DTS HD AUDIO OUTPUT FROM SONY BDP 550 INTO MULTI CHANNEL ANALOGUE

[anderc02]

HELLO,
I HAVE BEEN WATCHING BLU RAY DISKS ,WHICH ACCORDING TO THE DISPLAY BAR ON THE SONY BDP 550 ARE BEING OUTPUT AS: 'DTS HD AUDIO MASTER 3;2/1 48 HZ '. THE BIT RATE IS AT 19 -27 . THERE IS 5:1 SOUND COMING THROUGH WHEN THE DISPLAY STATES THIS . MY OLD SONY AV AMP IS CONNECTED VIA 5 COAXIAL INTERCONNECTS (LFE DIVERTED)INTO THE 'MULTI CHANNEL DIRECT CHANNEL' . ALL SEEMS WELL BUT CAN SOMEONE SUPPLY THE 'AUDIO SETTINGS' FOR THEIR SONY 550 BDP SO I CAN CHECK . THAT IS IF ANY OF YOU ARE USING THE 'MULTI CHANNEL AUDIO CONNECTION' METHOD ! I DO NOT WANT TO START MESSING WITHOUT SOME GUIDANCE.NEITHER DO I WANT BE BE GLIBLY ENJOYING 'DTS HD AUDIO' WHEN IT MAY ONLY BE BOG STANDRD DTS. I WANT TO BE SURE THE BDP 550 IS DOING THE ON BOARD DECODING.

 

[nads]

cant hear you for the shouting,

and i is so hard to read i dont know if i can be bothered.

what disc?

 

[anderc02]

Nads , that was not very helpful. It is discs plural .

 

[Andrew Everard]

Phew! At least the caps lock is off now

 

[anderc02]

Alright , it was a civil question !

In the name of cod!

 

[nads]

i have been reading a lot about 7.1 discs not playing 7.1 with some players and some amps.

More info needed.

I have never had a prob with a BD35 and the Onk.

People have mentioned that the discs have not been flaged correctly. hence the question what disc(s)

 

[Andrew Everard]

anderc02:
In the name of cod!

What's fish got to do/got to do/with it?

 

[Anonymous]

Ive seen posts like this quite often, and since i am unable to listen to HD audio at the moment, forgive my ignorance but lots of people what hi fi included have repeatedly said how good HD audio is, now if you go from listening to DTS audio to listening to DTS-HD master audio surely your ears will tell straight away if it is just DTS or not, you shouldnt need an av receiver to spell it out for you, or as i suspect, the difference isnt that much at all between HD audio and normal 5.1

 

[Lost Angeles]

eremis6:Ive seen posts like this quite often, and since i am unable to listen to HD audio at the moment, forgive my ignorance but lots of people what hi fi included have repeatedly said how good HD audio is, now if you go from listening to DTS audio to listening to DTS-HD master audio surely your ears will tell straight away if it is just DTS or not, you shouldnt need an av receiver to spell it out for you, or as i suspect, the difference isnt that much at all between HD audio and normal 5.1

You can hear the difference straight away.

 

[professorhat]

eremis6:Ive seen posts like this quite often, and since i am unable to listen to HD audio at the moment, forgive my ignorance but lots of people what hi fi included have repeatedly said how good HD audio is, now if you go from listening to DTS audio to listening to DTS-HD master audio surely your ears will tell straight away if it is just DTS or not, you shouldnt need an av receiver to spell it out for you, or as i suspect, the difference isnt that much at all between HD audio and normal 5.1

But then if you've nothing to compare it to, how could you tell? Most DTS HD soundtracks I know of have only this, no separate standard DTS soundtrack included since this can be obtained from the core DTS HD track. So if you play the DTS HD soundtrack, how can you tell if it is actually DTS HD or if it's playing the core DTS track without anything to compare it to? That's where the issue lies.

 

[Lost Angeles]

professorhat:

eremis6:Ive seen posts like this quite often, and since i am unable to listen to HD audio at the moment, forgive my ignorance but lots of people what hi fi included have repeatedly said how good HD audio is, now if you go from listening to DTS audio to listening to DTS-HD master audio surely your ears will tell straight away if it is just DTS or not, you shouldnt need an av receiver to spell it out for you, or as i suspect, the difference isnt that much at all between HD audio and normal 5.1

But then if you've nothing to compare it to, how could you tell? Most DTS HD soundtracks I know of have only this, no separate standard DTS soundtrack included since this can be obtained from the core DTS HD track. So if you play the DTS HD soundtrack, how can you tell if it is actually DTS HD or if it's playing the core DTS track without anything to compare it to? That's where the issue lies.

