Dish and dolby sound

[turbosat]

Trying to help a friend out who has Dishnetwork receivers, and sorry I do not yet know which models , setting up
a home theater receiver. I know he has receivers with dvrs in them, I think he has two of them, and they power other "slave" receivers in other rooms, which don't have dvrs. I'm curious about whether any of these later model DVRs have surround sound outputs, or what equipment he might need to get surround sound working in his basement man-cave. I know that's not much detail, just trying to get a handle on what type home theater-sound receiver he will need. Already has the speakers and subwoofer, center speaker, and speaker cable.
Any info would be helpful, thanks.

 

[king3pj]

Trying to help a friend out who has Dishnetwork receivers, and sorry I do not yet know which models , setting up
a home theater receiver. I know he has receivers with dvrs in them, I think he has two of them, and they power other "slave" receivers in other rooms, which don't have dvrs. I'm curious about whether any of these later model DVRs have surround sound outputs, or what equipment he might need to get surround sound working in his basement man-cave. I know that's not much detail, just trying to get a handle on what type home theater-sound receiver he will need. Already has the speakers and subwoofer, center speaker, and speaker cable.
Any info would be helpful, thanks.

Sounds like he has hoppers and joeys. Any HD DVR from dish is capable of Dolby 5.1 surround sound. They have optical outputs or if you have a newer audio receiver that accepts HDMI you can plug that from the DVR to the surround receiver. I use HDMI directly to my audio receiver for both of my surround receivers.

From the information you provided it doesn't sound like he has a surround sound receiver. I use a Onkyo TX609 in my man cave and a Sony model in another room. Denon Pioneer and Yamaha are other brands besides the Onkyo that make entry level receivers.

 

[johnwadams]

My RV came with a basic Panasonic HTIB, and it has an optical audio input for a sat receiver to be plugged into it. And, it even has a blue light to let you know when it is getting a Dolby 5.1 signal. If the receiver is not real ancient, I would assume it has an input for digital audio.

 

[king3pj]

I do see now that he mentioned having a home theater receiver near the top of the page. If it accepts HDMI inputs that is the best option. If it is an older audio receiver an optical cable will still get you the same DD 5.1 sound from any dish HD DVR without the HDMI switching and upscaling features.

Sound quality from Dish will be the same whether you use optical or HDMI. If he has a bluray player you definitely want to use HDMI to get the lossless Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and uncompressed PCM soundtracks. Optical cables don't have enough bandwidth for these HD audio codecs but regular tv like Dish or cable doesn't use those anyways.

 

[turbosat]

Thanks King3pj, you can see I don't know much about modern DN equipment, haha. I got down there today, and what his wife bought him turned out to be a rather simple (possibly wallyworld Phillips brand) home theater setup. It doesn't have ANY modern connections that I could find, not even optical. Mostly an FM radio with 5 speakers and a subwoofer, builtin DVD player. Only inputs it has are a pair of RCA-type analog connections marked as "AUX". I think it probably will do surround sound on the DVDs it plays, but for a real home theater amp it looks like I'll have to accompany him to a better store that carries them.

 

[king3pj]

Thanks King3pj, you can see I don't know much about modern DN equipment, haha. I got down there today, and what his wife bought him turned out to be a rather simple (possibly wallyworld Phillips brand) home theater setup. It doesn't have ANY modern connections that I could find, not even optical. Mostly an FM radio with 5 speakers and a subwoofer, builtin DVD player. Only inputs it has are a pair of RCA-type analog connections marked as "AUX". I think it probably will do surround sound on the DVDs it plays, but for a real home theater amp it looks like I'll have to accompany him to a better store that carries them.

Yep that is a simple home theater in a box. You are right about it only being able to play DVDs in surround sound. Most of these do have at least 1 or 2 optical inputs though. If it does have RCA inputs you can take RCA cables from the dish receiver and still hook HDMI directly to the tv. This will not be surround sound but it will let him use the home theater speakers instead of the crappy ones that come on most TVs.

I would recommend the Onkyo tx509. It's last years model so you can get a good deal on it from amazon but it still has HDMI inputs and is 3D compatible and all of that. That is last years entry level receiver from the Onkyo line.

 

[nsafreak]

Curious question, what's his budget? I know this ended up in the Dish forum but might as well answer it. I ask because if he's using the speakers & subwoofer that came with the Phillips system he isn't going to get the greatest results. Oh they'll probably work with the suggested Onkyo receiver (although I prefer Denon or Harman Kardon personaly) but the sound quality out of most HTIB speakers isn't the greatest and you can get pretty nice sets of speakers (such as the Energy Take 5 series) for not too much cash.

 

[Bobby]

Curious question, what's his budget? I know this ended up in the Dish forum but might as well answer it. I ask because if he's using the speakers & subwoofer that came with the Phillips system he isn't going to get the greatest results. Oh they'll probably work with the suggested Onkyo receiver (although I prefer Denon or Harman Kardon personaly) but the sound quality out of most HTIB speakers isn't the greatest and you can get pretty nice sets of speakers (such as the Energy Take 5 series) for not too much cash.

Absolutely! My son has the Energy system with a Denon AVR and it sounds pretty good. Now, the user is going to need to spend somewhere around $600-1000 to get such a system.

Amazon.com: Energy 5.1 Take Classic Home Theater System (Set of Six, Black): Electronics
Amazon.com: Denon AVR-1612 5.1 Channel A/V Home Theater Receiver: Electronics

 

[turbosat]

Not sure he is THAT interested in surround from the Dishnetwork box, lol. I'll try to get back to visit him in the coming week and find out. We just hooked it all up to let him hear it that day, but I knew he was disappointed that there wasn't even any digital inputs on the little system. He has a 50" big screen with nicer speakers in it, its 6-7yrs old though and probably doesn't do surround itself either. I forget which make it is, but I know it doesn't have a digital tuner so its outdated too. I appreciate all the input, seems like if you don't spend 20hrs a week studying all this audio/video equipment you will get left behind quickly!