I have a few suggestions......
1) Try the analog audio outs from the DVD player.
2) Like Royy suggested try the Coax instead of the optical.
However, I must inform you that there is a multitude of things that could be at work individually or simultaneously. Aside from the obvious, like speaker characteristics, room acoustics, Interconnect characteristics, Speaker placement, Speaker cable characteristics, just to name a few, could all be the culprit.
Very nice external DACs can be had, here at A'gon, for very little. I can tell you from first hand experience that an external DAC can really work magic. But you need to have a handle on your systems specific strentghs/weaknesses or that magic may slip right through your hands. i.e. A great DAC might not sound so great if you have a crappy sounding IC mucking things up.
A little tweaking and experimnenting can go a long way.
1) Try the analog audio outs from the DVD player.
2) Like Royy suggested try the Coax instead of the optical.
However, I must inform you that there is a multitude of things that could be at work individually or simultaneously. Aside from the obvious, like speaker characteristics, room acoustics, Interconnect characteristics, Speaker placement, Speaker cable characteristics, just to name a few, could all be the culprit.
Very nice external DACs can be had, here at A'gon, for very little. I can tell you from first hand experience that an external DAC can really work magic. But you need to have a handle on your systems specific strentghs/weaknesses or that magic may slip right through your hands. i.e. A great DAC might not sound so great if you have a crappy sounding IC mucking things up.
A little tweaking and experimnenting can go a long way.