Good receivers for playing uncompressed audio.

 

New member
Username: Baumann6

Post Number: 1
Registered: Jan-07
What would be a good receiver for playing the full uncompressed audio from my playstation 3 while watching blu ray movies. My budget would be about 1500 not set at that though. Thanks.
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1164
Registered: Oct-04
What speakers?

Before recommending anything though, if you want a unit capable of being up to date technology wise with the PS3 I'd recommend waiting for the HDMI 1.3 receivers to be rolling out.

Right this second the only difference will be having the player do the audio and send it to the receiver for amplification with HDMI 1.1-1.2a vs. having the audio sent directly to the receiver for processing and amplification with HDMI 1.3 Both will sound very similar. Down the road however more features will be added to the PS3, and while they may be more display oriented your receiver will have to have HDMI 1.3 to be able to pass them to the TV.

If you want to buy right now the best you can do is HDMI 1.2a. Denon and Yamaha are at the forefront of the HDMI receiver technology IMO, Harman Kardon is also good, but I find their latest units to be expensive.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Josh1005

Norfolk, VA U.S.A

Post Number: 80
Registered: Mar-07
right now i am using the Onkyo sr-804 with my PS3 but i would wait if you can for the 1.3 since you cant use analog connections with the PS3
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1165
Registered: Oct-04
You can use HDMI to send the same signal as the analogs, any HDMI receiver will do this. 1.3 gives you the added option of sending bittstream through optical, coax, and HDMI - provided the receiver has the required codecs to do this.

The PS3 has a clear advantage here since the new DTS-HD codec will be downloaded through the internet connection much sooner I bet than firmware updates will be provided for the standalone players.
 

Gold Member
Username: Frank_abela

Berkshire UK

Post Number: 2032
Registered: Sep-04
Kano,

Sorry but you're wrong in part. There is no current receiver that can take the HDMI input at TrueHD uncompressed audio and convert to analogue. All those options you mention are the usual compressed DTS and Dolby Digital streams.

Regards,
Frank.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Josh1005

Norfolk, VA U.S.A

Post Number: 81
Registered: Mar-07
yea your reciever has to be 1.3 compatible in order to play HD audio through HDMI but anyone with analog inputs on their reciever can use this for HD audio
 

Gold Member
Username: Frank_abela

Berkshire UK

Post Number: 2038
Registered: Sep-04
Josh,

That's only provided the HD-DVD/BluRay player has analogue outputs for all 6 channels - I believe the PS3 doesn't have these.

Regards,
Frank.
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1170
Registered: Oct-04
"The formats marked as (new) were not available on standard DVDs. All HD DVDs are required to have at least a DD+ soundtrack. TrueHD and DTS-HD are optional. They all support higher bitrates and audio quality, but the maximum bitrates are too high for the coaxial or Toslink optical S/PDIF connection that you use with your current DVD player. They also cannot be decoded by current processors or receivers so even if S/PDIF could pass these bitstreams it wouldn't do any good. So how can you get access to the improved sound quality of these new formats?

Since both players have internal decoders all the supported formats listed above can be decoded and output as 5.1 channel digital LPCM over the HDMI connection. They also have 5.1 channel 24/192 DACs (Digital to Analog Converters), so the LPCM can be converted to 5.1 channel analog audio and passed over the 6 RCA jacks. 5.1 channel analog inputs have become fairly common in receivers to support DVD-Audio and SACD players, but HDMI is only on newer units. HDMI 1.0 and lower supports only 2 channel PCM. HDMI 1.1 supports up to 8 channels of PCM but does not require that a receiver handle 8 channels to claim it is HDMI 1.1. Check your manual or contact the manufacturer. It could be 5.1 or 7.1. Most current receivers are 5.1.

The players can also output standard DD or DTS over S/PDIF, but the new formats must be transcoded or re-encoded to one of these standard formats to be passed over S/PDIF. However, the data rate can be up to 640 kbps for DD and 1500 kbps for DTS which is higher than most DVDs used. So you can still get higher quality sound from these new formats with S/PDIF."

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=640949&highlight=sound
 

Gold Member
Username: Frank_abela

Berkshire UK

Post Number: 2048
Registered: Sep-04
Kano, I believe TruHD and DTS-HD are required as part of the spec. And the surprising thing is that DTS-HD was the first to become a requirement in the spec. Also, I believe that the PS3 is capable of converting the TruHD/DTS-HD stream into DTS-ES for transmission over S/PDIF and optical. I believe this is the case because the original DTS spec had been devised to cope with uncompressed audio. My understanding is that this is not possible with DD.

