Audio upconverting/upscaling?

[The Duke]

A have a really dumb question that I gotta ask out of curiosity: Why didn't they ever develop upconversion for audio like they did for video? At least half the enjoyment of blu-ray for me is lossless audio. My Oppo BDP-83 does a pretty good job at upconverting DVD where the PQ is acceptable, even on my 110" projection screen, but the tinny Dolby Digital still sounds like crap. If they can replicate enough information from 480 resolution video to simulate 1080, you'd think they'd be able to do the same with the audio.

A mute point (pun intended ) now with lossless audio on blu-ray, but I'm still curious.

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by The Duke

A have a really dumb question that I gotta ask out of curiosity: Why didn't they ever develop upconversion for audio like they did for video? At least half the enjoyment of blu-ray for me is lossless audio. My Oppo BDP-83 does a pretty good job at upconverting DVD where the PQ is acceptable, even on my 110" projection screen, but the tinny Dolby Digital still sounds like crap. If they can replicate enough information from 480 resolution video to simulate 1080, you'd think they'd be able to do the same with the audio.

A mute point (pun intended ) now with lossless audio on blu-ray, but I'm still curious.

Very good question. Wish I had an answer because it makes sense that it should be possible.

I play my DVD's on an Oppo Upscaling DVD player, which upscales beautifully and also does a great job with the sound as well. I use Dolby Pro Logic II for 7.1 matrixing. Sure, it's not Blu-ray quality sound, but it sounds a good deal better than any other DVD player I've used and adds punch

[srrndhound]

Originally Posted by The Duke

Why didn't they ever develop upconversion for audio like they did for video? At least half the enjoyment of blu-ray for me is lossless audio. My Oppo BDP-83 does a pretty good job at upconverting DVD where the PQ is acceptable, even on my 110" projection screen, but the tinny Dolby Digital still sounds like crap. If they can replicate enough information from 480 resolution video to simulate 1080, you'd think they'd be able to do the same with the audio.

There is all sorts of audio upsampling being done in BD players and AVR/prepros. But it does not convert lossy audio into lossless. