Rotel RSX-1550 owner manual Automatic Surround Modes, Manually Selecting Surround Modes

32 RSX-1550 Surround Sound Receiver

DTS Music 5.1 Discs: These discs are a variation of audio CDs that include a DTS 5.1 channel recording. The receiver 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 recordings 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 receiver when the DVD player is connected with a digital cable. However, the existing optical and coax digital audio connection standard does not provide sufficient bandwidth for multichannel high sampling rate MLP recordings. Therefore, you must use the HDMI high-definition digital connection to replay the high-resolution audio soundtrack of DVD-A discs. Alternatively, the high-resolution audio can be decoded by the DVD-A player and the resulting analog signals sent to the receiver’s

MULTI INPUT.

SACD®: This is a proprietary high-resolution audio standard for use on SACD compatible disc players. As with DVD-A discs, the bandwidth is too high for today’s digital connection. Thus, these discs must be decoded by a SACD compatible player, with the output sent to the receiver’s

MULTI INPUTS.

MP3: MP3 format recordings, often downloaded from the Internet, can be played on portable MP3 players or some disc players that can read CD-ROM discs. These players can be connected to the receiver’s digital inputs, but must output a digital PCM stream.

Automatic Surround Modes

Decoding of digital sources connected to the digital inputs is generally automatic, with detection triggered by a “flag” embedded in the digital recording telling the receiver what decoding format is required. For example, when Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 channel surround is detected, the receiver 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. Dolby Digital Surround EX recordings also trigger automatic decoding (although not all Surround EX DVDs have the necessary flag and may require manually activating Surround EX decoding).

Likewise, a digital input from a standard compact disc, a DTS 96/24 disc, or DTS-ES 96/24 disc, will be auto-detected 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 extended surround mode.

In many cases, the receiver will also recognize a digital signal with Dolby Surround encoding (such as the default soundtrack on many DVDs) and activate Dolby® Pro Logic II® decoding. Additionally, you can configure a

default surround mode for each input using the INPUT SETUP menu (see the Setup section of this manual).

Combined with the auto-detection of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, this default surround setting makes operation of the receiver surround modes totally automatic. For example, if you set Dolby Pro Logic II movie mode as the default for all of your video inputs, the receiver will automatically decode Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks when they are played and use Pro Logic II matrix decoding for all other recordings.

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 music sources in surround sound.

Note: A digital signal coming into the receiver 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 receiver. 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.

Manually Selecting

Surround Modes

As described in the previous section, the combination of auto-detection of Dolby Digital and DTS recordings and setting default surround modes for each input during the setup of the receiver 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 setting 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 speakers only) with no surround processing.

•Downmixed 2-channel playback of Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS recordings.

•Dolby 3-channel stereo (left/right/center) of 2-channel recordings.

•5-channel or 7-channel stereo from 2-channel recordings.

•One of four DSP modes for DSP concert hall simulation from 2- channel music recordings.

•Dolby Pro Logic II cinema or music mode matrix decoding of 2- channel recordings.

•DTS Neo:6 cinema or music mode matrix decoding of 2-channel recordings.

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