Audio interconnects with Blu- Ray

[admin_exported]

Greetings

I have just joined the forum, so apologises if this is an old chestnut!

I have read a lot of the threads but I would like to be 100% sure before buying my next set of equipment.

I have just upgraded to Blu Ray and HD TV ( Panasonic BD35 and TX-P42G10). So the video is sorted, now I need to turn to the audio!

What is the best way to handle audio ? From the threads on the forum I have read, the best route seems to be to daisy-chain from Blu-Ray player to AV receiver to HD TV with HDMI cables rather than taking the audio signal directly to the receiver via a digital optical or coaxial cables as I do at present.

As this now means a new receiver and HDMI cable,

I want to get the facts right.

Very grateful for any advice.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, with the BD35, to get the HD audio formats, you'll need an AV receiver with an HDMI input and can accept audio via this input. You have two options with the BD35 - you can either get a receiver which is able to accept LPCM through its HDMI input and set your BD35 to decode the HD audio formats onboard, or you can get a receiver which is able to decode all the HD audio formats onboard (look for one that can do Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio as these are the most common) and you can then bitstream the audio from the Blu-Ray player to be decoded by the receiver. Since you're buying new, I would suggest the latter is the most sensible option.

PS - If any terms / acronyms are unclear, let me know!

 

[Messiah]

You would be correct!

You would certainly be better of using the HDMI connection as this will enable you to benefit from HD sound (presuming you buy a receiver capable of this of course - most have this feature now though).

This would not be possible using Optical/Coaxial.

EDIT - yeah, what the Prof said

 

[d4v3pum4]

What audio system are you using at present? Obviously upgrading to a HDMI audio capable amp should hopefully deliver a significant increase in sound quality but not everyone that has upgraded to HD audio has been blown away. Demo to be sure.

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for the advice.

Presently I have a Yamaha RX-V620 into Bower & Wilkins speakers.

The factor that made me raise the question was that the BD55 had,and now the BD35's replacement, BD60, has now added a coaxial digital outlet. Seems strange to add an inferior feature?

 

[nads]

the 35 has always had a digital out (optical) and according to many the Coax is the better one of the 2. But the optical and coax still do not have the bandwidth required for the HD formats.

 

[Anonymous]

As a matter of interest i have spoken to Yamaha tech this morning and the very helpful guy there has told me even though my yamaha av amp doesn't have the HD codecs, it will still recieve a HD signal as PCM through either a 'optical or co-axial' cable thus getting a better sound than standard DD or DTS 5.1..... as long as the Blu-Ray player decodes onboard.

 

[professorhat]

You can get better than standard DD and DTS 5.1 (compared to a DVD soundtrack) through optical on a Blu-Ray because a Blu-Ray disc can hold the theoretical maximum bitrate samples e.g. for DTS, this is 1536 Kbps, whereas a DVD is generally limited to 768 Kbps so it will sound better. This can be transmitted over an optical / coaxial connection, but it doesn't have to be decoded onboard the player so they were wrong there.

However, this doesn't actually qualify as HD audio (i.e. the likes of Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio) whose high bitrates mean that simply the bandwidth isn't available over an optical / coaxial cable. HDMI has to be used to bitstream these formats, or you can decode onboard and send via multichannel analogue outputs (not an option on the BD35 though).

The reason most Blu-Ray players have an optical or coaxial output is simply so that people with older amps without HDMI can still gain access to the standard DD / DTS soundtracks i.e. backwards compatability.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah that's why your named 'professorhat'

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe you can explain to me 'Prof' why would i not use the HDMI input on my av amp as opposed to optical/co-axial to obtain even better sound then... any ideas about that please?

 

[professorhat]

jasonh:Maybe you can explain to me 'Prof' why would i not use the HDMI input on my av amp as opposed to optical/co-axial to obtain even better sound then... any ideas about that please?

If I get this right, you're asking why you wouldn't use the HDMI socket on your amp for audio, and you would instead use the optical / coaxial input to get a better sound? The only reason I can think of is your HDMI input doesn't accept audio, only video for switching purposes.

Is this a trick question?!

