As you know, most DVD/CD players can use the analog and digital out simultaneously. Is there any disadvantage in using both outputs? Lately, I've used this setup a couple times; for DVD I hook into the digital out and get DD, DTS or whatever; but if the customer is playing music, I'll have him press the CD button on the Pronto. I'll run the analog out of the DVD to the CD in on the receiver; this way I can finish off the macro with a 5 channel stereo command for better surround in the music world. If I use only the digital out for music, I may be stuck with ProLogic II if the receiver sees a digital in. Any pros or cons here?

Are you talking stereo audio or DVD Audio?

Cause if your talking stereo, why would you want it in five channel surround anyway?

With a good quality set of front speakers you wouldnt need 5 channel stereo, but, it is nice to have if your having a party and just want sound everywhere, and whenever the customer says "why dont I hear anything out of the rears when I'm listing to the radio or cd"
you can either say if its recorded in stereo it should be listened to in stereo(thats not what the want to hear) or you can just put it on 5-channel stereo and say there you go.


I know that still doesnt answer you question, I usually go the analog route myself.

CB1

Customers always want the five channel stereo, some of em want it for television and movies. Its the "I paid for these back speakers so I wan't to hear em all the time" syndrome. We always use both sets of outputs just as Tom described and I don't see anything wrong with it.

It also comes in very handy when you do multi-zone, most receivers don't do a D/A conversion for zone 2

The Two zone answer is a grabber -- you HAVE to have that analog signal (not on CD, but on DVD) when you want the signal available to the second zone.

I ran into and odd reason, that I have never researched beyond this example: We had a Toshiba surround DVD in the early days of DTS that had a track on it which would only output sound on the analog jacks! It is a recording of a Japanese orchestra, and I was really impressed with how quiet the background level was until they started playing, and it was just as quiet. Adding old-fashioned RCA cables fixed this, and that is now standard with all we do.