I'm trying to research the audio specs of the upcoming BD players from Pioneer, Sony, and Panasonic. Do any of them decode DD+, Dolby TruHD and DTS Master Audio? I can't seem to find any reference to these on the players' websites. I really don't want to upgrade my receiver for these new codecs just now. It will really help if these were decoded by the player and output thru the 5.1 analog connection.
There's very little info out there and specs sometimes change prior to release especially if a product is delayed. Here's what I've seen in sites and forums as of today (release dates are not confirmed): Sony- October or November release; PCM, DD, DTS only. No advanced audio (DD+, DTS-HD, True-HD) No CD playback, No Ethernet Pioneer Elite- September or October release; PCM, DD, DTS only. No advanced audio (DD+, DTS-HD, True-HD) No CD playback. Ethernet port included. Panasonic- Septemeber or October release; PCM, DD+, DTS. Future firmware upgrade for DTS-HD and TrueHD possible. No Ethernet port. Can't find anything on the LG and Sanyo players. (Hat tip to bakpakva at avs forums)
Thanks for the info dblbogey7. The Panny looks more attractive now if the Sony and Pioneer won't support the advanced codecs.
I don't understand why the Blu-ray CE manudfactures don't have their act together on the ethernet port or advanced audio codecs. There have been arguments stating that MPEG-2 and PCM takes up less system resources than VC-1 and Dolby TrueHD but I still don't understand why most of the up comming players don't plan to support them. Ced
That's a good point Ced. I remember reading somewhere in one of your links that DolbyTruHD is only optional for BD. http://www.dolby.com/professional/pro_audio_engineering/solutions_dvd3.html#truehd I guess we can use uncompressed PCM if we can. However, players with built-in decoders still make the most sense.
Ced: Do you have an idea how much disc space is saved by using DolbyTruHD or DTS-Master Audio insted of uncompressed PCM lets say for an average 2-hour movie?
Philips also announced its BluRay player BDP9000 at Cedia: http://www.avrev.com/news/0606/15.philipsbluray.shtml No specs on its audio capabilities though. Here's an announcement from Panasonic AUSTRALIA. The DMP-BD10 will be availbale in Australia starting December 2006 for....$3299.00: http://panasonic.com.au/products/details.cfm?productid=5293&contextID=3511
Dolby claims at least a 2:1 compression ratio or better depending on source matirial. This page explains it all... http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf//tech_library/TrueHD_FAQ_10925_Final.pdf Scroll to the 2nd page This page explains the bit rates used by DTS-MA... http://www.dtsonline.com/dts-hd/why-does-dtshd-sound-so-good.php Ced
[/quote]"I guess we can use uncompressed PCM if we can. However, players with built-in decoders still make the most sense.[/quote] uncompressed PCM "is" from players with built in decoders (example PS3). Uncompressed Linear PCM gives you equal if not better High Definition audio than bitstream audio from a reciever... Bitstream vs. PCM debate www.meridian-audio.com/ara/bitstrea.htm "We consider that these advantages of PCM far outweigh the basic advantages of bitstream and we therefore recommend a losslessly-packed linear PCM system to you for formal adoption." The Departed (review) www.bluray.highdefdigest.com/departed.html The Audio: Rating the Sound 'The Departed' comes to Blu-ray with a real rarity for Warner, an uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround track (to my knowledge, the only other title from the studio to support PCM is 'The Sopranos: Season Six, Volume One'). The move is even more welcome, since its HD DVD counterpart features a Dolby TrueHD track, a format which so far has been a no-show on Blu-ray. So what an exciting opportunity -- the first title to allow us a direct, head-to-head comparison between the two high-resolution audio formats. But first, the "bad" news. In all honesty, 'The Departed' is not as involving a soundtrack as I expected. The film's sound design is surprisingly front-heavy. I even dropped in the DVD side of the HD DVD/DVD combo version, and sure enough, regardless of format, there just isn't much surround action going on. Aside from a few key sequences, most of the whiz-bang effects are restrained. However, to be fair, when the rears do kick in, the accuracy of directional sounds is superb, and other elements of the mix, particularly Howard Shore's score, can really fill up the full 360-degree soundfield. I also was impressed with how pronounced yet organic low bass sounded. The film is often punctuated by low tones, which have a powerful tightness rare even in the best modern surround tracks. Dialogue reproduction is also first-rate, with every word crystal clear. Now, how do the PCM and TrueHD tracks compare? Given this historic opportunity, I decided to conduct a little experiment. I invited a friend over, who is a big movie and music buff, but not particularly technical. He knows good audio when he hears it, yet doesn't know a PCM from an RPM from R.E.M. In other words, he's Joe Six-Pack with a great ear. Anyway, together we conducted a "blind" audio test -- we select ten short sequences from the film, and listened to a compare of each. We took turns firing up each scene, and selecting which one sounded better, with no knowledge of which sample was the Blu-ray and which the HD DVD. After writing down our answers on little scraps of paper (note that we didn't throw them into a hat -- we aren't that dorky), the results were interesting. Out of the twenty comparisons (ten for him, ten for me), we could only detect differences on four scenes total. But of those four, we both always preferred the PCM track, if only a smidgeon. For example, there is a scene in involving an attempted trade bust between the Costello character and a Chinese gang. There is a sound of a gun firing that we went back over a few times, and as silly as it sounds, the force and impact of the sounds was a shade more realistic in PCM. Also a beneficiary of the uncompressed mix is the music, as this is a film brimming with rock songs. The first scene we picked featured the Rolling Stone's "Gimme Shelter," and again the PCM track boasted a slightly more spacious feel to the music in all channels -- as if the very highest end of the frequency range was more palpable. Granted, these are very slight differences and subjective preferences. Had we not blindfolded each other (figuratively speaking, of course) and been flipping back and forth between discs like one of those old Coke-Pepsi commercials, such deviations likely would have been imperceptible. It is also certain that the average listener wouldn't be able to tell the difference without possessing the ears of a dog. Still, in this case I give a slight edge to the PCM track, though a comparison between a single title hardly qualifies as the final word. If nothing else, it made me realize that if all the studios dumped this dueling audio format business and went all-PCM, I can't say I would be likely to complain...
Sadly, my PS3 still can't decode the DTS HD Master Lossless Audio from a few discs like X-Men The Last Stand and Fantastic Four. Hopefully a firmware update will fix this THEN I'll have more reason to upgrade to an HDMI receiver.
Supposedly a March firware update will upgrade the PS3 to decode DTS-MA... at the moment I dont think ANY players can decode DTS-MA... which is why I believe the update is in the works...why have it on disc, but no players to utilize it??? it will happen...give it time.
Just to add to all this confusion: Lions Gate BD titles have a DTS-HD High Resolution Audio track at 6.0 MBps which is different from DTS-MA (Master Audio) which is lossless and I think can go as high as 24.5MBps. The PS3 can decode the DTS-HD track and "extract" the core DTS track which is 1.5MBps. This is still an improvement over the "regular" DTS track in some DVD's which comes in at around 768 Kbps. http://www.dtsonline.com/dts-hd/dts-on-bluray-and-hddvd.php
The ethernet port on the Pioneer BDP-HD1 BluRay player is for online firmware updates and for media streaming: http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1206piobdphd1/
