Filter
Top Products
29
English
Other Digital Formats
Several other digital formats are not surround
sound formats at all, but rather systems for
digital 2-channel recordings.
PCM 2-channel: This is an uncompressed
2-channel digital signal such as that used for
standard CD recordings and some DVD re
-
cordings, particularly of older films.
HDCD
®
: This system uses higher bit rates
and a variety of enhancements to improve
the sonic performance compared to standard
audio CDs. These discs, labeled HDCD, can
be played on standard CD players. Howev
-
er, when the digital signal is decoded using
an HDCD decoder like that in the RSX-1057,
they will provide exceptional musical repro
-
duction.
DTS Music 5.1 Discs: These discs are a
variation of audio CDs that include a DTS 5.1
channel recording. The RSX-1057 decodes
these discs just like a DTS movie soundtrack
when played on a CD player or DVD player
with a digital output connection.
DVD-A music discs: Taking advantage of
the increased storage capacity of the DVD
disc, new high bit rate multichannel audio re
-
cordings are available on DVD-A discs. DVD-
A discs may include multiple versions of the
recording including standard PCM stereo,
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and 96kHz/24
bit (or higher) multichannel recordings using
MLP compression. Several of these formats
(standard PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS 5.1
can be decoded by the RSX-1057 when the
DVD player is connected with a digital ca
-
ble. However, the existing optical and coax
digital connection standard does not provide
sufficient bandwidth for multichannel high
sampling rate MLP recordings. Therefore,
DVD-A discs with these high-resolution audio
soundtracks must be decoded by a the DVD
player and the resulting analog signals sent
to the RSX-1057’s MULTI INPUT.
SACD
®
: This is a proprietary high-resolution
audio standard for use on SACD compatible
disc players. As with high-resolution DVD-A
discs, the bandwidth is too high for today’s
digital connection. Thus, these discs must
be decoded by SACD compatible player,
with the output sent to the RSX-1057’s MULTI
INPUTS.
MP3: The RSX-1057 also features a decoder
for the digital MP3 (MPEG1- Audio Layer 3)
compression format. MP3 format recordings
are available on the Internet and can be played
on portable MP3 players or some disc play
-
ers that can read CD-ROM discs connected
to the RSX-1057’s digital inputs.
MPEG Multichannel: The RSX-1057 can
decode MPEG Multichannel digital record
-
ings. Widely used in Europe, this format
uses MPEG data compression to record up
to 5.1 channels of discrete digital audio,
similar in function to the Dolby Digital and
DTS formats.
Automatic Surround
Modes
Decoding of digital sources connected to the
digital inputs is generally automatic, with de
-
tection triggered by a “flag” embedded in the
digital recording telling the RSX-1057 what
decoding format is required. For example,
when Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 channel
surround is detected, the RSX-1057 activates
the proper decoding.
The unit will also detect DTS-ES Matrix 6.1
or DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 discs and activate
DTS-ES
®
Extended Surround decoding. Dol-
by Digital Surround EX recordings also trig
-
ger automatic decoding (although not all
Surround EX DVDs have the necessary flag
and may require manually activating Sur
-
round EX decoding).
Likewise, a digital input from an HDCD
®
en-
coded compact disc, a standard CD, a DTS
96/24 disc, or MP3 player will be auto-de-
tected and properly decoded to 2CH stereo
operation.
Dolby Pro Logic IIx or Rotel XS processing
can be configured to be automatically active
in all 6.1 or 7.1 channel systems configured
with center back speaker(s) and will ensure
proper extended surround decoding of all
multichannel digital signals, even those that
might not otherwise trigger the proper ex
-
tended surround mode.
In many cases, the RSX-1057 will also rec
-
ognize a digital signal with Dolby Surround
encoding (such as the default soundtrack on
many DVDs) and activate Dolby
®
Pro Logic
II
®
decoding.
NOTE: A digital signal coming into the RSX-1057
will be recognized and properly decoded.
However, on a DVD with multiple soundtracks,
you must tell the DVD player which one to
send to the RSX-1057. For example, you may
need to use the DVD’s menu system to select
the Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 soundtrack
rather than the default Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby
Surround soundtrack.
Additionally, you can configure a default
surround mode for each input using the IN
-
PUT SETUP menu (see the Setup section of
this manual). Combined with the auto-de-
tection of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, this
default surround setting makes operation
of the RSX-1057 surround modes totally au
-
tomatic. For example, if you set Dolby Pro
Logic II movie mode as the default for all of
your video inputs, the RSX-1057 will auto
-
matically decode Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS
soundtracks when they are played and use
Pro Logic II matrix decoding for all other re
-
cordings. For stereo inputs such as CD and
Tuner, you could select STEREO mode as the
default for 2-channel playback or Dolby Pro
Logic II music mode if you prefer to hear mu
-
sic sources in surround sound.
Manually Selecting
Surround Modes
As described in the previous section, the com-
bination of auto-detection of Dolby Digital
and DTS recordings and setting default sur-
round modes for each input during the setup
of the RSX-1057 makes operation of surround
modes totally automatic. For many users, this
automatic surround mode selection will meet
all of their listening needs.
For users who prefer a more active role in set-
ting surround modes, buttons on the remote
and the front panel provide manual selection
of surround mode that are not automatically
detected or, in some cases, to override an
automatic setting.
Manual settings available from the front panel
and/or the remote might be used when you
want to play:
• Standard 2-channel stereo (left/right speak
-
ers only) with no surround processing.
• Downmixed 2-channel playback of Dolby
Digital 5.1 or DTS recordings.