I am using a Zenith DVD (IQDVD2300)& a Sony HT-DW610 reciever & speaker package. I have all the 5.1 connections made from the DVD to the receiver and have connected all of my speakers correctly ( i think). The problem is that there is no woofer action in 5.1. For a test I have a set of cables running from the DVD player to the CD input of the reciever & there is plenty of bass there but not in 5.1 mode. I have messed with the speaker level outputs from the DVD by putting all the speaker volumes way down and leaving the woofer way up & still nothing. I have checked & double checked that all speakers are connected in the proper place & that polarity is correct. What could be the problem?

Check the bass setup on your receiver for Dolby Digital mode. Many processors allow you to set the size of your front, center and surround speakers. The size actually reflects the ability of the speaker to reproduce base, not necessarily the physical size of the speaker. When your fronts are set to large, the bass signal will be sent to the front speakers. If you set them to small, the bass will be routed to your subwoofer. There may also be a setting for subwoofer on/off.

You may have to set the speaker sizes and subwoofer on/off once for each surround mode (stereo, prologic, dolby digital,dts). A guy I work with had this exact problem with his new setup this week, and by changing his speakers to small all around the sub kicked. Hope this helps...

I've seen this problem, and this solution also seemed to work wonderfully for me.

But I have a question: I thought the LFE track always got routed to the subwoofer. Is that not the case?

Or does setting all speakers to 'small' route the really low bass from the 5 tracks to the sub in addition to the .1?

Setting any speaker to "small" will route bass from IT to the subwoofer. If you tell the system you have no subwoofer it'll reroute bass from it to your main speakers (assuming they're marked "large"). I'm assuming with a sufficiently messed up configuration you could eliminate almost all lower frequency bass. Your subwoofer is hooked up to the receiver's SUBWOOFER OUT RCA jack, correct?

Hi Joe,

Since you mention connecting to your receiver with the 5.1 output from the DVD, the problem lies in the players decoder,not your receiver. So at your player check the settings described above.

Paul

Joe,
I had the exact problem when I added a Sony DVD player around the holidays. Full base on DPL or 5 chnl Stereo but nothing on DD setting.

The answer for me was twofold. First the speaker setup in the dvd must be set to "small" for the fronts so the base signal can be sent to the subwoofer as mentioned above.

I have a seperate volume controle on the amp for my NHT sub. I maxed that out of neccessity in order to have ample base response in 5.1. Previously only needed 50% on the sub amp but I understand the base management in the dvd to horrible. Doing this left all the other surround modes with booming base so I went back to each modes setting in my Denon Recv'r and dropped the sub level way down for everything but 5.1 to compensate.

Problem solved!

i searched through all the DVD players options for audio management with not too much help. the output level is about all that can be adjusted by the DVD player. what i did to rememdy the situation was use the speaker outs from my reciever to my subs speaker in. then running my front speakers from the sub speakers speaker out. i am assuming that the crossover in the sub knocks off the bottom of the frequency sent to the fronts speakers and the rest goes to the sub. now all of the setup jazz on my Avia disk checks out and works full function as well as full frequency responce in all modes. thanks for all the input.

Interesting Joe,

When you say..."all that set-up jazz...checks out",
do you mean that when playing the test tones thru the six channels you get a response from your sub when the 6th channel tone is played?

You don't mention your "surround control"(Sony term) settings(at the receiver), are they set for large front left and right?

Paul