A Guide to Home Theater Audio CODECs

[cranberry23]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

1. Make sure you set your PS3 to LPCM. PS3 cannot bitstream audio to a receiver. If you set it to bitstream, you will get the lossy audio codecs. Read the conclusions in the original post and also read posts #26 and #27.
2. Go to the Settings of your PS3.

• Select BD/DVD Settings.
• Go to BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control.
• Change it from Automatic to Off.

3. In your receiver's menu, change the Night Mode to Off and change the Dynamic Range Control to Off.
Dolby TrueHD should sound better and louder after these changes.

Thanks for the advice. Small difference. Looking forward to getting a Pioneer BR player when the price comes down.

[grod777]

This is great material.
I have a question BigDaddy on Secondary audio. I have not yet purchased a BluRay player because I am not sure if I should get one with all decoders built in. I have an AVR that can decode all the latest codecs. My concern is the secondary audio. I am not interested in the PiP feature, but I am interested in the new BDLive features. If I have the receiver decode will I still be able to use the BDLive or is BDLive considered secondary audio. I also don't care if the audio for BDLive is not lossless or even 5.1, as long as I can hear it I'm good. Thanks.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by grod777

This is great material.
I have a question BigDaddy on Secondary audio. I have not yet purchased a BluRay player because I am not sure if I should get one with all decoders built in. I have an AVR that can decode all the latest codecs. My concern is the secondary audio. I am not interested in the PiP feature, but I am interested in the new BDLive features. If I have the receiver decode will I still be able to use the BDLive or is BDLive considered secondary audio. I also don't care if the audio for BDLive is not lossless or even 5.1, as long as I can hear it I'm good. Thanks.

It all depends on the way studios decide to put the secondary audio on their discs. If you have any concerns, you can always have the player decode the audio to LPCM. This way, you won't lose anything.

There are really no big advantages between decoding the audio in good quality players or receivers. Bitstreaming is a bit overrated. Sony and Panasonic have new Profile 2.0 players. However, in my opinion, PS3 is still a good value.

[janebush08]

nice suggestion Big Daddy.... thanks....

[Purplegrasshopper]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

7. If you are using a standard DVD in PS3 and an HDMI connection, you can set the player’s audio output either to bitstream or LPCM.
8. Currently, the PS3 is not capable of carrying the high definition audio signals in bitstream format.

In number 7 of your OP, you mention there is an option on the PS3 to set the audio output to bitstream. But then in step 8, you say the PS3 is not capable of bitstreaming. If it's not capable of bitstreaming, then why would it have an option to bitstream the audio output?

[Midnightsailor]

Nice guide man.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by Purplegrasshopper

In number 7 of your OP, you mention there is an option on the PS3 to set the audio output to bitstream. But then in step 8, you say the PS3 is not capable of bitstreaming. If it's not capable of bitstreaming, then why would it have an option to bitstream the audio output?

To bitstream lossy codecs over optical. It cannot bitstream HD codecs.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by Purplegrasshopper

In number 7 of your OP, you mention there is an option on the PS3 to set the audio output to bitstream. But then in step 8, you say the PS3 is not capable of bitstreaming. If it's not capable of bitstreaming, then why would it have an option to bitstream the audio output?

As JasonR mentioned, PS3 can bitstream lossy codecs (Dolby Digital & DTS Digital) over an optical cable. However, it cannot bitstream HD audio (Dolby TrueHD & DTS HD) over HDMI cable.

To bitstream HD audio you need HDMI 1.3. HDMI 1.3 allows the zipped file (HD audio in compressed form) to be sent to the receiver. This is what is meant by sending the audio to the receiver in bitstream. HDMI 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 could not do this. The HDMI 1.3 transmitter chip (SiI9134) was modified to do this. Sony PS3 uses the older HDMI 1.3 chip (SiI9132). That is the reason it cannot bitstream the HD audio signal. Is this a big advantage? The answer is NO. Most BD players do a very good job of converting HD Audio to LPCM. Remember that bitstreaming has nothing to do with D/A conversion. When PS3 sends LPCM signals to the receiver, the receiver still has to convert the LPCM signal to analog.

Silicon Image does not release any information about the SiI9132 chip used in PS3.

[JOE.G]

What do you guys mean by bass managment?

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by JOE.G

What do you guys mean by bass managment?

Very briefly, bass management is about deciding whether the bass sound should go to the speakers or the subwoofer.

It requires that you go to the AV receiver's menu and setting the speakers to large/small and deciding on the crossover frequency. After this, the receiver will send the audio singnal above the crossover frequency to the speakers and signals below the crossover frequency to the subwoofer.

[JOE.G]

Ok my speakers are set to small and the crossover to 80 hz, if I leave the cross over and set the fronts to large would more bass go to the fronts?

