5.1 HD Audio formats

[admin_exported]

Hi, I'm looking to start from scratch a new system with a budget of around £1500 and what I have in mind so far is:

TV. Panasonic TH-37PX70
Speakers. Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1
Multichannel reciever. Onkyo TX-SR605

And I intend to buy a PS3 soon after

I know my TV isn't optimal for BluRay but my budget is too tight to stretch to a decent 1080p and there monsters anyway, and 720p will be fine for games. But I feel I can get Full HD audio within my price range but I've come across some confusion as to whether I actually can.

I've been looking around on the back of HD-DVD and BluRay cases and scouring the net to see what speaker setup I will need to take advantage of the new HD audio formats and I've got conflicting answers, the Film cases show the 5.1 symbol with the HD audio, but the DTS site shows 6.1 and 7.1 where as the Dolby site says its current max is 8 channels. Now I might be getting a tad confused over here, but lets face it its very confusing, so does anyone in forum world know if this setup would suit?

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Babboo, hope I can be of help to you. The new HD surround formats (Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, etc.) are all a big improvement over the older formats (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) due to their higher bitrates and the fact that they are much less compressed. This means they can be more dynamic, punchy, open, etc. and generally of much higher sound quality. They can come in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channel forms (and potentially even more - up to 10.1 channels I think). The number of channels depends on the particular disc that is being played, the actual HD player (whether it can output via it's HDMI, or if it has 5.1 or 7.1 analogue connections), and your own receiver and the way it is set up. Basically the number of channels on these new formats are variable, and the formats are a great improvement over the older formats regardless of how many channels they carry. I think you will find that even a 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack will be a massive improvement over a standard Dolby Digital soundtrack. I heard a Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack (although I can't remember how many channels) at the What Hi-Fi demo and I thought it was stunning, and more importantly I found it to be more enjoyable than standard Dolby Digital. Hope I answered your question.

 

[mjs]

Erm there`s no source for any audio specified in your budget.Do I assume it will be the PS3?

If you intend to buy a 5:1 speaker set up,then it really does not matter what data is on the disc/source.All you can get is 5.1.In any quality.I`m not even sure if the Onkyo you specify will even handle HD audio anyway,probably not at the budget of £1500 for three items.

I would connect your PS3 to your amp via HDMI,select PCM sound (if you can) and enjoy.Forget the rest,at this price point you ain`t going to get it.

 

[Anonymous]

mjs you obviously didn't read my post properly, and don't seem to know what you're talking about, because I did say it depends on the HD player and the receiver, and obviously the number of speakers, to be compatible with the new formats, aswell as the disc itself because even if you had for example a Blu-ray player and the mentioned receiver (Onkyo TXSR605) which by the way does handle the HD sound formats (check your facts next time mjs), the actual Blu-ray disc may only contain 5.1 channels, or even less. Anyway it goes without saying that Babboo should connect his PS3 to his excellent hi-def Onkyo receicer via HDMI, and for the time being have the PS3 output uncompressed PCM, but after firmware updates for your PS3 in the near future, you will be able to output Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS HD to be decoded by your reciever which should sound even better. Hope this helps.

 

[mjs]

There is no need to be rude,and secondly my response was not to you,but to the first poster,who does not state the things you do,and actually asked the question I responded to.

 

[Anonymous]

Babboo

The answer to your question is totally dependent on what you actually expect out of the HD audio formats.

The understandable confusion is made by the marketing of large companies who are only interested in making money out of gullible people and the media that does not explain the facts and truth.

First of all, you will need to understand what HD audio is. The best way to know and understand perhaps will be to do your own research albeit it would take some time to find the right sources to find thwe actual facts. Dolby Laboratories and DTS websites are a good and arguably the only place you should be looking for for actual facts.

I know you have not the time and possibly the need to do so, hence your inquiry here.

Having said the above about the importance of going to the source, following are my 2p worth if you can't be bothered to refer to the original source of information but would rather seek advice of an individual.

As mentioned earlier, the answer will depend on your expectations or needs for HD audio.

In fact you may not need HD audio at all.

I shall assume that you enjoy music on MP3 players like so many other people do. If not please skip the following passage to the next argument. (Or perhaps you don't listen to MP3 music for a particular reason, then you may benefit from HD audio as explained later)

If you do, then the next question would be, are you in any way unsatisfied with its sound quality ?

If the answer is no. or don't know you will most probably forget worrying about HD audio.

So, we shall assume that you are somewhat unsatisfied with the audio quality of the MP3 player you have or you don't own one because of it.

If that is the case, your proposed set up will suit your needs because it will definitely offer you sound quality that is at least CD (16bit 44.1kHz fs linear PCM) quality or better (DVD 16bit 48kHz fs linear PCM) that is far superior to typical MP3 music. But again if you can't here the difference, why should you bother ?

There may be another expectation for HD audio. More channels of sound being made available.

In this case as well, your proposed set up will suit your needs because it will definitely offer you at least 5.1ch of soundtracks being played back.

However, many caveats will be required for reproducing channels above 5.1.

One, example,

With the most recent system software (ver 2.01) available for PS3 at the time of writing, you will only get core data from both DTS and Dolby via HDMI bitstream.

And in fact for DTS, PS3 will not output DTS-HD 7.1, only 5.1 ch or less via HDMI.

There are ways to get 7.1ch with your proposed set up, but to be frank the result and sound quality achieved will be similar to what you can get from conventional technology and products (standard DVD and Dolby Digital and DTS) anyway.

My advice would be don't be too nervous on the latest tech unless you do actually have a desperate need for it.

I know everyone wants to "futureproof", but hey, we are living in the 21st century now. By the time we all stop umming and urring and make the purchase, some companie's giong to be working on the "next big thing".

If you become too obsessed with futureproofing yourself you won't be able to buy anything at all.

(That may be not a bad idea afterall

 

[Anonymous]

Susanoo, don't you think that Babboo will get more enjoyment out of the new high-def sound formats, even if he doesn't feel he is unsatisfied with the current formats? At the What Hi-Fi demo at the show the other month, they showed us a standard DVD of Transformers, which was brilliant (both the vision and sound) and I did not see how it could be improved. However, when they played the HD-DVD version, it certainly was a big improvement.