD-ROM discs connected to the RSX-1057’s digital inputs.
MPEG Multichannel: The RSX-1057 can decode MPEG Multichannel digital record- ings. Widely used in Europe, this format uses MPEG data compression to record up to 5.1 channels of discrete digital audio, similar in function to the Dolby Digital and DTS formats.
Automatic Surround Modes
Decoding of digital sources connected to the digital inputs is generally automatic, with de- tection triggered by a “flag” embedded in the digital recording telling the RSX-1057 what decoding format is required. For example, when Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 channel surround is detected, the RSX-1057 activates the proper decoding.
The unit will also detect DTS-ES Matrix 6.1 or DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 discs and activate DTS-ES®Extended Surround decoding. Dol- by Digital Surround EX recordings also trig- ger automatic decoding (although not all Surround EX DVDs have the necessary flag and may require manually activating Sur- round EX decoding).
Likewise, a digital input from an HDCD® en- coded compact disc, a standard CD, a DTS 96/24 disc, or MP3 player will be auto-de- tected and properly decoded to 2CH stereo operation.
Dolby Pro Logic IIx or Rotel XS processing can be configured to be automatically active in all 6.1 or 7.1 channel systems configured with center back speaker(s) and will ensure proper extended surround decoding of all multichannel digital signals, even those that might not otherwise trigger the proper ex- tended surround mode.
In many cases, the RSX-1057 will also rec- ognize a digital signal with Dolby Surround encoding (such as the default soundtrack on many DVDs) and activate Dolby® Pro Logic II® decoding.
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NOTE: A digital signal coming into the RSX-1057 will be recognized and properly decoded. However, on a DVD with multiple soundtracks, you must tell the DVD player which one to send to the RSX-1057. For example, you may need to use the DVD’s menu system to select the Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 soundtrack rather than the default Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby Surround soundtrack.
Additionally, you can configure a default surround mode for each input using the IN- PUT SETUP menu (see the Setup section of this manual). Combined with the auto-de- tection of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, this default surround setting makes operation of the RSX-1057 surround modes totally au- tomatic. For example, if you set Dolby Pro Logic II movie mode as the default for all of your video inputs, the RSX-1057 will auto- matically decode Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks when they are played and use Pro Logic II matrix decoding for all other re- cordings. For stereo inputs such as CD and Tuner, you could select STEREO mode as the default for 2-channel playback or Dolby Pro Logic II music mode if you prefer to hear mu- sic sources in surround sound.
Manually Selecting
Surround Modes
As described in the previous section, the com- bination of auto-detection of Dolby Digital and DTS recordings and setting default sur- round modes for each input during the setup of the RSX-1057 makes operation of surround modes totally automatic. For many users, this automatic surround mode selection will meet all of their listening needs.
For users who prefer a more active role in set- ting surround modes, buttons on the remote and the front panel provide manual selection of surround mode that are not automatically detected or, in some cases, to override an automatic setting.
Manual settings available from the front panel and/or the remote might be used when you want to play:
•Standard 2-channel stereo (left/right speak- ers only) with no surround processing.
•Downmixed 2-channel playback of Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS recordings.
