Is my Toshiba HD-A30 giving me 7.1 sound?

Question

I recently received a Toshiba HD-A30 HD-DVD player. I have hooked it up to my Mitsubishi HD TV via a HDMI cable. I am then running an optical audio cable from my TV to my Onkyo receiver, which is capable of providing 7.1 channel sound. However, I have heard that this DVD player is not able to play 7.1 channel sound and actually converts the audio to 5.1. Is this true? Am I still not getting the 7.1 channel audio that I was hoping for?

Answer 1

1) The movie must have a 7.1 audio track, if the soundtrack is 5.1 then it will not get upconverted to 7.1

2) You must be using an HDMI connection to the receiver and the player must either decode the 7.1 track internally or the receiver must have the decoders.

Answer 2

You cannot get 7.1 if you used the optical cable. 7.1 needs HDMI connection.

Also, not all HD DVD media have 7.1 content - most have 5.1 audio for now.

Answer 3

I'm not 100% sure of this, but my understanding is that you have two options. IF you use the HDMI output, you can get 7.1 High Bit Rate audio. BUT, if you use the analog audio out, the player will convert down to the standard 5.1 channel audio.

So yes and no. The player does down convert, but only if you do not use the HDMI output. But the problem is that the optical cable you have running from you your TV to your reciever can only handle 5.1 audio, so that may be why you are ending up wiht 5.1 audio. Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Audio formats and the cables / decoders able to use them are a VERY complex topic.  The best article I've found to date is at the link.

Only you know specifically what equipment, connections and settings you have ... so I suggest you wade in and look for the answer.

EDIT EDIT

re the question: "Is the Toshiba HD-A30 capable of providing 7.1 channel audio?", a review at ZDnet (last link) states:

"unlike the step-up HD-A35, the HD-A30 cannot send Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks in bitstream." So no, the A30 won't support 7.1.