My Sony Manual is confusing

[admin_exported]

Last August year I treated myself to home-theatre surround sound system, but for one reason or another up until now have had little time to explore it capabilities, so am making-up for lost time now. I have a Sony receiver (DA 2400ES) and it appears to offer two programmed sound Fields and I quote from the Sony manual:

Option one: Auto Format Direct which allows you to listen to a higher fidelity sound and select the decoding mode for listening to a 2 channel stereo sound as multi channel sound.

Option two: You can take advantage of surround sound simply by selecting one of the receiver’s sound fields. They bring the exciting and powerful sound of movie theatres into your home. They then provide a description of three sound fields available.

But what I what to know is; can’t I just view and listen to the movie as the director intended, rather than have to use these pre-programmed EQ settings? Am wrong to think my Blu-ray DVD player will select the most appropriate sound field which is then decoded by the receiver? And is there a difference between DTS /True HD/Nero 6? If yes which one is the best? My manual tells me the Sony receiver can decode all these various sound fields.

Many thanks

 

[The_Lhc]

I think Auto Format Direct WILL play the soundtrack as intended, unless you specifically tell the receiver you want to use something else. Perhaps you should try it and see? If you're bitstreaming the audio from the blu-ray player you should get the blue light appear on the amp and it'll tell you waht format the audio is in.

 

[Anonymous]

Just leave it on afd auto

 

[lee37]

AFD as it says is direct sound, you can use afd for 5.1 surround sound as well.

the blu rays sound tracks play as they are intended.

the only way you would use pro logic 2 or esurround for blu ray if you want to play a 5.1 source through a 7.1 set up.

in other words force the music to go through the additional 2 speakers.

i use this and i can not tell any loss in sound quality

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply; so keeping the setting on AFD is the answer?

It's just the way I read Sony's description of the AFD mode is listen to a soundtrack that has been recorded in 2.1 sound (stero) so not true surround sound but will deliver through all 5 speakers to simulate true surround sound?

Also should I always chose the DTS soundtrack instead of 5.1 if the choice is available?

Many thanks

 

[aliEnRIK]

You dont want either of those soundfields (At least not for dolby digital etc)

And yes, choose DTS where possible (Doesnt matter for DTS HD and DOLBY HD though as they both (theoritically) work the same

Put a dvd in and get DOLBY DIGITAL coming up on the amp (Will need to select BITSTREAM on your player). This is of course assuming you have connected via a digital cable?

Assuming the above works eventually then do the same for a DTS source etc

 

[b33k34]

I agree - the Sony manual is very confusing about what the different settings do and how they work. From memory-

My sources are: Humax Foxsat HD, Sony Blu Ray, Sony PS3 and a Music Server. Most of the time i have AFD selected for all inputs (it remembers the last setting you used for an input so it's possible to always have your music playing in 2Ch stereo whilst having the TV input delivering pseudo-surround using ProLogic (or NeuralTHX or Prologic2 - the type of processing is hidden deep within the on screen display and it's not possible to change via the remote).

If you have a Pseudo-surround mode switched on then I'm pretty sure a true surround mode (Dolby Digital or any of the Blu Ray sound fields) will always over ride it. Eg my Foxsat is set to normally give me Prologic surround on stereo TV programmes but automatically gives me proper 5.1 (and the blue light comes on on the amp) when I'm watching a BBC HD show with proper 5.1 sound.

BluRay/DVD is always picked up as a multi-channel sound so the only time you would want to over-ride the AFD setting is with a 2Channel Blu Ray or DVD soundtrack (and there are a few).

I do sometimes use the "2" setting of the Sony soundfields but I went into the on screen menus and turned down the 'intensity' of it to 50%. I find this one adds a bit of extra 'rumble' to action movies without being completely over the top.