Trying to understand HD audio.

Grimley said:
Not always the case. I did have a few DVD's with full bitrate DTS tracks until SPR came out on DVD with a lower bitrate DTS track & some people couldnt tell the difference AFAIK, they stuck with the lower bitrate after that.
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OK, thanks. So then it's correct to say '1.5Mb/s is the maximum data rate of DTS'?

What's SPR?
 
photoshop said:
HD Audio is a little complicating for a novice like me to understand but i do feel that it can only be noticeable if you have an excellant Amp paired with some high end speakers.

I cant see any point in having HD Audio if you are using a £300 Amp with some £500 speakers.

If i'd want HD Audio then i would get a £1,000+ Amp and then spend around £2,000 minimum on the speakers! Only then i feel i will trully appreciate it and notice the quality.
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For what it's worth I have a £400 amp and £500 speakers and switching from standard DTS/DD5.1 tracks to uncompressed/HD tracks can provide a very noticable improvement on some Bluray films. Particularly in the clarity of action heavy scenes. For some films I don't notice so much difference though.

Now it might just be that they spend more time on mastering the HD tracks, or did a shoddy job with the DD. I don't know, I'm no expert. All I know is that with my setup the PCM/HD Audio tracks usually sound noticably better.
 
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wolvers69 said:
Added information about PS3 support, or lack of, for HD codecs.

The PS3 is, unfortunately, not fully compatible with the HD audio codecs either. While it does have the ability to decode TrueHD internally it is only able to output it as PCM. The PS3 has no support for bitstream output of the HD codecs, worse still is the fact that Sony have chosen not to include a DTS HD decoder at all.
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The PS3 does in fact decode DTS-HD MA and DTS-HD HR since update 2.30 released on April 15, 2008.
 
NuclearWinter said:
For some films I don't notice so much difference though.

All I know is that with my setup the PCM/HD Audio tracks usually sound noticably better.
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I'm glad to hear that you're seeing some benefit. It gives me some hope for my system.

Those films that don't seem to show any benefit may be 16-bit/48khz so in that instance it would make sense.

dbmzk1 said:
The PS3 does in fact decode DTS-HD MA and DTS-HD HR since update 2.30 released on April 15, 2008.
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OK thanks. I'll check the details and edit.
 
Im really novice here guys so please bear with me.

I have a PS3 for bluray movies. I have no amp or speakers yet, just using the speakers in the tv.

Should I set it to PCM sound or Bitstream? and what are the differences? is bitstream better? any wiki links?

So my understanding is, if I play a DD HD or DTS HD MA bluray, the PS3 can decode this and then play it (ie what you hear) either in PCM or Bitstream? thats quite a big differene in sound quality isnt it?
 
NuclearWinter said:
For what it's worth I have a £400 amp and £500 speakers and switching from standard DTS/DD5.1 tracks to uncompressed/HD tracks can provide a very noticable improvement on some Bluray films. Particularly in the clarity of action heavy scenes. For some films I don't notice so much difference though.
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Is it with the older films you hear little difference?
 
Grimley said:
Is it with the older films you hear little difference?
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I think it's probably the quieter films with less dynamics where I hear little difference. Could simply be because they just have less audio and don't use the surrounds much, so any improvement is more subtle. It's the improved clarity and definition of audio coming through the surround speakers that's most noticable for me; the sounds all become so much more distinct and less muddied together - switching between DD5.1 and PCM in the opening chase sequence of Casino Royale is night and day.

Funnily enough when I first got this sound setup and put it to the test, I forgot all about needing to change track to get the HD audio. My brother and I started the movie with the standard DD5.1 and I was a bit underwhelmed (sounded good but I expected more), until I suddenly remembered and switched audio track to PCM. A couple of seconds later we both at once turned to each other and exclaimed "holy ****!". Knew right then that the purchase was well worth it.
 
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That's pretty annoying, as I was planning to use a PS3 as my primary Blu-Ray player on my final home cinema setup :S
 
OCdude said:
That's pretty annoying, as I was planning to use a PS3 as my primary Blu-Ray player on my final home cinema setup :S
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Why? PCM is just a decoded version of the original audio track, and sounds the same if my understanding is correct. Bitstream and PCM are just different ways of conveying the same information, so if hes getting the PCM output from the Bluray player (PS3 in this case) and has the HD audio track chosen, he should be getting HD Audio.

@NuclearWinter

Good to hear your opinion, thats one of the setups Im considering for my new room after I move if I can fit it all in!
 
Oxlde said:
Im really novice here guys so please bear with me.

I have a PS3 for bluray movies. I have no amp or speakers yet, just using the speakers in the tv.

Should I set it to PCM sound or Bitstream? and what are the differences? is bitstream better? any wiki links?

So my understanding is, if I play a DD HD or DTS HD MA bluray, the PS3 can decode this and then play it (ie what you hear) either in PCM or Bitstream? thats quite a big differene in sound quality isnt it?
Click to expand...
Now I know audiophiles tend not to suffer fools gladly, but would one of you kindly answer this guy?

I'd be interested too - I can't afford any swanky sound gear, so I haven't kept up with the audio scene since before Dolby Digital :eek:
 
OCdude said:
That's pretty annoying, as I was planning to use a PS3 as my primary Blu-Ray player on my final home cinema setup :S
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Yeah, don't worry about it too much. It just means that the decoding is done in the PS3 rather than in an amp/receiver. I believe that was the intention originally until receiver manufacturers started putting decoders in their kit and it all changed. As Alex says, it should sound the same.

I'll add info on this to the original post when I'm sure of the details. What I don't know yet is what bit-rate the PS3 outputs in PCM (ie. is it the same as the TrueHD track on the disc), maybe NuclearWinter knows? Either way you'll definitely get 8 discrete channels should you have a 7.1 set up.
 
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Snograt said:
Now I know audiophiles tend not to suffer fools gladly, but would one of you kindly answer this guy?
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I'm no audiophile but I'll try to answer as best as I can.

If it's just into his TV I would assume that PCM would be the correct choice and probably even if it was feeding into a receiver first. You'd only set it bitstream AFAIK if you wanted to have your receiver do the decoding but as already mentioned you wouldn't get a TrueHD or DTS-HD bitstream that way from a PS3.
 
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