uncompressed PCM soundtracks

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

Probably going to buy Black Hawk down on Blu-ray now its less than a tenner, read a few reviews and appently the uncompressed PCM soundtrack is excellent (it was good enough in standard DD on DVD).

Not sure what setting to put my Panasonic DMP-BD35 feeding into yamaha DSP-AX763 amp. Currently i have my pana set to bitstream which until now has worked perfectly with all true HD and and DTS master audio films sounding excellent most recently Quantum of Solace (awesome audio on that).

However this is the first uncompressed PCM soundtrack (i think) which i have played. Question is for black hawk down do i leave the settings as they are or change to PCM output on the BD35, any ideas would be appreciated

Cheers

 

[nads]

I just select the PCM track and watch the movie. and the Onk. says PCM.

 

[Tom Moreno]

j_fowler,

I've got a Panny DMP-BD30 that I leave set to Bitstream to my Denon receiver. I have loads of BDs that have PCM tracks. You don't need to change a thing. In Bitstream mode the Panny will pass the audio signal unchanged out to the receiver to deal with. In other words, if the signal on the BD is PCM it will send that to the receiver without having to monkey around with any of the settings.

Enjoy! Black Hawk Down has an incredible soundtrack.

Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I'd recommend you leave the settings as they are. As things stand, your Panasonic is outputting each form of audio in its native form, leaving your Yamaha to unzip (or decode) each soundtrack as is necessary.ÿ

So, when you play a disc that features an encoded multichannel PCM soundtrack, that audio will be fed into your Yamaha amp.ÿIf, on the other hand, you want to play a DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD movie, the relevant audio will be 'bitstreamed' from your player and into the amplifier in its native form, before being unzipped into its original PCM form and processed appropriately.ÿ

If you were to amend the configuration so that your Panasonic was set to output nothing but PCM, it would make not the slightest difference to your experience with a movie featuring an encoded PCM soundtrack (such as Black Hawk Down). However, with discs featuring DTS-HD MA or Dolby True HD, you'd find your Panasonic would 'unzip' each datastream onboard, decoding the relevant losslessly packaged data into its PCM original. Your Yamaha amp would no longer 'see' a TrueHD stream and so, by implication, would no longer be able to perform the same unzipping process onboard.

Is that a bad thing? No, not really. You've got to decode DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD to PCM somewhere along the line: either it's done in the player or the amplifier. Try both ways, see which one you prefer.

ÿAKÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Andy Kerr:

If you were to amend the configuration so that your Panasonic was set to output nothing but PCM, it would make not the slightest difference to your experience with a movie featuring an encoded PCM soundtrack (such as Black Hawk Down). However, with discs featuring DTS-HD MA or Dolby True HD, you'd find your Panasonic would 'unzip' each datastream onboard, decoding the relevant losslessly packaged data into its PCM original. Your Yamaha amp would no longer 'see' a TrueHD stream and so, by implication, would no longer be able to perform the same unzipping process onboard.

Is that a bad thing? No, not really. You've got to decode DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD to PCM somewhere along the line: either it's done in the player or the amplifier. Try both ways, see which one you prefer.

AK

Hi Andy,

So would it be fair to say then that a PCM soundtrack will sound pretty much the same when played on a PS3 and on a stand alone BD player as compared to Dolby True HD and DTS MA sounding better when bitstreamed from a stand alone player than being decoded on board the PS3. Hope this is not too confusing?

 

[professorhat]

Well, remember if you're using different players, the electronics / components in each player will have an effect on how it sounds. So just because the soundtrack is PCM, this doesn't mean it will sound the same on a PS3 as it does on a Denon 2500BT because the components used within the Denon are of a much higher quality (hence the price difference) so the Denon should provide a better sound.

This is the main difference with the PS3 rather than its lack of ability to bitstream the compressed lossless formats.

 

[Tom Moreno]

Faizal:

So would it be fair to say then that a PCM soundtrack will sound pretty much the same when played on a PS3 and on a stand alone BD player as compared to Dolby True HD and DTS MA sounding better when bitstreamed from a stand alone player than being decoded on board the PS3. Hope this is not too confusing?

Faizal,

Technically speaking, a Blu-ray with a PCM track should sound the same whether the source is the PS3 or a Standalone deck, although there are factors that can play into this. But technically you shouldn't be using any converters in either unit if you are playing a PCM track, just sending the PCM data on through to your AVR to D/A convert and process for your speaker/room setup.

When it comes to the Lossless flavours of DD and DTS, there is quite a discussion to be had as to whether it's better to decode in the source box or in the receiver/pre. This question is obviously the one that relates most to the quality of the components being used as the digital conversion is more than just straight forward and even though it is in the digital realm there is technically a generation loss (however minute) when converting a compressed digital data stream (yes even a lossless one) into a different type of data stream in real time.

Andy is the man to listen to when he says have a listen for yourself as, in the end, it is your home theatre system and you should explore it to find the setup you like the best from it. It feels good to know that you tuned something up nicely! I can only offer you my opinion based on my setup and reviews I have gathered online. I personally own a Panasonic DMP-BD30 BD deck and a Denon AVR-3808A receiver. Granted that my BD won't decode DTS-HD MA internally but I did have a play at decoding Dolby TrueHD in the player vs the receiver, and in my opinion there was a noticeable difference in the depth and spacial uniformity of the soundfield when I decoded the signal in the receiver. Now, I'm not looking to brag, but I do feel I have trained ears as I work as a sound engineer. And finally with relevance to Andy's comments, it really comes down to the quality of the decoding in your AVR as to how much of a difference you might hear between one method and the other.

From reviews that I have read online regarding the PS3. The internal decoding of the PS3, which is achieved through software, is very good but comes up just shy of the experience afforded by a standalone deck bitstreaming to a good AVR. I bought my BD30 when it first came out, which was coincidentally right at the same time as the software update that enabled DTS HD support came out for the PS3, and I considered both options. In the end I opted for what I believe brought me the higher sound quality, even though I would have enjoyed playing the games, because I think my ears hear it.

Anyhow those are just my musing on the subject. And hey, if you go for one and never get to A/B it against anything else you'll still be blown away by the movie experience without a doubt!

Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Mmm, was not quite comparing the PS3 to the Denon,but to the players mentioned above and I suppose we could argue that the components are still of a higher quality than on the PS3 but how big a difference is it when playing PCM soundtracks?

 

[professorhat]

Fair point, the Denon is an extreme example, but that is kind of why I used it. Main point being, different player = different sound, no matter what format you're using e.g. I have PS3 + Sony BDP-S550 - the standalone 550 is definitely better than the PS3, but I wouldn't say the difference is very noticeable. In fact, if I hadn't specifically set out to compare them, I probably wouldn't have noticed the upgrade.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks all for your help, thats tonights entertainment sorted then

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tom,

Thank you that's pretty much the answer I was looking for.I am currently looking at auditioning a demo on the Sony S550 and was just wondering if it was worth it over the PS3. Will let you know.