I am a complete novice when it comes to Home Theatre. Is it possible to enjoy new DVDs in a two speaker system? If so, how?

At the moment we have a Loewe Xelos A26 and an old Sony DVD player. I had attempted to connect the DVD to my 282 but the resultant hum affected normal listening, plus normal TV is perfectly OK through TV speakers.

When watching the new Gladiator DVD the other evening, whilst visually spectacular the voices were overwhelmed by the music. It was not a pleasant experience. Do have to resign myself to limited DVD viewing in the future or is it possible to improve the auditory experience without adding 3 more boxes? BTW - the latter is not an option. Would a newer model DVD help, decoder (even if only using 2 channels) ... I am very ignorant so all help gratefully received

Another reason for the question is that my parents want to upgrade their HiFi and TV, adding DVD but would prefer a two speaker solution as well

Cheers
Huw

I assume you are connecting the Sony to the 202 via two phonos? Does the DVD player have internal DD/DTS conversion and 6 phono multichannel output? I ask this because if the player is outputting 6 channel audio and you are only using two of them, it can sound very strange/distorted. If this is the case, there should be a menu option on the player to down convert to two channel output. It will probably appear as "Bitstream+2ch" or similar

Thanks Greg, there is indeed a screen menu that allows 2 channel mode but it doesn't seem to help much

Huwge,

All DVD players (bar very very few) have a downmix facility to take the 5.1 channels on the disc and mix them into 2-channel stereo. Usually a DVD player will have both stereo only and multichannel outputs. Sometimes they may only have one or the other. If it only has multichannel outputs, you need to tell the DVD player to downmix otherwise all you will get is music and effects with voices in the very far background (almost unheard). Voices are meant to come out of the centre speaker you see.

The hum you experienced when connecting to your preamp is due to an earth loop being created by plugging the DVD player into a different socket to that of the HiFi. You can get around this in two ways. 1. Plug it into the same rail as the HiFi (this can affect sound quality if your DVD player has a switched mode power supply - many do). 2. Put a line conditioner on the DVD player so the earth is broken and the loop is removed. At least i think it's a line conditioner. Describe the problem at any Maplins store and they'll know what device you need.

You can get a pretty effective result by putting the DVD through your main system. It's quite a blast. It's not surround sound but it's a lot more fun than just going through the TV. It's what I do at home until I can afford surround...

Frank,
Thanks for reply.
So I can use DVD effectively with a 2 speaker system without an AV receiver? I have played around with the modes on DVD, using TV speakers and it didn't seem to make much difference. Given that the DVD is several years old and was fairly low end, I might see whether I can borrow something more current. I also need to investigate this earth loop issue more closely. Sorry to say that your comment about sockets on preamp was lost on me, I just used a spare on the back of 282 not sure which.

Cheers
Huw

Huw,

You should try to get the problem sorted. As Frank says, superior sound quality for films is a real bonus, even if it's only stereo. It ads oodles of emtional impact.

For technical reasons I am currently unable hook my DVD player up to my Naim -- having been used to clear, expressive dialogue and score, I've all but lost interest in watching films.

quote:

Originally posted by Thomas K:
For technical reasons I am currently unable hook my DVD player up to my Naim

Howzat?

The quick answer is yes. I've yet to meet a dvd player that didn't offer a 2-channel stereo output. I recently (due to a house move and space constraints in my new room) decided not to bother with my surround sound processor and the 3 extra speakers that go with it. I had expected to miss them but to be honest I don't, not even a little.


regards,

Tam

Tam,
do you run the DVD through your 32.5 or just the TV speakers? If through pre, did / do you have any issues with "hum"?
Best,
Huw

quote:

Howzat?

Markus, earthing problems that mess with the sound of my pre, took me ages to track down. To avoid the problem I would either have to switch the pre off every time I connect/disconnect my cheap DVD player or get some sort of isolator (won't do the former, might do the latter).

Huw

When I say socket, I mean power socket! If you're using a separate power socket on a separate ring main or via a separate 4-way block to that of the HiFi, an earth loop to the HiFi can be formed when you connect the DVD player to the preamp. The reason this can happen is there can be a very slight difference in earth potential between the earth point on one mains socket and another.

Hope this helps...

Thanks Frank - I still don't understand the physics, but I can pursue a solution now.

Cheers
Huw

One thing to check is which audio setting is in use for the DVD. (This may be obvious but it can catch us off guard.)

I'll use the Naim DVD5 for an example (even though it is recent and not low end it will demonstrate my point). This dvd player has multichannel output and it has a pair of phono sockets for playing a stereo signal. I have used the stereo pair connection a good deal of the time and it can be very fine. However - if the dvd that is playing is playing from the 5.1 channel audio tracks and I'm using the stereo pair output then I do not get good sound (note - the DVD5 does not have downmix facility for 5.1 to 2 channel).
When you want to listen to 2 channel results with full sound then you need to make sure that you have the interconnects connected for stereo, as has already been described, AND make sure that the DVD player is playing the audio track that is intended for stereo output. Note - not all dvds have a separate audio track for stereo output so you may need to make sure you have decoding capability in order to get the downmix from 5.1 to 2 channel. Another note - the difference between playing the 5.1 channel audio track and 2 channel track through stereo output is pretty striking so you will readily hear the difference when you tell the dvd player to change the track that's playing.

Hope this is helpful.
Mark