 

[Anonymous]

No trick ?..... my amp has a HDMI 1.1 connection but told by Yamaha better to use optical/co-axial.. so hdmi from blu-ray player to tv and sound as stated above.

i thought it may be because no hi-def codecs on my av amp... all very confusing at times.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

jasonh:
No trick ?..... my amp has a HDMI 1.1 connection but told by Yamaha better to use optical/co-axial.. so hdmi from blu-ray player to tv and sound as stated above.

i thought it may be because no hi-def codecs on my av amp... all very confusing at times.

Your amp does not accept HD audio through hdmi. It will only accept HD audio through analogue and your BD35 does not have multi channel analogue. Your options are to use optical or coaxial with your current amp and you will get a ever so slightly better DD or DTS soundtrack from your BDs. However, this is still 20 times or so short of HD audio. If you want really great sound, I would look at getting at least one of the budget receivers on the market that will accept HD audio through hdmi from your BD player. This will also offer you a chance for your system to catch up with the latest technology. If your plasma/lcd accepts hdmi 1.3, and you use these cables from BD player and new receiver, you will get auto lip sync for starters.

 

[professorhat]

Well my understanding of HDMI 1.1 means it won't support bitstreaming the HD codecs (Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio) directly to the amp, but it may accept 5.1 LPCM. If it does accept LPCM via the HDMI, you can set your BD35 to decode these formats onboard and send the LPCM data to your amp. In this case, this would be better than using the coaxial / optical port.

What amp do you have, that way we can be sure what we're dealing with and what the capabilities are?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

professorhat:
Well my understanding of HDMI 1.1 means it won't support bitstreaming the HD codecs (Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio) directly to the amp, but it may accept 5.1 LPCM. If it does accept LPCM via the HDMI, you can set your BD35 to decode these formats onboard and send the LPCM data to your amp. In this case, this would be better than using the coaxial / optical port.

What amp do you have, that way we can be sure what we're dealing with and what the capabilities are?

The OP has a Yamaha RX-V620 which doesn't have hdmi at all. The other guy, Jason, has not mentioned which amp he has.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, post was directed to Jason - think the OP has had everything answered? If not, let us know!

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for delay chaps....

My av amp is a Yamaha rx-v2600 with HDMI input and output , Blu-Ray is Pioneer bdp-51 fd and plasma is a Panasonic tx-p42g10 all of which are still boxed.(don't ask why) but soon to be set-up. Hence not knowing too much yet but learning all the time.

Cheers.

 

[Anonymous]

Additionally i know i can use the Pioneer's analogue outputs to the amp but would prefer to be HDMI or optical-co/axial connection (no more leads please).

The amp cost £900 (3 yrs ago) and just spent best part of £2000 on new tv, blu-ray player and av rack so no new amp for me for a year or so.

 

[professorhat]

Hi Jason,

Happen to already have the manual for that amp (must have helped someone else with it in the past) and a quick look at page 119 says it accepts 5.1 multichannel PCM through the HDMI socket. So this means, if you set the Pioneer to decode all the HD codecs onboard (or at least all the ones it can, I know a firmware update was due out in April to allow it to decode DTS HD Master Audio but not sure if that's happened yet) and send these via LPCM to the Yamaha via the HDMI output, you should be getting HD audio.

Let us know how you get on.

EDIT - this thread suggests update from Pioneer for decoding DTS-HD MA onboard is due mid-May

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all your help and taking the time to read-up about it.

Have heard somewhere or other that the a full 1080p signal can't pass through the amp for some reason... wasn't sure if this was down to the fact that it upscales to 1080i only.

Once set-up i'll find out for sure..... (hopefully).

Thanks.

 

[professorhat]

No problem at all. Just had a look at the resolution question and, although there's nothing in the manual which definitely states it, everything suggests a 1080p signal would just be passed through unaltered. There's certainly nothing which states a 1080p signal would be converted into a 1080i signal (and this would be a strange thing to implement since the HDMI 1.1 format fully supports 1080p video).

Where I think this has come from is the fact that you can upconvert analogue signals (from component, s-video or composite sources) to the HDMI output and these signals can also be upscaled at the same time, but to a maximum of 720p or 1080i.

So I'm 99.999% positive your native 1080p signal from your Blu-Ray player will just be passed through to the TV unaltered.ÿ

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks professor

i'm hoping that is the case.....oh i best order another HDMI lead as i've only the one.

Let you know as soon as i get it all set-up.

Cheers.