Not with a austar box
Fellas,
Can you get Dolby Digital 5.1 surround when you are watching movies via Austar?
Leroy
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Not with a austar box
from the optical output of my topfield it comes up occasionally on my yammy 2700 as 5.1 when watching box office and showtime, but I thinks its wrong as it sounds like 2.0 to me
Through a Dreambox you can get 5.1 as long as they transmit it. Using Optical Digital Out. Last night for instance on FBO Spiderman was broadcast in Dolby 5.1. (the movie (Flyboys) was advertised as having digital sound however it appeared not to be in Dolby at my end) You need to click info on Dreambox when you are on the channel and it will come up showing Stereo and AC3(if digital)and if they are transmitting AC3 simply change to then this sound source on your dreambox and you can run this through your amp via optical and you have Digital 5.1. Also in your epg the Dolby Digital symbol highlights when it is broadcasted in DolbyDigital.
My (Amp) receiver has only ever picked up Dolby Digital 2.0 from any Austar service. Unfortunately because DD-capable receivers get a "lock" and show the "DD" symbol, most people presume they have 5.1, whereas it's normally 2.0 (stereo) and all you are hearing, is good old Dolby Pro-logic coming from your surround speakers.
On some movies there is definitely two streams of audio.
On the Dbox most channels comes up normally as
1. Stereo
and then sometimes it has 2 Streams
1. Stereo and
2 AC3.
At the moment Spiderman3 and Zodiac on FBO have 2 streams of Audio recognised by a Dbox. (As Above)
Switch to AC3 for Digital Output on the DBox for these channels.
FBO Movies broadcast in 5.1 and if you run optical out from a dream through your dolby amp then that's what you'll get.
Also Showtime 1 and 2 seem to broadcast 5.1 when available. I've never seen movie 1 or 2 do it.
In gemini I know there is a setting to make AC3 the default stream when available. I've always had that ticked and it's worked.
If you do tick that and use dreambox edit to send to a dream that is being used on a system WITHOUT dolby you'll find showtime won't have any sound at all.
The Mystar decoders from a* have optical and RCA spdif out so if the Box office or showtime movies have the audio steam then you should get better audio . 5.1 though ,I do not know!
thanks guys, I'm a gonna hook it up.
Leroy
I'm only getting 2.0 via coaxial cable... i wish i had optical output
Hi-Fi enthusiasts will tell you, Coax digital audio output is better than spidf optical, others will tell you its the same.
You should be getting 5.1 via spidif coax.
You have to hit the audio setup on the remote and choose the audio.
Some movies are only 2 channel, but most newer movies on showtime are 5.1
Some of the FBO channels have same movie running, 1 channel might be 5.1, and other in 2.0.
Anyway, I think the 5.1 audio from broadcasts is not as good as DVD, so you arent missing much.
I have the "flinders" box and hook it up to my AV Reciever via coaxial spdif connection and get 5.1 audio where available. Only this box and the Mystar have this ability on Austar, the rest of austars box's do not.
Jeez. I just swapped in 50 flinders decoders in 3 days and never noticed the SPIDF output. I gotta slow down! Smell the coffee
"swapped in" ?????
Is that the latest crucifixion of the english language for "installed" ?
When i recently had austar re-installed the installer pretty much said that the only Austar box that can do 5.1 was the Mystar. I knew this was not right but I don't like condradicting people so said nothing. He was a nice bloke. I only got Austar back in anticipation of the Mystar (a stupid name I think) as I had Foxtel iQ when it first came out and feel it is the only way pay tv is worth it. I later thought I should have told the installer tactfully that the Flinders box can indeed do 5.1 for the sake of other customers who are not as tech savvy. Hopefully when I eventually have Mystar installed I will have the same installer and I will be able to set him straight.
Let me guess, they all had the power supply die? My two atlas's power supplys both died, apparently its an elcheapo electrolytic capacitor that is at fault, and the part costs less than a dollar to fix. Unfortunately when they died the flinders was not released, I had to settle for a very second hand 8776 that is slower than a slug under a brick and a not to bad 8g76 (looks like an atlas only bigger)
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