When I use the coax output of my DVD player to an external DAC, the DVD player's volume control still changes volume. How can this be? Is volume encoded in the digital signal, or is the player actually changing the data (which would reduce dynamic range).
I had a quick browse through the S/PDIF data spec and it contains no specified way of sending volume info through the Channel Status Block, so the answer must be that the signal is being digitally attenuated in the DVD player, with the associated loss of dynamic range.
