I have a 6.1 receiver. I use the optical output from the PS3. I have seen some 6.1 content off of some of my Blu-ray discs. I can't remember which ones off hand. My receiver auto detects between DTS and DD, 5.1 and 6.1
Which player to buy?
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I have a 6.1 receiver. I use the optical output from the PS3. I have seen some 6.1 content off of some of my Blu-ray discs. I can't remember which ones off hand. My receiver auto detects between DTS and DD, 5.1 and 6.1
Have you bought a ps3 yet or are you still wasting peoples time? I don't honestly care what your wife thinks. You can let her make the decision for you if she doesn't want a "game player". But since you asked us and we have pretty much all said ps3 you are going to look like a whipped bitch if you dont get one.
good deals there. Also wanted to make everyone aware if you are willing to wait for shipping - sonystyle.com (sony's direct marketing website) is offering $100 off a purchase of $299 or more if you sign up for a Sony CC - I believe this beats the target offer - but agreed that Target's warranty sounds like a great deal. I signed up for this last week @ sony style and I believe the deal has been running for the past couple of months.
LOL...you must not have a wife to talk like that! Or if you do why don't you show her your post.
Anyway, yes, I am ordering a PS3. I think it will do all the things I really require for now, plus the wife can play Sonic all she wants!
Cheers and thanks for the advice from everyone!
I don't have a 605 so I have no use for bitstreaming. Did I mistype it somewhere that I had a 605? I have a 604 and may have hit the wrong key. PS3 decoding to PCM sounds great btw on the 604.
All your points are valid and I agree completely with what you say but the only thing the 1400 has that is nicer than the PS3 is the infrared remote IMO, but then again I am talking overall feature set. If we are talking JUST blu-ray playback, then it's much closer contest.
Dang Posty.
Just to make sure that anyone reading this who is confused about the audio differences I will explain them below.
The current surround formats that are most common today are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 surround sound. Both formats are compressed audio while DTS uses "less" compression compared to Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital 5.1 is on nearly every current DVD movie and is also used widely on many cable channels both SD and HD channels. Some examples would be SD HBO, ESPN HD, ABC HD etc. DTS 5.1 is only on DVD movies for the mass markets.
The most common way to get both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround is via either a coax digital audio connection and/or an optical digital audio connection. The player or the receiver "must" be able to decode both Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound respectively. For example most cable boxes "cannot" decode Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound so your receiver must be able to decode the AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) stream sent from your cable box.
Many DVD players available today can decode both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound and send a PCM signal that your surround receiver can decode.
Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound can also work via 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 analog audio inputs as well.
Now onto the HD audio stuff. Right now the most common surround format for HD audio that both HD DVD and Blu-Ray HD supports is Dolby TrueHD.
Dolby TrueHD is fully lossless and is bit for bit identical to the original studio master. The problem is that the normal coax and optical audio connections just don't have the bandwidth to pass this full lossless signal.
So as of now the only two ways that are available in mass market products that have the bandwidth to decode Dolby TrueHD are analog audio connections and HDMI. Now nearly all HD movie players can downconvert a Dolby TrueHD signal and send it out either PCM or Bitstream over coax and optical connections but this is again very lossy audio compared to the original TrueHD signal.
Everything above also applies to the DTS HD audio standard as well. Most HD movie players can decode both Dolby and DTS HD audio formats and send them bit for bit over an analog audio connection and/or an HDMI connection.
So simply put to get the full lossless HD audio experience your surround receiver must have either an analog audio input or an HDMI input. Beyond this requirement your HD movie player "must also" have one of these two connections as well.
So say your surround receiver has 7.1 channel analog audio inputs "but" it doesn't have an HDMI input. Well in this case buying a PS3 "WILL NOT" get you this lossless HD audio as the PS3 doesn't have an analog audio output . Because the PS3 only has an HDMI output your surround receiver "must" have an HDMI input to fully support lossless HD audio.
Now again remember that as long as your receiver has a coax and/or optical audio connection nearly all HD movie players will still be able to provide 5.1 surround sound at the least but it again will be lossy and very near DVD type surround sound.
I hope this post can help avoid some of the confusion I believe many readers may have regarding these new audio formats.
The current surround formats that are most common today are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 surround sound. Both formats are compressed audio while DTS uses "less" compression compared to Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital 5.1 is on nearly every current DVD movie and is also used widely on many cable channels both SD and HD channels. Some examples would be SD HBO, ESPN HD, ABC HD etc. DTS 5.1 is only on DVD movies for the mass markets.
The most common way to get both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround is via either a coax digital audio connection and/or an optical digital audio connection. The player or the receiver "must" be able to decode both Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound respectively. For example most cable boxes "cannot" decode Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound so your receiver must be able to decode the AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) stream sent from your cable box.
Many DVD players available today can decode both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound and send a PCM signal that your surround receiver can decode.
Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound can also work via 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 analog audio inputs as well.
Now onto the HD audio stuff. Right now the most common surround format for HD audio that both HD DVD and Blu-Ray HD supports is Dolby TrueHD.
Dolby TrueHD is fully lossless and is bit for bit identical to the original studio master. The problem is that the normal coax and optical audio connections just don't have the bandwidth to pass this full lossless signal.
So as of now the only two ways that are available in mass market products that have the bandwidth to decode Dolby TrueHD are analog audio connections and HDMI. Now nearly all HD movie players can downconvert a Dolby TrueHD signal and send it out either PCM or Bitstream over coax and optical connections but this is again very lossy audio compared to the original TrueHD signal.
Everything above also applies to the DTS HD audio standard as well. Most HD movie players can decode both Dolby and DTS HD audio formats and send them bit for bit over an analog audio connection and/or an HDMI connection.
So simply put to get the full lossless HD audio experience your surround receiver must have either an analog audio input or an HDMI input. Beyond this requirement your HD movie player "must also" have one of these two connections as well.
So say your surround receiver has 7.1 channel analog audio inputs "but" it doesn't have an HDMI input. Well in this case buying a PS3 "WILL NOT" get you this lossless HD audio as the PS3 doesn't have an analog audio output . Because the PS3 only has an HDMI output your surround receiver "must" have an HDMI input to fully support lossless HD audio.
Now again remember that as long as your receiver has a coax and/or optical audio connection nearly all HD movie players will still be able to provide 5.1 surround sound at the least but it again will be lossy and very near DVD type surround sound.
I hope this post can help avoid some of the confusion I believe many readers may have regarding these new audio formats.
Nice write-up.
A small correction: this statement
It has no problem sustaining digital DVD-A/SACD transfer when both, the receiver and player, play by the same "rules".
Denon Link 3rd Edition Released - SACD Compatible — Audioholics Home Theater Reviews and News
Diogen.
A small correction: this statement
isn't quite true. Optical audio bandwidth is much higher than DD/DTS.
It has no problem sustaining digital DVD-A/SACD transfer when both, the receiver and player, play by the same "rules".
Denon Link 3rd Edition Released - SACD Compatible — Audioholics Home Theater Reviews and News
Diogen.
one thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet
If DTS-Master Audio is important to you then you might be disappointed as the PS3 converts it to plain vanilla DTS before sending it to your receiver as PCM. Of course due to it's upgradability this can also change.
If DTS-Master Audio is important to you then you might be disappointed as the PS3 converts it to plain vanilla DTS before sending it to your receiver as PCM. Of course due to it's upgradability this can also change.
I know you state it, but to make sure people don't confuse this with my earlier post that PCM to my 604 sounds great.
PCM over the HDMI connection when the player is doing the decoding is not the same as the PCM downconvert over optical/coax digital connections. My HD DVD players and PS3's do the decoding for me and send out the data as PCM over HDMI, this I benefit from the HD Audio.
It's my personal opinion this will change and the functionality will be added.
Good choice! Actually I am married and I do talk to my wife that way. If she were to question my choice of....well anything without understanding a lick about it I would set the record straight. You are here doing yr homework and learning about the item you want and your wife's response was a bit ignorant. That would surely piss me off. Anways hope you are both happy with the purchase.
I will also say go with the PS3. I will suggest you avoid the Samsung players due to numerous reported issues. I will suggest you avoid the Sony standalone due to lack of features. If you have to go with a standalone, consider the Panasonics. The BD10 is profile 1.0 but plays DVD-A's. The BD30 is profile 1.1. It doesn't internally decode TrueHD or DTS-MA which kind of makes it useless for profile 1.1. It will only bitstream.
One nice thing about the PS3 is that it plays DivX and WMV HD files as well as Blu-ray discs.
One nice thing about the PS3 is that it plays DivX and WMV HD files as well as Blu-ray discs.
Let me just reiterate “The DMP-BD30 has no internal decoding for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, or DTS-HD Master Audio. This lack of internal decoding is particularly disappointing because the older DMP-BD10A itself offered internal decoding for all of these formats"
Which makes this player 'useless' if you want to enjoy Hi Def audio.
I don't think that this is 100% correct. I know where you are going with this but the statement is a bit misleading.
Get used to it. He goes into every thread with that. Just because it doesn't suit his needs. Get the BD50 or the pioneer05, or the denon 3800 if you need internal decoding.
S~
You might check out the Sony Blue-Ray players and most of them allow you to firmware update them. So there should not be any issues play certain disk so forth...
Sony Style USA | Sony VAIO® Computers | Sony Consumer Electronics
Sony Style USA | Sony VAIO® Computers | Sony Consumer Electronics
But to say “if you need internal decoding.” is very misleading considering 99% of all receivers don’t internally decode Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, or DTS-HD Master Audio. This flaw will likely keep owners of the Panasonic BD30 from enjoying Hi Def audio.
