ROTEL RSP-1098 - Manual (Page 26)

26 RSP-1098 Surround Sound Processor
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. However, when the
digital signal is decoded using an HDCD
decoder like that in the RSP-1098, they will
provide exceptional musical reproduction.
DTS Music 5.1 Discs: These discs are a
variation of audio CDs that include a DTS 5.1
channel recording. The RSP-1098 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 record-
ings are available on DVD-A discs. DVD-A discs
may include multiple versions of the record-
ing 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 (stan-
dard PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS 5.1 can
be decoded by the RSP-1098 when the DVD
player is connected with a digital cable. How-
ever, the existing optical and coax digital
connection standard does not provide suffi-
cient 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
RSP-1098’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 RPS-1098’s MULTI INPUTS.
MP3: The RSP-1098 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 RSP-1098’s digital inputs.
MPEG Multichannel: The RSP-1098 can
decode MPEG Multichannel digital recordings.
Widely used in Europe, this format uses MPEG
data compression to record up to 5.1 chan-
nels of discrete digital audio, similar in func-
tion to the Dolby Digital and DTS formats.
Automatic Surround
Modes
Decoding of digital sources connected to the
digital inputs is generally automatic, with
detection triggered by a “flag” embedded in
the digital recording telling the RSP-1098 what
decoding format is required. For example,
when Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 channel
surround is detected, the RSP-1098 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. Dolby Digital
Surround EX recordings also trigger automatic
decoding (although not all Surround EX DVDs
have the necessary flag and may require manu-
ally activating Surround EX decoding). Like-
wise, a digital input from an HDCD
® encoded
compact disc, a standard CD, a DTS 96/24
disc, or MP3 player will be auto-detected and
properly decoded to 2CH stereo operation.
Rotel XS processing is automatically active in
all 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 extended surround mode.
In many cases, the RSP-1098 will also recog-
nize 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
RSP-1098 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 RSP-1098. For ex-
ample, 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 sur-
round mode for each input using the INPUT
SETUP menu (see the
Setup section of this
manual). Combined with the auto-detection of
Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, this default sur-
round setting makes operation of the RSP-1098
surround modes totally automatic. For example,
if you set Dolby Pro Logic II movie mode as
the default for all of your video inputs, the
RSP-1098 will automatically decode Dolby Digi-
tal 5.1 and DTS soundtracks when they are
played and use Pro Logic II matrix decoding
for all other recordings. 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 pre-
fer to hear music 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 surround
modes for each input during the setup of the
RSP-1098 makes operation of surround modes
totally automatic. For many users, this auto-
matic surround mode selection will meet all
of their listening needs.
For users who prefer a more active role in setting
surround modes, buttons on the remote and
the front panel provide manual selection of
surround mode that are not automatically de-
tected or, in some cases, to override an auto-
matic setting.