6.1 Audio output in my VIP722

[saseenthar]

I noticed today that I am getting 6.1 audio output in my VIP 722. This is happening only with CNN, all other HD channels are coming up with 5.1 audio I don't subscribe to any premium channels. I connect my DVR to onkyo receiver using HDMI with 7.1 speaker setup and my onkyo can show the audio / video resolution. Of course given the type of content we receive in CNN I can't tell or hear whether there is actually any output in the 6th (back) channel

First of all I want to know whether the receiver is even capable of outputting anything above 5.1 or is it some kind of bug in the software version. The software version is L797.

 

[king3pj]

I noticed today that I am getting 6.1 audio output in my VIP 722. This is happening only with CNN, all other HD channels are coming up with 5.1 audio I don't subscribe to any premium channels. I connect my DVR to onkyo receiver using HDMI with 7.1 speaker setup and my onkyo can show the audio / video resolution. Of course given the type of content we receive in CNN I can't tell or hear whether there is actually any output in the 6th (back) channel

First of all I want to know whether the receiver is even capable of outputting anything above 5.1 or is it some kind of bug in the software version. The software version is L797.

For some reason CNN has been like that for a while. I thought it was strange the first time I saw it light up on my receiver while watching CNN too. It's actually Dolby Digital EX. I'm not sure why they are choosing to use that for news broadcasts when everything comes from the front speakers but they have been doing it for a while now.

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/consumer/technology/home-theater/dolby-digital-ex.html

 

[saseenthar]

thanks, yes I get that the audio is encoded in Dolby Digital EX, that brings up the question whether the dish has the technical capability to broadcast in dolby TrueD or DTSMA formats in future. Of course I understand the price will shoot up again once you start sticking the DTS logo on the receiver.

 

[king3pj]

thanks, yes I get that the audio is encoded in Dolby Digital EX, that brings up the question whether the dish has the technical capability to broadcast in dolby TrueD or DTSMA formats in future. Of course I understand the price will shoot up again once you start sticking the DTS logo on the receiver.

I don't think you will see lossless Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio on cable/satellite any time soon. The bitrates those formats use just for audio on most blu-ray movies is about the same as the bitrate Dish uses for an HD TV channel. If they started going to lossless audio they would need twice the bandwidth they are currently using for each station.

Even if satellite bandwidth wasn't an issue, none of these channels broadcast in lossless audio formats on any provider.