STR-DN1080 - detection and decoding of movie audio

[Nicopolous]

Hi.

I have just purchased a Sony STR-DN1080. I have attached a 5.1 speaker system and set up the receiver to my liking and everything works very well, except for the following where I am confused about how the receiver is decoding different sources.

I have set the receiver "Sound Field" to "Dolby Surround". When I play a movie that has a Dolby 5.1 (or 7.1) track encoded, it works great. When I play a movie that has a DTS (or DTS-MA) track encoded it also plays well. However, when I play a DTS movie I notice that the surround effects are MUCH better if I select "Neural:X" as the Sound Field. I was under the impression that the receiver should detect the audio track encoded as either Dolby or DTS and use the most appropriate decoder, without me having to check every time I play a movie and select the mode myself. However, it sounds as if it's not doing this and if I play DTS while in Dolby mode, then the receiver is "forcing" the DTS track through Dolby decoding and results in a sub-optimal output.

The input to the device is from a PC, using Plex.  I have set up Plex to passthrough (bitstream) the audio to the Sony receiver so it should be doing all the decoding.

I tried using the A.F.D. mode and this does what I was expecting - playing Dolby through the Dolby decoder and DTS through the DTS decoder (either the Dolby or Neural:X indicator is lit on the front of the display, depending on the source). Although this is great, I also play movies with only 2 channel PCM audio. In this circumstance I want the player to apply Dolby Surround (like the old Dolby PLII) that will emulate surround sound for me. If I play through A.F.D. mode, I am under the impression it will just output 2 channel stereo. I will then need to manually put the receiver in Dolby Surround mode.

My old Sony receiver (10 years old) used to do what I outlined above - i.e. use proper Dolby or DTS decoding if it's in the source, but if it's a stereo source it would use Dolby PLII. That's what I want this (much more expensive) receiver to do.

Is my understanding above correct? Or am I missing something?

Any help very gratefully received!

Thanks.

[EdwinaU]

Hi Nicopolous,

Thanks for joining the community. You can use the search field in the help guide for your product here for tips on configuring your system.

Best wishes,

EdwinaU

[Nicopolous]

Hi,

I have already read the entire help guidance on the product.  The answer to my question is not there, which is why I was posting here.

Can you please read my question and then you will be able to understand why I have posted in this forum.

[Nicopolous]

Bump. Can anyone help? 

[jmonwater]

I cannot help, at least not yet, but I have what appears to be a very similar problem. I have a Sony Blueray player attached to my receiver via HDMI cable. The player supposedly supports DTS. However, when playing a DTS track the receiver never indicates DTS on the front panel, as I believe it should. The audio sounds okay, but like you, I can detect that it is not true DTS.

[freddy400]

Hello, did you manage to sort this issue?

I have a firestick plugged directly into my STR-DN1040. Dolby 5.1 streams work great and shows Dolby Digital + on the receiver. My main issue is that if i'm what something on Netflix that is only 2.0 it will only output 2 channels on the receiver regardless of changing the sound field to anything.

I was hoping to get a Pro Logic conversion, anyway around this?

[jmonwater]

I have the STR-DN1080 with a ROKU plugged directly into it and have the same problem. Some 5.1 works fine, example: Amazon Prime. But Netflix NEVER run in true 5.1 even though the movie/show indicates it is available in 5.1. Netflix blames Roku.