Sound Options - 5.1 analogue or digital optical ?

[stevee1966]

I've got a Panasonic BD30 blu-ray player connected to a Denon AVR-1507 which does not have an HDMI connection.

Which option of connection will give me better audio quality :-
- 5.1 channel analogue outputs
or
- digital optical

and what should configure my amp settings to be ?

Thanks in advance for any advice that can be offered

 

[Liam19]

5.1 analogue - this will allow you to take advantage of Blu-ray's HD audio codecs.

Digital optical hasn't the bandwidth to carry these signals in full - the best it can manage is standard Dolby Digital / DTS.

Can't really help on the amp settings though, hopefully someone else can.

 

[stevee1966]

Liam19:5.1 analogue - this will allow you to take advantage of Blu-ray's HD audio codecs.

I didn't think my Denon could play back HD audio. Am i right to think this or confused (which would be nothing new) ?

And if my Denon cannot handle HD audio, what is the best quality audio it will play, and will this audio be through the 5.1 analogues or the digital optical connection ?

Thanks

 

[d4v3pum4]

If the 1507 has multi-channel analogue inputs and your BD player has multi-channel outputs, use 3 x phono cables (I use bluejeanscables multi-channel cables in my own system) and set the player to output LPCM i.e. it decodes the HD audio and outputs it as analogue (utilising decoder and on board DAC) and you will hear HD audio. It is advisable to increase the LFE channel by 10db. This is the only way you will hear HD audio on your amp, it won't say it is HD audio as the decoding is being done in the player but by pressing the relevant button on the player's remote you will see what is being decoded, providing of course you have selected the HD track at the start during the menu.

Select EXT-In to select the analogue inputs.

 

[stevee1966]

Think I just about get that.

Cheers

 

[stevee1966]

Still a bit confused. I thought i'd read that the DB30 did not have HD decoding and had to rely on an amp to do this (whereas the newer db35 model does do HD).

 

[Anonymous]

stevee1966:Still a bit confused. I thought i'd read that the DB30 did not have HD decoding and had to rely on an amp to do this (whereas the newer db35 model does do HD).

The BD30 only decodes TrueHD, on DTS-HD tracks you will just hear the core DTS track.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

stevee1966:Still a bit confused. I thought i'd read that the DB30 did not have HD decoding and had to rely on an amp to do this (whereas the newer db35 model does do HD).

No, it can decode HD audio. So if the 1507 has multi channel connectivity, you will get much better sound that way than using optical or anything else.

"The DMP-BD30 has built-in Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS-HD decoders. It also has a High Quality 192kHz/24bit Audio digital-to-analog converter. It has audio re-master features for all formats and has settings for Advanced Surround sound (VSS). Apart from this, the player's audio system features a dialogue enhancer and dynamic range compression.

Apart from an HDMI AV output, the Panasonic DMP-BD30 offers other terminals for component video, S-Video, Video, 5.1ch Audio, 2ch Audio, optical digital audio, and coaxial digital audio.".

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Gerrardasnails:stevee1966:Still a bit confused. I thought i'd read that the DB30 did not have HD decoding and had to rely on an amp to do this (whereas the newer db35 model does do HD).

No, it can decode HD audio. So if the 1507 has multi channel connectivity, you will get much better sound that way than using optical or anything else.

"The DMP-BD30 has built-in Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS-HD decoders. It also has a High Quality 192kHz/24bit Audio digital-to-analog converter. It has audio re-master features for all formats and has settings for Advanced Surround sound (VSS). Apart from this, the player's audio system features a dialogue enhancer and dynamic range compression.

Apart from an HDMI AV output, the Panasonic DMP-BD30 offers other terminals for component video, S-Video, Video, 5.1ch Audio, 2ch Audio, optical digital audio, and coaxial digital audio.".

Just read a more conclusive review. It can only bitstream HD audio - cannot decode.

 

[professorhat]

But don't forget, there are quite a few Blu-Ray discs with uncompressed PCM soundtracks. Since no decoding is necessary on these, you will get the HD soundtrack through this setup (i.e. multichannel analogue connections to the Denon) with these discs.