Regards,
Frank.
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1172
Registered: Oct-04
Most HD players use DTS to output over coax or toslink because of its max bitrate of 1500 Kbps, while the new audio codecs hover around 3600 Kbps. So while it is still be re-encoded to a lower bitrate, it is still better than outputing Dolby Digital which has a max bitrate of 640 Kbps. Currently the Xbox 360 add-on HD-DVD drive that I use outputs Dolby Digital and suffers from an over-compressed sound which is worst with the DD+ tracks and has all sounds at the same loudness level (hope I describe that correctly) they're working on a patch to ouput DTS as well there's a new 360 being released with an HDMI port, IMO which is largely for the HD-DVD player function.

What's most amazing to me is the respective video game machines - the 360 with HD-DVD and the PS3 for Blu-ray have reportedly been the best players on the market with the least glitches, lock-ups, audio/video drop-outs and by far the fastest load times. As well the automatic updates are effortless and only the top end players offer anything near as functional - costing $1200 for the Toshiba XA2, and $1000+ for the Sony and Pioneer Blu-Ray players.

I've been reading a lot of the HD player forums at AVSFORUM.COM, and the many users with very high end systems costing $30,000+ are using the video game systems for their HD players, many skip on the 360 bacause of the crappy audio, but that may change with the "360 Elite" release in May. As well many of these users are upgrading their receivers to HDMI to take advantage of the LPCM output of the PS3 - reporting they are getting lossless audio through this connection.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Josh1005

Norfolk, VA U.S.A

Post Number: 86
Registered: Mar-07
The PS3 can not translate DTS-HD maybe an update soon will change this. and i heard that they are going to stop making HD-DVD early next year cause Blu-ray won the format war, and is beating HD-DVD sales by more than double
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1174
Registered: Oct-04
DTS-HD doesn't exist on any disc yet.

The format war is not over.

Quote more reliable resources, it sounds like your info comes from the Best Buy employee that sold you your Playstation. "We sold twice as many Blu-Ray movies last week, the war's over."

Please.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Josh1005

Norfolk, VA U.S.A

Post Number: 87
Registered: Mar-07
Kano your facts are way off DTS-HD does exist Broken Arrow on Blu-ray is one that i know for sure cause i have it. and i dont get my information from best buy employees i have had my playstation from when they first came out in nov. my mother got it while i was in Iraq. try reading around the internet and you will find that Blu-ray is outselling HD-DVD by alot. sounds like you are wishing that HD-DVD will win and not paying attention to the facts. If you want to start an arguement with make sure your facts are right. DTS-HD does exist
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1175
Registered: Oct-04
I was thinking about DTS-HD Master Audio, that's the upcoming format.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Josh1005

Norfolk, VA U.S.A

Post Number: 88
Registered: Mar-07
its the same thing and broken arrow has DTS-HD master audio it says it right on the back
 

Gold Member
Username: Kano

BC Canada

Post Number: 1176
Registered: Oct-04
My bad, look away for a week and look what happens! Definitely is an evolving format.

Just tired of people deciding the "war" is over without backing it up with facts. Twice as many Blu-Ray movies were sold in Jan/Feb, this is true, but if you look at the HD-DVD releases there was NOTHING worth buying being released. This coupled with the recent release of the PS3 with onboard Blu-Ray lead to the sales rate. With more studios anouncing they're going dual format, (most from the blu-ray side) I think it's still very early to announce a winner. I mean they still haven't fully implemented all the features for either format!

I'm personally not rooting for anyone, this is why I have a minimal investment in the technology with a $200 player and less than 10 movies.

Sony is ramrodding Blu-Ray with $$$, I doubt Toshiba can hold on unless it gets more support.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 6810
Registered: Dec-04
So long as it plays good stereo track, I will get one.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 6811
Registered: Dec-04
The HD-DVD is showing much better profiles and reviews from stereophile and others.
The 2 channel has to be front and center.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 6812
Registered: Dec-04
Just wondering, what would be the best unit for compressed listening?
For the OP.
 

Gold Member
Username: Frank_abela

Berkshire UK

Post Number: 2050
Registered: Sep-04
Nuck,

The OP was interested in uncompressed audio...

Regards,
frank.
 

Gold Member
Username: Nuck

Post Number: 6863
Registered: Dec-04
Frank, my sarcasm doesn't always show in type.

Thanks,

Nuck
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