Just got a new Surround Sound Receiver and ned some help.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

It's not the most game related post as I'm more than able to tell where to plug the AV Jacks, but my two questions are this:

One, Are Dolby Pro Logic II devices such as my Wii and Gamecube backwards compatible with Dolby Pro Logic 1 receivers from a surround standpoint?

Two, and this one's off topic, but do they still make DVD players which feature an analog 5.1 audio out? This means that the re actually need to be 6 separate analog RCA jacks on the back of the DVD player for audio from all 5 channels and then one more for the Sub.

I'm just trying to get this sorted out as I already have a Pioneer DVD player to match this one, but It only has Optical, Coaxial and Stereo out not analog 5.1 compatibility.

This is the receiver I just got if anyone's wondering or needs to know for some reason: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... 98.Support

[Droid party]

Ok, to answer question 1, yes your pl2 devices will work just fine with pl1. The main difference between the two is that with pl1 the rear speakers are seen as 1 channel.

Question 2: You can mainly only find cheap players that output 5.1 analogue. Most of your name brand players have abandoned it and it is getting harder to find even cheap players that still support it. At least that is my experience selling the stuff down here in Australia. I doubt that the US market is much different.

Now looking at the manual I see that this unit supports optical and coax which are the better way to hook up your dvd player so I'm assuming your using the analogue input for your dvd because they are already taken by something else (cosoles I'm guessing).

I hope this info helps.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Ok, to answer question 1, yes your pl2 devices will work just fine with pl1. The main difference between the two is that with pl1 the rear speakers are seen as 1 channel.

Question 2: You can mainly only find cheap players that output 5.1 analogue. Most of your name brand players have abandoned it and it is getting harder to find even cheap players that still support it. At least that is my experience selling the stuff down here in Australia. I doubt that the US market is much different.

Now looking at the manual I see that this unit supports optical and coax which are the better way to hook up your dvd player so I'm assuming your using the analogue input for your dvd because they are already taken by something else (cosoles I'm guessing).

I hope this info helps.

Thanks!

That really does help me as I'd really wanted to know if my D-PL:II GC and Wii games would sound the same or similar to my D-PL:1 Surround capable N64/SNES titles and be compatible with the box.

As for the 5.1 capabilities, from what I've been able to gather my box doesn't support all digital 5.1 or DTS via Optical or Coax. At least that's what I think the manual's trying to tell me: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/p ... X-D498.pdf

Anyhow, what can you make out from the manual I linked you to?

Also does anyone have a remote for this thing, or a compatible remote? From the manual's description I think I may have to return this as it seems to rely heavily on the remote for any sort of programming or settings to the box. And I really don't want to have to take this thing back.

[Frag Mortuus]

Your receiver has Toslink (optical) inputs so it can process any info sent to it through an optical output on a source and process it accordingly.

As far as analog surround input, its actually not reserved for cheap players (at least here in the states) because it is actually the only way to receive pure, uncompressed sound. The analog inputs, where each speaker has its own RCA input, can process PCM signals which is a discrete uncompressed signal that is often more clear and has a higher bitrate than Dolby Digital 5.1. Of course, this depends on the disk and whether or not, it contains a PCM source. You will still be able to process a DTS or DD5.1 signal using the analog outputs, however, your receiver will still say that it is receiving a PCM signal, because either the disk or your receiver will convert it to PCM (but the sound quality remains the same as the original source).

Now, heres the kicker. If you ever upgrade to a stand alone Blu-ray player, buy one with the analog outputs because you can send your receiver a DTS HD Master Audio Signal or a Dolby Digital True HD signal via the analog inputs and your receiver will accept the signal and convert it to lossless PCM and output the sound in its orginal format. Your receiver will still say PCM on the front, but you will be hearing the new audio codecs. That is the ONLY way to hear these new formats without having a new receiver equipped with HDMI and the native support for those codecs.

Im a bit of a home theater nut, so if you ever have anymore questions let me know!

Hope this helps!

Edit: I have an older Pioneer receiver as well and I love it. As far as the remote is concerned you can either buy a universal remote (i recommend the Logitech Harmony 880) or contact Pioneer to see if they have one they can sell you!

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Are you absolutely sure?

From what I can tell the manual is having fun throwing around exactly how the 5.1 works on this thing and makes no mention on if the Toslink or Coax inputs are capable of decoding the 5.1 mix.

Also, could you point me in the right direction of some nice (But cheap!) Analog 5.1 DVD players currently in production? My current player is an extremely nice Pioneer DV-525 player with a 24 Bit DAC but lacks analog 5.1 and progressive scan (Only SD outputs and SD component along with Toslink and Coax) and I'd like something similar but cheap. I found some crappy Coby players on Amazon that still support analog 5.1, but I'd like something a little more reliable and generally not garbage.

There's a nice older Sony player on eBay with analog 5.1, but I'm not wanting to spend the ludicrous $60 the guy wants for it shipped.

[Droid party]

As far as analog surround output(sic), its actually not reserved for cheap players ...

Sorry perhaps I should have fleshed out my answer a little more. It is usually reserved for cheap and high end players, but not really anything in between. However, once again that is only my experience down here.

For just playing a dvd, I don't believe that there will be any real advantage for you to use analogue 5.1 compared to coax or toslink in this instance. Now in saying that I agree completely with Frag Mortuus that if you buy a blu-ray player in the future, running the 5.1 analogue will be beneficial. But for strait dvd for the sake of convenience I'd suggest just using coax or optical.

Now for the remote, I'd say to give Pioneer a call on their customer service number (8 0 0 – 4 2 1 – 1 4 0 4) and see if they will sell you a replacement remote. The Logitech harmony remotes are good but nothing beats getting the original.

Hope this helps

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

As far as analog surround output(sic), its actually not reserved for cheap players ...

Sorry perhaps I should have fleshed out my answer a little more. It is usually reserved for cheap and high end players, but not really anything in between. However, once again that is only my experience down here.

For just playing a dvd, I don't believe that there will be any real advantage for you to use analogue 5.1 compared to coax or toslink in this instance. Now in saying that I agree completely with Frag Mortuus that if you buy a blu-ray player in the future, running the 5.1 analogue will be beneficial. But for strait dvd for the sake of convenience I'd suggest just using coax or optical.

Now for the remote, I'd say to give Pioneer a call on their customer service number (8 0 0 – 4 2 1 – 1 4 0 4) and see if they will sell you a replacement remote. The Logitech harmony remotes are good but nothing beats getting the original.

Hope this helps

Thanks man!

Like Fragg said though, it would be nice to somehow get the straight uncompressed PCM streams via the analog 5.1, as for the remote, I already tried Pioneer's website and they are out of stock.

I found one on eBay, but it's horrendously overpriced: http://cgi.ebay.com/ORIGINAL-PIONEER-A- ... dZViewItem

Seriously?! $60 for the standard USED remote control?

[Droid party]

Not a thing to do with your sound system, but happy birthday dude.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Not a thing to do with your sound system, but happy birthday dude.

Thanks!

I'm finally getting a chance to set all of this stuff up tomorrow so hopefully everything goes off without a hitch!