Z-5500 5.1 and Blu-Ray Dolby digital playback question

[Showtime]

I recently purchased the Z-5500 5.1 speakers along with a new Dell XPS-410 system with Blu-Ray, so far the experience has been mostly fantastic (even though I have only had the pleasure to watch a few Blu-Ray movies at this point). The Z-5500's have performed flawlessly so far...except for one little (well really BIG...though I am about 99.9% sure it is actually a Sony DRM thing Grrrrr!) issue. But anyway, I am running a Dell XPS-410 with Vista, Windows Media Center/Cyberlink PowerDVD for Blu-Ray playback using a Creative XtremeMusic soundcard connecting to the Z-5500 5.1 speakers using the toslink digital optical cable. With this configuration I am able to playback all forms of sound with no problem from Music Cd's, DVD Audio discs, DVD standard movie discs, MPG music stored on my hard drive, internet radio all of these play perfectly over the Optical input and all play in the appropriate modes as needed (IE: Dolby PLII music for regular Music (CD, MPG, Internet radio...Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS surround for DVD movies and DVD Audio discs) The only problem I run into is with the Blu-Ray discs...When I play the Blu-Ray they will only play in the Dolby PLII mode...now the Cyberlink PowerDVD has a option setting that lets you change the speaker setup and one of the options is SPDIF (normal option is 2.0 channel with stereo/Dolby 5.1 (but this option does not allow Blu-Ray to play in Dolby digital 5.1 only Dolby PLII movie mode). Now if I select the SPDIF option in PowerDVD and restart the Blu-ray movie it now starts in Dolby Digital 5.1 as indicated and confirmed by the Z-5500 control center and it will play all the way through the opening Blu-Ray promos and the previews for the movies coming to Blu-Ray with perfect Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (and….at least on the new James Bond Casino Royale movie the animated menu music and sound effects play in perfect Dolby Digital 5.1 also and it all sounds Great! But then when you actually start the movie and the movie begins......SILENCE...zip...nada...not a peep, so I guess my question in search of an answer is, is this an issue with playing Sony Blu-Ray on a PC while using the Toslink Digital connection and the SPDIF PowerDVD option where SONY just does not want me to be able to fully enjoy their product on my very expensive PC/Home Theater setup with the best possible sound by using DRM to piss on my Dolby Digital 5.1 Blu-Ray parade????....or am I missing something here? Thanks in advance to anyone who is brave enough to wade through this and possibly provide me with any information on this issue.

[BozQ]

Hmm. This is tricky to answer you.
First of all, your Z-5500 is capable of decoding Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and PCM 2.0

I would assume that you just played the movie without switching your audio option to Dolby Digital 5.1, which would mean you are playing your movie in Uncompressed PCM 5.1, which your speaker receiver/decoder does not support.

The menus and stuff may be in Dolby Digital, but not the movie itself.
Setting PowerDVD to SPDIF is the correct configuration for your case, since you are using TOSLINK.

I've also noticed you have a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. So I'm rather curious how you are able to hook up between your sound card and your speakers via TOSLINK. I have this faint suspicion that what you've been hearing from your PC is through analog and not TOSLINK.

In either case, if you want your speaker to decode Dolby Digital and DTS, you must configure your X-Fi to passthrough Dolby Digital and DTS stream out. Otherwise, your X-Fi will decode it, even if you set PowerDVD to SPDIF.

I'd try to put it as clearly as I can.

PowerDVD > 2.0 Speakers
This means PowerDVD will do the decoding and output to analog 2.0 speakers

PowerDVD > 5.1 Speakeres
Similarly, PowerDVD will decode and output to analog 5.1 speakers

PowerDVD > SPDIF > X-Fi decode
PowerDVD will not decode anything, and pass the Dolby Digital Stream out, but your X-Fi will decode, and output to your analog 5.1 speakers

PowerDVD > SPDIF > X-Fi passthrough
PowerDVD and X-Fi won't decode anything, and will pass the Dolby Digital Stream out digitally via COAXIAL or TOSLINK to external receivers/decoders. In which, your case, will be your Z-5500.

However, I just remembered you have Windows Vista, so I'm not really sure if this is supported.

PS - No offence to you dude, but could you please break up your paragraphs? It's really difficult to read.

[Showtime]

Hi BozQ thanks for the reply,

No offence taken as you are 100% correct on the paragraph spacing issue I was concentrating on the content of my post and forgot about the form, I will watch that in the future.

As to my soundcard the one that was actually listed when I bought the PC was the Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer (not ExtremeMusic) but Dell is not real clear about this as they also show the XtremeMusic as being available for the XPS-410 in some of its literature so I am not really 100% sure which one it is (I guess it is time to open up the box and find out) but whichever card it actually is it is a Dell branded version and it includes a Toslink optical in and out along with connections for use with the Z-5500 6 channel direct (3 stereo-mini connectors) for 2, 4, or 6 channel PC sound which I do not currently have connected, only the Optical cable is connected between the X-Fi and the Z-5500 at this time so all audio coming over the Toslink optical.

As to the playing of the movies (Blu-Ray: Casino Royale, Chicken Little the only 2 I currently own), both of these indicate they have a Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks along with the 5.1 uncompressed option) I have indeed tried to explicitly select Dolby Digital 5.1 track in the disc menu along with every other option I could find and still I receive no sound from the above movies when the SPDIF PowerDVD option is in use. As I said if I change this back to 2.0 channel 5.1 or stereo option they will play but only using the Dolby PLII movie mode on the Z-5500.

Now to add a kink to things, I just got through watching Total Recall on Blu-Ray that I received today from netflix and lo and behold this one plays both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and the DTS 5.1 soundtracks (the only 2 options it has) with no problem using the PowerDVD SPDIF option. So it is starting to look like it may be an issue with newer Blu-Rays playing over SPDIF optical connection. I guess only time and watching a lot more new and older Blu-Rays will tell...it's a tough job but someones gotta do it LOL.

And yes Vista is a ???? but so far at least in my setup it seems pretty stable and to be working without any obvious problems, and again everything else soundwise seems to be playing as it should and in the modes I expect them to.

Thanks again for your reply, and thanks for the explaination on the PowerDVD options. As time goes by the learning curve for new technology is getting steeper and steeper...fortunately for me learning is still fun and the end result can be pretty enjoyable!

[deserthucker]

Showtime,
Looks as though I have the same problem.
Except I get sound but only 2 channel PCM. I have tried 2 different BD same result.

Set powerdvd to spdif out and no decoding.
Movie starts plays titles in 5.1 and previews all 5.1.

In the main menu select English Dolby 5.1. get PCM2 play back from the receiver Yamaha full HD receiver cant remember the model.
Weird thing is I change the audio track to french or Spanish or what is available it is in 5.1 but English 5.1 plays back 2 channel PCM and the 2 channel PCM is 2 channel.

Now today I got another BD disk to try this one has Dolby true HD 5.1 and Dolby digital 5.1.

Tru HD eng plays back 5.1.
Dolby Digital eng 5.1 plays back 2 pcm
Dolby digital french 5.1 plays back 5.1

don't know what to do.

Checked all the audio settings in power DVD. the audio card. and the DVD.

[RSchmidt624]

i have creative xtrememusic with the z-5500 and blu-ray drive...i have read all over the place the best quality you will get with that setup is going analogue. Dont ask me why but I have tested both ways and its slightly noticable. Give it a shot and see, until creative releases the new X-Fi home theatre 7.1 card with HDMI we are all having to deal with this.