722 and surround sound/audio formats?

[mhowie]

I am taking delivery of a new HDTV this week and would like to get some opinion/insight relative to what I need to do (if anything) in the surround sound department.

My current setup is 5.1 (optical audio cable) with a Denon A/V receiver of the vintage which offered Dolby Pro-Logic and Digital...but was manufactured just before DTS burst onto the scene (approx. 10 years old).

I will probably break down and ultimately add a Blu-Ray player to the mix, but I am curious for Dish-supplied material and for upconverted DVDs, what am I missing in the audio department by maintaining my existing hardware (receiver and speakers) setup versus acquiring a new receiver and possibly tweaking the speaker configuration?

Thanks for your guidance,

 

[Jim S.]

I don't know if Dish provides any advanced audio codecs on their 1080p VOD, but everything else they broadcast is no more advanced than Dolby Digital 5.1, and lots of it isn't even that.

 

[KAB]

There is no MTS over normal sat, so you won't be missing anything.

 

[harshness]

As long as your Denon can support both PCM and bitstream Dolby Digital, you're good to go for the ViP722. Programming from DISH Network will likely be limited to DD5.1 (at best) for a while.

For Blu-ray, you'll find discs that support Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD but they are not required to enjoy 5.1 channel surround sound.

 

[mhowie]

Guys, thanks for the input thus far. I should have noted my Denon is an AVR-3200. I didn't know if lacking DTS processing capabilities would be that big of a deal but it sounds as if the majority of DVDs are DD and not DTS? The fact Dish broadcasts everything (with the possible exception of its 1080p VOD offerings) in DD suggests my old technology might still get the job done!

 

[KAB]

Guys, thanks for the input thus far. I should have noted my Denon is an AVR-3200. I didn't know if lacking DTS processing capabilities would be that big of a deal but it sounds as if the majority of DVDs are DD and not DTS? The fact Dish broadcasts everything (with the possible exception of its 1080p VOD offerings) in DD suggests my old technology might still get the job done!

I have only come across one DVD in the last 6 months (or probably more) that had DTS.