From my experiences when I've played Master and Commander from DVD (DTS) and from Blu-ray (DTS HD Master Audio) the soundtrack is better from DTS HD Master Audio, also when I was setting my BDP up originally I could only get my receiver to display DTS. When I finally got it set up correctly it now displays DTS HD Master Audio and sounds better. I have not had any Dolby Digital HD discs yet to experiment with.
If I've still got it wrong please tell me.

 

[professorhat]

No that sounds right, if amp is saying it's decoding DTS HD Master Audio, then you're definitely set. Unfortunately, you won't get this when using the multichannel outputs into an older amp as the OP is doing.

However, theÿcomparisonÿbetween Blu-Ray and DVD isn't really a fair one as (a) the DVD soundtrack and Blu-Ray soundtrack might be different due to different mastering etc. by the studio and (b) more than likely, the bitrate on the DVD soundtrack will be a maximum of 768 Kbps, whereas the core DTS track within the DTS HD Master Audio track on the Blu-Ray will be 1.5 Mbps - i.e. twice the amount of detail. Since the DTS HD Master Audio can be anywhere up to 24.5 Mbps, you can see why it should be a big improvement.ÿ

The only way I know to tell the difference between the two would be to connect your Blu-Ray player up with an optical cable and play the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack (thus getting the core DTS track), then connect up with your HDMI / multichannel outputs and play the same track - if you're getting the HD track, it should sound better.

N.B. - 'Better' does not necessarily mean louder. Listen out for the details in the track.

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

The point i was making though is for the sake of visiting blockbuster and picking up either a rental or a £4.00 second hand dvd you could have compared the dvd and the blu-ray which would have told you straight away whether it was HD audio or not.Unless the difference is not that obvious

 

[Gerrardasnails]

eremis6:The point i was making though is for the sake of visiting blockbuster and picking up either a rental or a £4.00 second hand dvd you could have compared the dvd and the blu-ray which would have told you straight away whether it was HD audio or not.Unless the difference is not that obvious

The difference is stark. The sound from Bluray films is amazing, especially DTS HD and PCM soundtracks.

Back to the OP. You say you are using coaxial cables - I hope you mean RCA analogue cables? If so, you should use 6 and have the subwoofer one connected also to your receiver. You will then need to set the audio settings to PCM so that the BD player decodes each channel and then sends it to the receiver to output. Your receiver should say LPCM and if you click audio on your S550 remote, a new soundtrack will appear, (eg, English 1 Dolby 2.0, English 2 DTS HD Master Audio, French 1 etc.,). You can use this to check the difference in sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Im pleased to hear that the difference in audio is so clear as ive been wanting to change the audio part of the system for a while anyway but that will make it all the more worthwhile.

 

[The_Lhc]

Gerrardasnails: Back to the OP. You say you are using coaxial cables - I hope you mean RCA analogue cables? If so, you should use 6 and have the subwoofer one connected also to your receiver. You will then need to set the audio settings to PCM so that the BD player decodes each channel and then sends it to the receiver to output. Your receiver should say LPCM

Really? If you're using multi-channel analogue outputs? I was under the impression LPCM was a digital format and would normally be passed through the HDMI lead if one wasn't bitstreaming?

"Gerrardasnails" - that reminds me, he was injured last night wasn't he? I'll have to take him out of my fantasy team...

 

[Gerrardasnails]

the_lhc:
Gerrardasnails: Back to the OP. You say you are using coaxial cables - I hope you mean RCA analogue cables? If so, you should use 6 and have the subwoofer one connected also to your receiver. You will then need to set the audio settings to PCM so that the BD player decodes each channel and then sends it to the receiver to output. Your receiver should say LPCM

Really? If you're using multi-channel analogue outputs? I was under the impression LPCM was a digital format and would normally be passed through the HDMI lead if one wasn't bitstreaming?

"Gerrardasnails" - that reminds me, he was injured last night wasn't he? I'll have to take him out of my fantasy team...

You may be right. I have my receiver decoding, I just thought that it would be that showing instead of DTS HD or Dolby HD.

OP, it will show something on your receiver but not DTS HD or Dolby HD. You will still be getting HD audio.

 

[The_Lhc]

Wouldn't it just show that you were using the multi-channel input? It wouldn't have any format to show, the same way that it wouldn't if you were listen to something via RCA stereo inputs?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Correct - it won't show PCM or LPCM or anything else digitayul, as it'll be receiving an analogue input, albeit lots of channels of it.