[JasonR]

If you want more bass to your fronts, I would reduce your crossover...

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by JOE.G

Ok my speakers are set to small and the crossover to 80 hz, if I leave the cross over and set the fronts to large would more bass go to the fronts?

Go to A Guide to Crossover Networks thread. Scroll all the way to end. There is a section there on how to set your crossover frequency.

As a general rule, you should set your speakers to small and let the subwoofer do the job of producing bass. If your front speakers are caplable of reproducing low frequencies, you can lower the crossover frequency of the fronts only. However, don't go below 60Hz. Unless you have extremely powerful fronts, I would leave it at 80Hz.

Also note that if your receiver is not able to set the crossover frequency of individual speakers, do not lower it to less than 80Hz. You do not want too much bass sound to go to your smaller surrounds.

[JOE.G]

So instead of setting it at 80 I can set it at 100 and get a little more bass from my front speakers even though I have them set to small?

[crackinhedz]

setting at 100 for your front speakers would actually be less bass. Keep at 80.

[JOE.G]

I think I only have 1 spot to adjust the crossover and that is for the sub, also if I turn the fronts to large I can then get a double bass option, what is the diffrence between setting the fronts and center to large or small?

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by Sweeney Todd

When compact disc players came about at 1985, experts said that this is the best possible sound human ear can hear. That was big lie of course, everyone knows nowadays.

It wasn't a lie at all. 16/44.1khz redbook CD sound quality has never been fully explored in my opinion. Limitations on D/A converters, poorly designed anti-aliasing filters and poor recording techniques has always kept the CD format from sounding as good as it could.

Now we have 3 different lossless ways to have our blu-ray discs audio.
PCM, True-HD and DTS-MA. What do you think..? Isn´t it same that 1985, that experts say all three are perfect, but 2 of them are not, because True-HD and DTS-MA are not "lossless" because of compression??

Wrong. Dolby TrueHD and Dts-HD master audio reconstructs PCM signals to exactly what they were before encoding, that is why they are called lossless. If you look at the waveforms of identical signals in PCM, and encoded in the lossless codecs, they look exactly the same.

I have couple of blu-ray discs and I have to say that Tim Burton´s Big Fish movie with pcm sounds perfect (limitless). With true-HD blu-ray I don´t have same feeling. DTS-MA souds bit better to me, but not same as PCM.
I´m professional musician, so I hear very small differenses in sound quality easily.

Being a musician does not guarantee you can hear any better than a non musician. You also cannot compare PCM on one title to a DTHD or Dts MA lossless track on another title. I seriously doubt in a DBT that you could tell PCM signals from the losslessly encoded ones.

I´m not saying that I´m right or anything like that, but still again I want to ask anyone who got better knowledge:
Is it possible, that only PCM is perfect and others just almost?

The answer to that question is no. With digital there is no almost. Either its identical zero and ones, or completely different. Its the same or not. There is no zero point something, or one point five something, its just zeros and ones.

[Big Daddy]

+1,000,000. Thank you Sir Terence.

I have pretty much given up on responding to misinformed posts about the differences between the lossless audio codecs. Many people do not understand the difference between "Compressed", "Lossy ", and "Lossless".

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

+1,000,000. Thank you Sir Terence.

I have pretty much given up on responding to misinformed posts about the differences between the lossless audio codecs. Many people do not understand the difference between "Compressed", "Lossy ", and "Lossless".

I do not think folks understand the difference between compressed data(lossy) and lossless compression or dynamic range compression. They think its all compression, so it must be the same.

Some folks just haven't transitioned out of legacy DD or Dts yet.

[Intamin]

Originally Posted by Sir Terrence

It wasn't a lie at all. 16/44.1khz redbook CD sound quality has never been fully explored in my opinion. Limitations on D/A converters, poorly designed anti-aliasing filters and poor recording techniques has always kept the CD format from sounding as good as it could.



Wrong. Dolby TrueHD and Dts-HD master audio reconstructs PCM signals to exactly what they were before encoding, that is why they are called lossless. If you look at the waveforms of identical signals in PCM, and encoded in the lossless codecs, they look exactly the same.



Being a musician does not guarantee you can hear any better than a non musician. You also cannot compare PCM on one title to a DTHD or Dts MA lossless track on another title. I seriously doubt in a DBT that you could tell PCM signals from the losslessly encoded ones.




The answer to that question is no. With digital there is no almost. Either its identical zero and ones, or completely different. Its the same or not. There is no zero point something, or one point five something, its just zeros and ones.

Thank you for posting this, as it gets annoying/frustrating reading post after post about one being better than the other, blah blah blah. I wish it was a prerequisite that all people read this when it comes to the codecs and compressions. Thank you for the clarification (although I think I've seen you post something similar a couple of other times ).