Feeding surround sound into a DSP

[Stuart91]

I'm needing to provide surround sound for an upcoming event. The speakers aren't much of a problem, and I was figuring on using a Soundweb or similar to control the whole system. What I'm struggling with is getting the surround sound into the DSP.

 

The surround sound is going to come from a DVD player, probably a Blu-Ray model. I'm then needing to get the surround info broken out to individual line level outputs to feed into the DSP. I've had a fairly extensive google around and can't find anything that would do this simply. At the moment I'm thinking my best bet would be some kind of receiver/amp and padding down the speaker outputs.

 

We're on a relatively tight budget which won't stretch to most broadcast products. Wondering if anyone out there has already found a cost-effective solution to this problem?

[themadhippy]

get a player with an anoluge 5.1 output

[Stuart91]

get a player with an anoluge 5.1 output

 

I've looked for this but have struggled to find a player with analogue outs on it. Maybe my search-fu is weak, or perhaps my ignorance of all things home cinema is coming to the surface. Any models you could recommend?

[J Pearce]

Any reason you can't use a PC?

What you may come up against is the DRM in blurays, which only feeds content to trusted sources. I don't know whether analogue audio is trusted.

[Stuart91]

A PC might be an option, although the gear is going to be left in place and used by amateurs, so I'm pretty certain they'd find a way to screw it up. The plan at the moment is to feed RGB component video to the projector, hopefully avoiding the DRM issues that come with HDMI.

[fatfrog]

Hi there,

This should solve your problem, WIll give you each channel on a balanced XLR.

 

Violet Audio ADP61

 

 

Alan

[ghance]

Had the similar problem. Without advance warning, promoter asked for 5.1 from a Blu Ray player with only HDMI out.

 

So we nipped down the road to Comet for a £150 Sony with analogue 5.1 outs.. sorry dont think its current model.. but a quick google for Blu-Ray 5.1/7.1 analogue output threw back a Philips BDP7300 for £99.95

[neilalexrose]

I'm needing to provide surround sound for an upcoming event. The speakers aren't much of a problem, and I was figuring on using a Soundweb or similar to control the whole system. What I'm struggling with is getting the surround sound into the DSP.

 

The surround sound is going to come from a DVD player, probably a Blu-Ray model. I'm then needing to get the surround info broken out to individual line level outputs to feed into the DSP. I've had a fairly extensive google around and can't find anything that would do this simply. At the moment I'm thinking my best bet would be some kind of receiver/amp and padding down the speaker outputs.

 

We're on a relatively tight budget which won't stretch to most broadcast products. Wondering if anyone out there has already found a cost-effective solution to this problem?

 

If you can get hold of one, a sound blaster Extigy external sound card will decode optical and co-ax digital signals, and spit out the audio onto 3 x 3.5mm mini-jack stereo outputs. I have one that sits quite happily underneath my TV, hooked up via co-ax to my DVD player, and feeds my surround speakers. Only difficulty is, as it's an old and discontinued product, you might struggle to find one, ebay being your best bet I'd have thought.

I still think it's a great little box, and it's a shame they didn't make the extigy 2 with the same in/out configurations, and I haven't really found anything else that will do this as a standalone product, not hooked up to a computer.

 

HTH

Neil

[chelgrian]

I've looked for this but have struggled to find a player with analogue outs on it. Maybe my search-fu is weak, or perhaps my ignorance of all things home cinema is coming to the surface. Any models you could recommend?

 

There are some around for varying degrees of expense for example:

 

Panasonic DMP-BD85 (Cheapest option can be had for ~L200 online)

Pioneer BDP-LX71

Pioneer BDP-LX08

Pioneer BDP-LX91

Cambridge Audio Azur 650BD

Denon-V500BD

 

The last of these, the Denon, is a 'Professional' player but all that really means is that it has rack ears and an RS232 control port. It's still got consumer level connectors on the back and has to conform to all the annoying consumer level DRM that any DVD/Bluray player has to.

 

If you want to go the route of taking a bitstream digital out from the DVD player and decoding it using a processor then there are two options which will get you straight to balanced professional level outputs those are:

 

Violet Audio ADP61

Denon DN-A7100

 

To be honest I can't recommend using any DVD/Bluray player in a professional environment. Because they are consumer orientated products they just don't make them with features such as instant start, autocue/autopause and so on. If at all possible it's far preferable to get the original source material as discrete channels and play it out of a computer using software such as QLab or SFX and a professional multichannel audio interface.

[Stuart91]

Thanks for all replies - this is most impressive.

 

I think I'll probably plump for a player with analog outputs - thanks for all the suggestions. The player will be directly above the DPS in a rack so unbalanced runs should be fine. Plus that's a little bit more budget saved.

 

I agree with the comments (from chelgrian and others) about using DVD players in professional environments. However this is going to be used for playing feature-length films, so split-second timing etc. is not essential.

[chelgrian]

A PC might be an option, although the gear is going to be left in place and used by amateurs, so I'm pretty certain they'd find a way to screw it up. The plan at the moment is to feed RGB component video to the projector, hopefully avoiding the DRM issues that come with HDMI.

 

Having done this in the past the RGB output still has macrovision analogue copy protection on it. Most consumer level projectors will ignore the crud that macrovision puts in however I've had problems with a variety of expensive Barco professional projectors which manifest themselves as a slow dimming and brightening of the picture over time as the the automatic gain control circuitry gets more or less confused.

 

Fortunately the industry is obsessed with direct ripping of digital signals these days rather than the 'analogue hole' so it's fairly easy to get cheap equipment which removes the corruption that macrovision puts into the signal. For example

 

http://www.multi-region.co.uk/smartmaster-gold-p-890.html

 

(I do like their disclaimer)

 

I have to assume that you have the appropriate licenses in place to show the material on DVD that you are proposing to show...

[dwright2104]

Iv had to do 5.1 for a client before, Blu-ray player with hdmi and optical out only.

 

Spent ages trying to figure a way of breaking the 5.1 from the optical into analogue, then relised I had an av amp in the house, one of these, so I put the optical into it, then with 6 DI boxes took the speaker level out into the DI boxes into the Matrix Mixer.