3DsoundSurge Reviews: Videologic DigiTheatre


	Mikael Hagén puts Videologic's DigiTheatre Dolby Digital 5.1 speaker system to the test

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DigiTheatre - Mikael Hagén - October 20, 1999

Installation:

You can install and configure the DigiTheatre decoder box to be used together with the DigiTheatre speaker system, use the DigiTheatre decoder box with another speaker system or connect the amplifier directly to the sound source and not the decoder. You can buy the decoder separately as mentioned, but not the speaker system but there is still a reason why you sometimes may want the speaker system directly to the sound source. That is, you want to use it as a 4-speaker system with a soundcard.

Using the DigiTheatre decoder together with the DigiTheatre speaker system

Following the instructions in the manual, installation is a breeze. The front left, right and center speakers connect to the supplied 3 meter speaker wires while the two rear speakers are connected to 8 meter speaker wires, all via standard speaker wire connectors, with the other end connecting to the amplifier (housed in the subwoofer) also via standard speaker wire connectors.

You then connect the DigiTheatre decoder using the 9 pin DIN to 6 RCA phono cable to the 6 RCA phono inputs of the amplifier. Each RCA phono input and the cables are labeled so no problem to make the right connections except for the fact that the cable is rather short, about one meter, so you will need to have the box close to the amplifier but thanks to the remote control that should not be a major problem. The DigiTheatre can then be connected to the sound source(s) using the digital and/or analog input. The analog input is two RCA phono inputs that can carry one stereo/Dolby surround source while the digital input also can accept a Dolby Digital (AC-3) signal or stereo/Dolby Surround one.

For connecting to the analog RCA phono connections the DigiTheatre kit only supplies dual RCA phono to dual RCA phono cables. If you wish to connect the decoder to a stereo out mini-jack connections which all soundcards use you need to buy a mini-jack to dual RCA phono cable unless you already own one (some soundcards ship with one).

For the digital connection the kit includes a coaxial cable (1.5 meter or 5 feet) with RCA connections and the decoder also has an optical (toslink) input but no cable for that connection is included. If some reason you would like to use both the optical and coaxial connection you should be aware that the coaxial will only work when the optical input isn’t connected to another device

Installation:

The analog and digital can be connected at the same time but will only accept input from one at a time, you choose which using the remote control.

Once you have connected the speaker system correctly and plugged both the amplifier and the decoder into the AC outlet the decoder has a test button you can use to test if you set it up correctly. The manual includes detailed instructions to help you fine-tune the system and suggestions how you should place the speakers depending on your room’s size and form. While the manual suggests directional rear speakers positioned behind the listener facing the back of the listener (exactly what a gaming configuration requires) for DD 5.1 movies many other suggests you want high dispersion surrounds positioned beside the listener turned in towards the listeners ears (ie not forward).

Videologic thinks that’s only a good choice for Dolby Surround movies. This is obviously subjective and you can try to see what you think offers the best sound experience. When it comes to tuning you should also use the decoder fine tuning settings which includes the balance for each speaker including the subwoofer and decay for the surround and center speakers.

Use the decoder with another speaker system

If you buy the decoder to be used with another speaker system (most likely an old Dolby Prologic system) the installation will usually be rather similar if not identical. The decoder when sold alone comes with the 9 pin to RCA phone cable and the SPDIF RCA phono cable. In case you don’t have phono connections inputs on your speaker system you can buy phono to mini-jack converters (shouldn’t cost more than a few dollars for all 6) or use the mini-jack out connections the decoder has for each one of the 6 Dolby Digital channels.

When used with another speaker system that doesn’t have 6 speakers you can use one of the other speaker modes, which includes 2-speakers (front left and right), 3-speakers (front left, right and center) and 4-speakers (front left, right and surround left, right). The 2 and 3 speaker modes are not that really interesting since your DVD player (software, hardware or stand-alone) most likely already support this and the DigiTheatre decoder 2 and 3 speaker mode isn’t any form of virtual surround. The 4-speaker mode is much more interesting and is not a significant step down from a true 5.1 system.

As mentioned the decoder supports large speaker mode for the front left and right speakers, unlike e.g. the DTT2500 which only has small speaker mode. The large speaker mode will be useful if you are upgrading a Dolby Surround system to a Dolby Digital system since you then most likely have two full frequency speakers. As I’ve mentioned a couple of times if you have 5 full frequency speakers you may want to get another decoder.

Important to note that there is no down-mixing of the LFE channel (the separate low frequency effect channel) in any of the modes and the system depends on a subwoofer for the low frequencies that are sent to the center and surround channels so you need a separate subwoofer input.

Connect the sound source directly to the amplifier

You can connect your soundcard, stereo source or another AC-3 or maybe DTS decoder directly to the amplifier. If you do this you will of course lose all of the configurations that the decoder box provides including using the remote control and you will end up with, as previously mentioned the choice of power on/off, volume control, input selector and a DVD/stereo switch. The Aux. input isn’t very useful to use since it will not give any advantage compared to connect the stereo source to the decoder other than you can use a mini-jack cable. The option of connecting directly to the RCA phono inputs have some use since it will allow you to use another decoder in the future (e.g. one that supports DTS or less likely MPEG2) or if you want to use this system as 4-speaker system with your soundcard. You will then of course need two stereo mini-jack to dual phono cables. To be able to switch between using the DigiTheatre both as a home theatre and gaming system, you could get add a 4-way switch between the amplifier, your sound card and DigiTheatre Decoder. For more details how this works check out Videologic's DigiTheatre FAQ.

Some new soundcards also supports subwoofer and/or center out.

Back to the detailed overview

So on to the performance tests