New sound formats for Blu Ray and HD DVD

 

New member
Username: Gixer41960

Adelaide, South Australia

Post Number: 8
Registered: Dec-06
Does anybody know anything about the new sound formats being introduced with either HD DVD or Blu Ray.
I've heard that the only way you will be able to use it is by hooking up all of the analogue av connections.
Does this mean, like DVD Audio and SACD you have to run thru multi channel? I've never tried any of these formats but was under the impression that to hear these disks you had to turn HDMI off on your DVD player.
Any body able to help clear up my obvious confusion?
 

Gold Member
Username: Hawk

Highlands Ranch, CO USA

Post Number: 1189
Registered: Dec-03
I have heard nothing about a new sound format. Since both Blu-Ray and DVD-HD are both out and product is shipping, I think I would have heard something about it by now.
 

New member
Username: Gixer41960

Adelaide, South Australia

Post Number: 9
Registered: Dec-06
Yeah well like I said I know nothing about it either. I was reading a magazine and it was saying that with the better, improved picture comes better improved sound such as DTS Ultra and other formats. My first concern was that it would require new amps to process it but reading somewhere else it was saying that you would need to use all of the analogue connections to use it.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Hodedofome

TX USA

Post Number: 37
Registered: Dec-06
You're probably thinking of Dolby True HD and whatnot. It's the new "lossless" formats which are uncompressed 5.1 channel formats. 7.1 formats are not available yet. Regular Dolby and DTS formats are compressed, so these new ones are uncompressed and should sound better. You can listen to the new 5.1 formats either with HDMI (set the dvd player's audio output to PCM) or with analog 5.1 hookups like dvd-audio or SACD.
 

Gold Member
Username: John_s

Columbus, Ohio US

Post Number: 1375
Registered: Feb-04
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You guys can read this. It's only one page:

http://www.avguide.com/features/hd-dvd/hddvd-sound.php
 

Bronze Member
Username: Gixer41960

Adelaide, South Australia

Post Number: 11
Registered: Dec-06
Thanks for the help guys and that link really helped clear things up.
I don't suppose the PS3 has a multichannel audio outputs???
I'm hopefully going to find out this March unless they postpone it for us poorer cousins again.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Hodedofome

TX USA

Post Number: 40
Registered: Dec-06
No multichannel audio outputs for the PS3. Sony makes you use their HDMI cable for that. Despite what the article says I know you can get the new sound formats by using PCM output for the audio. This will only work for the 5.1 formats, the 7.1 formats in the future will only work with HDMI v1.3 that's soon to come out in higher-end receivers.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Hodedofome

TX USA

Post Number: 44
Registered: Dec-06
From HDMI.org:

The latest lossless surround sound formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) can not be transmitted on the traditional SPDIF (also called IEC-958) digital audio interfaces due to the very high data rates of these new formats that exceed the capabilities of SPDIF. SPDIF has a 6.1Mbps maximum data rate, while DTS-HD Master Audio, for example, can require up to 24Mbps.

The HDMI spec, since the first 1.0 version, enabled up to 8 channels of 192kHz PCM audio to be supported, which means that decoded Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio can be handled. In fact, most (if not all) of the HD-DVD and BluRay players have the ability to decode these formats and transport them as multi-channel PCM on HDMI. This is great, because quite a few HDMI AV receivers can receive multi-channel PCM on their HDMI inputs, and thus render them on the speakers.

HDMI 1.3 adds the ability to transmit encoded DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio on HDMI. This adds another level of flexibility to choose where the audio is decoded (by the source, or by the AV receiver for example). But as mentioned before, HDMI 1.3 is not required to enjoy these new lossless audio formats since devices can perform the decoding in the source and then transmit the audio as decoded PCM instead.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Gixer41960

Adelaide, South Australia

Post Number: 12
Registered: Dec-06
Wow thatnks for that Aaron. It certainly seems that the majority of these new formats should still be accessible without having to spend thousands of dollars on equipment to play them. Which is good news seeing I have only just spent thousands of dollars in building my home theatre.
Thanks again for all your help Aaron, John and Hawk
 

Gold Member
Username: John_s

Columbus, Ohio US

Post Number: 1382
Registered: Feb-04
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Hold on AG, there's more than enough confusion around here. HDMI.org makes it sound all neat and tidy, but I don't think it's all that simple. See my post on another similar thread:

https://www.ecoustics.com/cgi-bin/bbs/show.pl?tpc=3&post=1063566#POST1063566

Then read the review on LG's universal player here:

https://www.ecoustics.com/sv/2154
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Bronze Member
Username: Gixer41960

Adelaide, South Australia

Post Number: 16
Registered: Dec-06
Thanks John,
just when I thought I had it all sewn up you've thrown some fuel onto the fire. Ha.
You are right though, fortunately my AV receiver does accept multi channel pcm audio but, if you like you said, not many movies are actually coming out with it, it does cause some concern.
At this stage I will have to wait until the PS3 arrives in Aus. and see what it is like as a Blu Ray movie player. If anybody has already used the PS3 for movies, I sure would appreciate any feed back on that.
The LG certainly is a good idea in concept but with all the faults that has been highlighted in that review I don't see the sense (at this stage in time) in investing in that sort of money for a seperate player when (hopefully) the PS3 and the XBox 360 are capable of playing them just as well. Particularly when I don't have any equipment that is HDMI 1.3 complient.
There just doesn't seem to be a simple answer to this one, or if there is, I am missing it.
Thanks again for those links John, they have been helpful.
 

Gold Member
Username: John_s

Columbus, Ohio US

Post Number: 1384
Registered: Feb-04
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"If anybody has already used the PS3 for movies, I sure would appreciate any feed back on that."

Aaron, here's an article of interest:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hd-dvd-bluray/1927/shootout-3-blu-ray-disc-play ers.html
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Bronze Member
Username: Gixer41960

Adelaide, South Australia

Post Number: 20
Registered: Dec-06
John,
that link was fantastic. I can't wait to get my hands on a PS3 now as I didn't realise it was capable of all that and being able to do it all in such good quality.
That link would also help in the other discussion to do with which format HD of Blu Ray as it would help solve a lot of suspicions to do with the quality of the PS3 as a movie player.
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