TrueHD & DTS Master via optical

wwwebber

wwwebber

wwwebber

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Now, I know this is not possible over optical because the bandwidth is not high enough and a HDMI connected amp is needed. However, my PS3 will downmix these formats to DD 5.1 & DTS 5.1 to my amp via optical.

My question is this :- is downmixed TrueHD & DTS Master better quality than the standard DD 5.1 & DTS 5.1 tracks on blu-rays ?.

I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of upgrading my amp so any assitance here would be good. Cheers.
 
philhoole said:
According to Dolby, http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/trueHD/AVRs/trueHD_avrs_2.html , the quality may be higher than from a DVD with the same soundtrack. See the section on SPDIF near the bottom of the link.

Not sure about DTS though
Click to expand...

Excellent - I also looked this up on Wiki and have found the following :-

DVD's are generally encoded with DD5.1 at a bit rate of 448kbps. The PS3 downmixes the Dolby True HD to a normal DD5.1 but at a rate of 640kbps which is indeed better quality than a normal DVD.

For DTS - some rare DVDs are encoded at 1500kbps whereas the rest are encoded at 768kbps. The PS3 will downmix a DTS MA track to 1500kbps which again is better quality than most DVD's.

So, in conclusion - even though I dont have a next gen amp that does DD TrueHD or DTS MA - I can still get better audio quality out of blu-rays with my current setup that will almost certainly be superior to DVD.

Nice :D
 
To add to your understanding.
DD is compressed at a 12:1 ratio. Standard DTS is compressed anywhere between 15:1 and 1.5:1 ratios. Your BD player should take the core audio data and convert it to the lowest compression ratio version of DTS, i.e. 1.5:1.
So I'd expect that BDs using the standard digital outputs, will still sound better than a standard DVD.
 
for a DD soundtrack yes, it will be better on paper. in practice i dont know how much better its going to be, you may well have a hard time telling the difference. it doesnt help that the TrueHD and standard dd tracks can often be produced from different mixes, meaning they would sound 'different' even at the same bitrate. but generally yes, it'll be better.

its the same for DTS:MA except for those rare 1.5mbps DTS sountracks you can got on some dvds. but again even comparing a downmixed dta:ma track with a 1.5mb dts track, they could still be different.

just have a play and see whats best but yes, mostly its better lol
 
Can someone just explain what setting on ps3 will allow this downmixing?

I can test it with my casino royale bluerayu
 
sid said:
Can someone just explain what setting on ps3 will allow this downmixing?

I can test it with my casino royale bluerayu
Click to expand...

It just needs to be connected to your AV amp via optical / coax as neither can carry TrueHD or DTS MA.
 
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