I've a neophyte question regarding this: I must have a misunderstanding of DVD-A and Dolby Digital. I thought DVD-Audio discs were discs whose audio WAS encoded in Dolby Digital. Wrong?
My first experience with this is on the NIN "With Teeth" DualDisc (an ill executed format IMHO). On the non-CD side, for those of you who don't have it, there includes a stereo playlist, a multichannel playlist, and one music video. When I play the music video, the Dolby Digital on my receiver kicks in and it sounds great. But I'm having all sorts of trouble getting the audio tracks to play correctly. Hence my newbie confusion: I thought that DVD-Audio discs had audio tracks mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 or at least 2.1. What's the difference between the multi-channel audio track that goes with that video, and the multi-channel audio tracks for the playlist? Is this DualDisc especially troublesome, or will all DualDiscs be like this? Thanks.
Does your DVD player support DVD-A (or SACD which is another hi-res format)?
If not then you will only get multichannel in the supporting format - either DD or DTS. DualDisc is a new format usually (not always) carrying a DVD-A layer and is proving troublesome on some players. They show a warning for this on the disc covers.
If you have a dvd player that supports dvd-a, and is hooked up for dvd-a, either with the firewire or 5.1 channel cables, and your receiver supports either of those, then you will get the disc to play in dvd-a mode. The discs also have Dolby/DTS on them so that if someone doesn't have the capapbility to play them as dvd-a, they can still listen to the surround mixes and such. The dvd-a will be better resolution. With dualdisc, most of this goes out the window, because it is an odd format that the industry didn't do much planning for. The cd sides don't conform to standard, so they might not play in certain players, and the dvd side skips or will not play in certain players. There supposedly is a rumour out that says they are trying to make dualdisc conform to both standards, and be thinner so it won't jam in autoload players, but until then I would recommend not to use them, as the manufacturer will void the warranty if your player breaks playing one of those.
My Rantz can help you with that player. It will play all these formats. It does not have the "Firewire"digital connection that Josh mentioned. Very few do. You need six RCA ("phono") analogue connections from the player to the receiver, and then select the "External 5.1" receiver input.
Just to say DVD-A (DVD-Audio) is a disc format that is different from DVD-V (DVD-Video). "Dolby Digital" is an audio format for DVD-V.