 

[anderc02]

Hi,
My receiver does not show what signal it is receiving when set to 'multi channel analogue' it just says 'multi channel analogue'. Hence my difficulty .Some of your comments state ; flip between dts and DTS hd audio however none of the discs have such a choice to compare . What i need is someone with a Sony BDP 550 who is using an old amp with rca stereo interconnects as i am . Who is sure they are getting an HD signal ie i need to set the Blu ray player to do on board decoding but i am not sure what to set the output as ; Downmix dolby digital , pcm or whatever . The audio /display function on the player state DTS HD audio is being output : 3/2: 1 at 48hz . Basically i want the correct settings to copy !

 

[c.honda]

I have the same set up, Sony BDP 550 and an old amp that is connected to the BDP 550 with rca's and a digital coaxial cable.

In the audio settings I have the Dolby digital set to Dolby digital and DTS set to DTS, these 2 setting only effect audio from the digital cable. Because my amp can decode Dolby digital and DTS I use these setting so that my amp does the decoding and not the BDP 550.

When I watch a DVD I set my "output audio priority" to "coaxial/optical". so that the audio is sent from the BDP 550 to the amp via the digital cable, my amp will then decodes Dolby digital or DTS.

If you haven't connected the BDP 550 to your amp with a digital cable, be it optical or coaxial, then select "downmix pcm" for both Dolby digital and DTS.

When I am watching a blu ray that contains HD audio, not all of them do, I set the BDP 550's "output audio priority" to "multi channel analogue". Then in the films menu I will select whatever HD audio is on the disc, such as Dolby tru HD, DTS HD or PCM. I Set the amp to the analogue multi channel analogue and I'm getting HD audio.

If you look at page 48 of the instructions a lot of the above is explained.

I have only got 2 BD's which came with the BDP 550, these are Batman Begins and Casino Royale. Both of these contain HD audio, PCM on Casino Royale and Dolbly tru HD on Batman.

I have switched between Dolby digital and dolby tru HD on batman and can tell the difference. Same goes with Casino Royale but switching between PCM uncompressed and Dolby digital.

Out of interest what discs are you watching?

 

[anderc02]

Hi C Honda,
Thanks for that , i am not using a Digital innterconnect or an Optical cable as they do not carry the HD sognal . I play all Blu ray and DVD's through the Multi Channel Analogue setting using 5 Chord cables (no sub so that is switched off at the Sony BDP and the AMP) .Are you saying that in 'Audio Settings' for the BDP i should set Dolby Digital and Dolby surround to 'downmix PCM' for both ? Will that ensure HD sound ? When i press ' Display ' on the BDP hanset what will it say ? Also if i do that will non Blu Ray DVD's still ouput at those settings or do i need to re connect my Digital Cable to watch DVD's ?

I own 'Wall E ' and 'Band of Brothers 'on Blu Ray and rent from love film ; Currently 'Hellboy 2 ''and the 'Crystal Skull' are knocking about.

Finally i do think i am getting an HD signal when i choose that in the menu it is just that when i press 'Display' it says : Dolby Tru HD 3/2.1 (48hz) . The bit rate is at 24- 26 . However it was the 48HZ that confused me.

 

[c.honda]

In answer to this question:
"Are you saying that in 'Audio Settings' for the BDP i should set Dolby
Digital and Dolby surround to 'downmix PCM' for both ? Will that ensure
HD sound ?"

According to the instructions (page 48) changing these settings only affects output from the digital out. So if you haven't got a digital cable connected it won't make a difference what these are set to. They have nothing to do with getting HD sound.

Providing you have got the BD players "audio output priority" set to "multi channel analogue" , your amp is set to multi channel analogue and you have selected HD sound on the disc, you should be getting HD sound. The BD player will decode the HD audio and send it to your amp.

For DVD's if you use the settings above the BD player will decode DTS and Dolby Digital and send it to the amp. I have a digital cable connected because its better to let the amp do the decoding. We can't do this for HD audio because our amps can't decode it. Of course when watching DVDs I have to change "output priority" to "coaxial/optical".

For this question

"Finally i do think i am getting an HD signal when i choose that in the
menu it is just that when i press 'Display' it says : Dolby Tru HD
3/2.1 (48hz) . The bit rate is at 24- 26 . However it was the 48HZ that
confused me."

If you are reffering to the option of choosing 48khz /16bit or 96khz/24bit, this option relates to sound output from the digital out, you don't have a digital cable connected so no need to worry about it. Mine is set to 48khz, maybe some DVDs have 96khz? It certainly can't have anything to do with HD sound because it only affects the digital out jack.

Hope this helps.

 

[anderc02]

Hi,
Thanks to all for your contributions , i am finished bar the shouting !
C Honda , thanks for the info seems i am getting HD audio but i am allowing the Blu Ray player to decode DVD 's instead of my Sony VA 555es amp . I will dig out my Qunex again and re connect it to get to best sound from my old DVD's