Help/Advise..How to know if I am listening to HD audio..Plus should I?

[admin_exported]

Afternoon, appreciate some help.

I would like to know if I am listening to HD Audio on my set up? (this is my first BD player experiance)

Set up

Sony Str-dg810

Sony BD-S360 (All setting on default out of the box)

Connected with a Hdmi 1.3a cable playing Batman The Dark Knight, which has both DD and HD-DD

The reason I ask,the reciever is not showing the HD symbol, while I understand the player can decode the HD audio,(and the amp would not show the HD symbol?) the reciver is showing PCM, is the HD-DD or DD? I tried changing the S360 to downmix, and stil the reciever did not show HD audio, when I thought it would.

Plus should I?

Leave the player doing the decoding?.. as it can be updated with any future softare patches, while the amp can't, plus it saves on one conversion process? (not that this in the digital age should make any differance)

many thanks with any help/guidence recived

 

[Sorreltiger]

First of all, make sure that you've selected the HD audio track on the disk menu - if I remember correctly, the Batman films are very awkward in this respect as you have to do this 'on the fly' . On your Sony player, the easiest way is to press the 'Audio' button.

Secondly, you can't just leave the player in its 'out of box' state. Most of the settings are OK ,but the key one that needs changing is BD Audio Setting - Direct NOT Mix. This will magically send bitstream to your amp and the display should light up as you were hoping! By the way, downmix has no effect on the sound if you're using HDMI.

The HD processing in your amp is probably better than the player, so this is the way to go. Good luck!

 

[Andrew Everard]

The STR-DG810 can't take a direct bitstream feed of the high-resolution audio formats on Blu-ray, but requires them to be decoded in the player and output as LPCM.

Assuming you have the BDP-S360's HDMI audio output set to Auto, which is the default setting, he player is detecting this, via signals sent back up the HDMI from the receiver, and is converting the Dolby/DTS HD soundtracks to LPCM before they're sent to the receiver.

So yes, you're getting HD audio, yes the receiver display is the correct one, and no, the HD symbol won't light up.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks..going of to watch the Dark knight very content that I am benifiting from all the HD goodness I can

 

[Sorreltiger]

Sorry - I should have checked this first. Thank you for putting me right, Andrew.