"ronchito" wrote in message
. net...
hello, i am in the process of creating a home theater system. i am
purchasing speakers one at a time, so please bear with me on that one.
right now, i have an integra 5.3 surround receiver, a sony dvp-ns715p
dvd player, and 3 out of 6 speakers from the totem dreamcatcher
series. to this point, i've only purchased the two L/R fronts and a
center channel. the sub will be next when i can afford it. anyway, i
have L/R audio cables hooked up from the dvd player to the receiver,
with a third cable (yellow) for video. is the reason why i am forced
to use dolby pro logic II (versus straight up digital) because i am
not using the digital coaxial cable? if i connect only the digital
coaxial cable, will that take care of both the video and the audio
signals and give me the true dolby 5.1 experience (instead of the pro
logic decoding)? anyone who can help explain my options and what my
best bets are given the equipment i have, i would be greatly
appreciative! thanks very much,

chris


The digital coax cable or an optical cable only carry audio, but they carry
the full discrete multiple channel audio you need for true 5.1 sound. The
reason you are only able to use ProLogic right now is that you are sending a
stereo L/R signal to your receiver, which then needs to decode that stereo
signal into a "matrixed surround" - ProLogic. In other words, your receiver
is taking two channels of audio and "guessing" how to split them up into 6
channels. Considering what it does, I'm often amazed at how good ProLogic
is, but it doesn't compete with true 5.1. If you get a coax cable to carry
your digital audio, you can continue to use the yellow video cable that you
already have.

Bill Balmer