Blu Ray, SACD and Sound Formats

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

I've decided it's about time I got a Blu Ray player (especially since I have BTTF on Blu Ray coming to me in a few weeks). I was originally just going to go for a stand alone player but then got attracted to the all in one home cinema set up and then noticed that some of them play SACD.

1. Now I was assuming that the speakers of an all in one home cinema kit (e.g. Sony BDV - E370) wouldn't be able to play a SACD at the same (stereo) quality as my Nad 320 amp, so I was looking for a player with analogue audio out but the above doesn't have it, although the stand along player range (e.g. Sony BDP-s570) does. Is my assumption correct or should I not bother wanting to output the SACD through my regular amp (obviously I lose the surround sound part of it doing that)?

2. Does Blu Ray 5.1 sound have a better quality / different standard to DVD 5.1? If I just got a stand along player with optical out, will it play fine on my old Philips LX700 or will I be getting a lower quality stream (ignoring the speakers)?

3. I also have a Panasonic HD TV (LZD81) and the systems above don't have HDMI inputs so I'd have to use the single optical input. Now say I have my Patriot Box Office HD player hooked up to my TV using HDMI (that carries 5.1 sound too doesn't it?) and an optical lead going from the TV optical out to the Blu Ray cinema setup, would it be standard enough for the TV to pass the 5.1 audio through from the HD player or would I definitely need an optical lead from the media player to the home cinema kit as well as one from the TV (for regular tv programs), which would mean swapping leads around?

I've been focusing on the Sony models due to the SACD but then sometimes I think, do I really need SACD, since not much of the music I'm into is available on it, but it just seems like a nice feature to have.

Anyway, enough questions, feel free to pick and choose which ones to answer

Thanks in advance.,

Iain

 

[cram]

2) Yes Blu ray has a different sound standard/quality to DVD. You won't be able to output hi-def sound via optical, it doesn't have the bandwidth. Having said that you should at least be able to output standard Dolby or DTS via optical to give you sound on par with DVD.

3) SACD is there is little of he music you like on this format why bother?

ZZap64 got my signed Oli Frey Terminal Man booklet today, complete with one off Oli bug. (I know you will understand this).

 

[Anonymous]

2. So how do you get the full resolution of sound out of a Blu Ray player, HDMI?

[edit]I educated myself and see all the audio formats come out of HDMI ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi )

So the fact that the Sony E370 doesn't have HDMI inputs is a bit of a problem then, so the only HD sound the amp can output is from the built in Blu Ray player?

[/edit]

I'm assuming digital out coaxial has the same bandwidth problems as optical?

Re Terminal Man book, indeed I do understand, mine should be on it's way to me now

 

[pete321]

It seems like Blu-Ray Audio (BD-A) is slowly starting to take off.

Geffen Records (according to a retailer alert) has plans to bring the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 1979 album "Damn The Torpedoes" to Blu-ray Audio on November 9th. The tech specs haven't yet been released for this title but Amazon in their PRE-ORDER listing, which carries a $26.99 price tag, lists it as being a 2-disc set. This is first of all not to be confused with the "Classic Albums" Blu-ray Disc release of this album, from (Eagle Rock Entertainment). This release, UNLIKE that "classic albums" release, will actually contain the entire album in its original form with what one would assume to be a lossless audio codec and a Stereo presentation, with a slight chance of a 5.1 surround mix as well. Again though, that last part is just speculation. For example, Tom Petty has expressed his love for the Blu-ray format as way to deliver his music, he has several BD-A (Blu-ray Disc Audio) releases already available such as his and "The Heartbreakers'" latest album "Mojo" and "The Live Anthology: Ultimate Collector's Edition Box Set", both of which were through Reprise. One thing we do know via the pre-order listing is that this does include a digital download of the album itself in likely MP3 format.