Newbie confused on 2.1 HT


HELP! I have new PSB speakers and a REL SUB, and would like to pair them with NAD amplification in a 60/40 music and HT system. (I'm looking at NAD C355 or c375 integrated to drive the speakers)

I currently have a very old Denon 2 channel receiver (which is a little bright with the PSBs) with a crap SONY dvd player (with progressive scan and 5.1 decoding), but with movies that are only mixed in 5.1, the voice channel is VERY quiet.

If I switch out the Denon for an NAD integrated, won't I have the same issue with the voice channel? How can I remedy this? Do I need an A/V receiver even though I only want two channel with a sub?

I currently don't care about Blu Ray or HDMI connectivity as my flat screen is old and music/sound is the priority by far.

Thanks, Chris
128x128bigasscab
If you are running a 2.1 set up you do not want the DVD movies you are watching to output a 5.1 signal. Not only will your voice or center channel be very quit, you will be completely missing the rear channel information. What you need to do is go into the audio set up menu for each DVD you play and switch the audio from Dolby or DTS 5.1 into whatever two channel mixdown option the specific disc provides, usually Dolby 2.0. This will alow you to hear all of the info on the disc.
DVD players output DD5.1 (or DTS) for movies. You need to go into the DVD player's audio menu and change the output from Dolby Digital to PCM or STEREO. This will down-mix the 5.1 tracks of discreet audio into 2 tracks (L&R stereo). Currently you are missing all of the audio that is intended for the center channel speaker and the surround speakers. Changing the setup is going to make you a very happy person!

Enjoy,

TIC
Thanks for the reponses.

Rcrerar - adjusting the audio options in DVDs works for those that offer that menu, but I'm finding about 20% of our Netflix rentals don't contain that option.

Reubent - my DVD player doesn't have an audio menu, so that is probably the first thing I need to replace.

-C
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I've never seen a DVD player that didn't have a menu for adjusting audio setting. Maybe it is called sound, but it is there. It is not the disk menu, its the setup menu in the DVD player.

Look in the manual. If you can't find it, reply back with the model number and I'll look in the manual and find it for you.

TIC
Bac,

The manual describes how to get to the audio menu. If you have the manual the setup stuff starts on page 63 and the audio specifc stuff is on page 68. If you don't have the manual, google is your friend. Do a search for "Sony DVP-NS575P Manual" and you will find a link to Sony eSupport where you can download the manual. There is also a link there to chat with Sony Technical Support. Here's the URL to the site:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=DVPNS575P

I read the instructions and they are kind of cryptic to me. If you run into any issue I suggest using the link to Sony Technical Support.

Enjoy,

TIC