am i getting hd sound?

[Anonymous]

possibly prof, but what got me thinking is that when i switch between the standard dd or pcm soundtrack and the true hd or dts ma one on the same disc, when using my bdp to output to my stereo amp, i can hear the difference.(have not tried this with the dac yet)

for example with the dark knight, the dd soundtrack is louder than the true hd one, as i often found to be the case with other movies, when i had the full 5.1 set-up.

would i notice this difference if downmixing the hd sound equated to standard pcm?

i'll experiment a bit and report back anyway

 

[jiggyjoe]

Dolby TrueHD may be transported to AV receivers in 5.1 or 7.1 channels, at lossless quality, in one of three ways depending on player and/or receiver support.

• Dolby TrueHD-capable players can create a 2-channel (stereo-compatible) downmix from a 6-channel source.(which is what you are doing now Maxflinn)
• Deliver audiotrack Over 6 or 8 RCA connectors as analog audio, using the blu-ray player's internal decoder and digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
• Over HDMI 1.1 (or higher) connections as 6- or 8-channel Linear PCM, using the blu-ray player's decoder and the AV receiver's DAC.
• Over HDMI 1.3 (or higher) connections as the original TrueHD bitstream, with decoding and DAC both done by the AV receiver.

 

[professorhat]

maxflinn:
possibly prof, but what got me thinking is that when i switch between the standard dd or pcm soundtrack and the true hd or dts ma one on the same disc, when using my bdp to output to my stereo amp, i can hear the difference.(have not tried this with the dac yet)

for example with the dark knight, the dd soundtrack is louder than the true hd one, as i often found to be the case with other movies, when i had the full 5.1 set-up.

would i notice this difference if downmixing the hd sound equated to standard pcm?

i'll experiment a bit and report back anyway

I would say it's highly likely that the the Dolby TrueHD-downmixed stereo PCM soundtrack would be less compressed than the Dolby Digital-downmixed stereo PCM soundtrack. So choosing the different soundtracks should highlight that difference.

As I said in my original post, the issue comes down to terminology - is what you're getting "HD audio" - not the in the true home cinema sense as you're not getting all 6 (or 8) channels of the soundtrack. However, the downmixed stereo output of a Blu-ray should be higher definition when compared to a DVD's downmixed stereo output.

It's also worth noting that some Blu-ray discs will likely come with a dedicated PCM stereo soundtrack which will have been authored directly in the studio for optimum stereo playback. So your experience will be different with different Blu-ray discs as well. This is more likely with music Blu-rays.

 

[Anonymous]

jiggyjoe:
Dolby TrueHD may be transported to AV receivers in 5.1 or 7.1 channels, at lossless quality, in one of three ways depending on player and/or receiver support.

• Dolby TrueHD-capable players can create a 2-channel (stereo-compatible) downmix from a 6-channel source.(which is what you are doing now Maxflinn)
• Deliver audiotrack Over 6 or 8 RCA connectors as analog audio, using the blu-ray player's internal decoder and digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
• Over HDMI 1.1 (or higher) connections as 6- or 8-channel Linear PCM, using the blu-ray player's decoder and the AV receiver's DAC.
• Over HDMI 1.3 (or higher) connections as the original TrueHD bitstream, with decoding and DAC both done by the AV receiver.

cheers jiggyjoe, i'll check out some of those links later

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:maxflinn:
possibly prof, but what got me thinking is that when i switch between the standard dd or pcm soundtrack and the true hd or dts ma one on the same disc, when using my bdp to output to my stereo amp, i can hear the difference.(have not tried this with the dac yet)

for example with the dark knight, the dd soundtrack is louder than the true hd one, as i often found to be the case with other movies, when i had the full 5.1 set-up.

would i notice this difference if downmixing the hd sound equated to standard pcm?

i'll experiment a bit and report back anyway

I would say it's highly likely that the the Dolby TrueHD-downmixed stereo PCM soundtrack would be less compressed than the Dolby Digital-downmixed stereo PCM soundtrack. So choosing the different soundtracks should highlight that difference.

As I said in my original post, the issue comes down to terminology - is what you're getting "HD audio" - not the in the true home cinema sense as you're not getting all 6 (or 8) channels of the soundtrack. However, the downmixed stereo output of a Blu-ray should be higher definition when compared to a DVD's downmixed stereo output.

It's also worth noting that some Blu-ray discs will likely come with a dedicated PCM stereo soundtrack which will have been authored directly in the studio for optimum stereo playback. So your experience will be different with different Blu-ray discs as well. This is more likely with music Blu-rays.

yup, that all makes good sense as usual prof

. thanks for your input, i must have a look for any dedicated pcm stereo soundtracks in future