HD audio worth it?

Multichannel inputs on your existing pre? If, yes, then pick up a used BD player with the same 6ch/8ch outputs and let the player do the decoding.
 
Does moving to HD from DD really correspond to, like, moving from 200Kb/s aac to lossless flac on 2.0 systems ?
( DD you have max 640Kb/s for 5.1 .. so that's 200Kb/s for a stereo pair. )
 
I found the difference between well recorded BD disks and DVDs (using even DTS) to be quite significant.

If you're shelling out the spondoolies, are you thinking of jumping a generation and also adding Atmos support? Got to be worth considering, assuming you're happy to add the additional speakers.
 
hornetstinger said:
AV pre has better quality DACs though. Lexicon mc-8 and panasonic 830 bd
Click to expand...

It probably does.....for DD and DTS. But we aren't talking about "What's better, the player or the pre for DD/DTS? ". We're talking about HD audio* versus DD/DTS, and your Lexicon, as good as it is, can't decode HD audio, so the quality of the DACs is irrelevant in so far as playing HD audio.

You're the one sat there with a pre with multichannel inputs, and a player with multichannel outputs that can play HD audio. Why haven't you tested this for yourself?

Make a fair comparison of the Lexicon decoding the DD/DTS bitstream soundtrack to the Panasonic decoding the HD audio track to its 7.1 outputs. Does HD audio sound better or worse than DD/DTS? If you find it sounds better (and frankly I'd be astonished if you found it didn't) despite the handicap of the Panasonic's decoding, then there's your answer. A decent external pre, or an AV receiver with pre-outs should move the quality for movie sound tracks up another notch.


* which I think we're all presuming here that you mean Dolby True HD and DTS-MA.
 
Not sure what setting is needed 820 to get hd as just get muted audio. I have connected rca x6 and set to analogue bypass on mc-8

MC-8 doesn't have 7.1 input.

Plus I like logic 7
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
I found the difference between well recorded BD disks and DVDs (using even DTS) to be quite significant.

If you're shelling out the spondoolies, are you thinking of jumping a generation and also adding Atmos support? Got to be worth considering, assuming you're happy to add the additional speakers.
Click to expand...

Have a few two channel amps lying around 60w per channel could use them for ceiling atmos
 
hornetstinger said:
Not sure what setting is needed 820 to get hd as just get muted audio. I have connected rca x6 and set to analogue bypass on mc-8

MC-8 doesn't have 7.1 input.

Plus I like logic 7
Click to expand...

Let me get this straight; you're happy to consider spending two grand on a new processor, but reading the manual to see how to use the multichannel output on your £300 4K UHD player is too much hard work?

Then you throw in "I like Logic 7".

Be honest; this thread has nothing to do with any serious consideration about an upgrade. You're bored and just wanted someone to pay attention to you... lol :D:D :D
 
jpaul said:
quick google
820/9000 spec page https://panasonicdirect.store.panas...nasonic-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player.aspx?psn=8
suggests HD output only available as a bitstream
Click to expand...

If you're referring to the 2 star review then I'd take the authors comments with a large pinch of salt.

By the sound of it he was expecting to plug speakers directly in to the phono/RCA sockets (as if the player has some kind of in-built amplification) and was surprised when he got no sound. lol. He was told that the player needs to "connect to an amp". It's almost as if he was trying to swap out the main player/amp from a DVD or BD home cinema kit with this player.

He then went on to say how he tried and failed to connect the player to his surround system (te same all-in-on-kit perhaps?) and found the instructions too hard. Oh, and his telly is too old to do 4K. This doesn't really make him sound like the most savvy AV user.

The UBP820 will output HD audio in DTS-Master and Dolby True HD format just fine from its 5.1/7.1 analogue outputs. There are only two caveats. The first is that the analogue outs don't support ATMOS or DTS-X. That's not too surprising. Does anyone know of an AV amp or processor that supports ATMOS/DTS-X decoding on its analogue 7.1 inputs? I can't think of one.

Second, you can't have Bitstream audio out via the HDMI output at the same time that the player is decoding multichannel internally. But why would you want that? Isn't the whole point of having analogue multichannel out because the amp or processor doesn't have HDMI inputs? Does it really matter then?
 
lucid said:
If you're referring to the 2 star review then I'd take the authors comments with a large pinch of salt.
Click to expand...
It was the exclusive comments in the hd audio format section of the specification .. from which I inferred the internal dac's don't convert fast enough 192Khz etc. and will only throughput it, via hdmi, ...ok but evidently not from your comment.
 
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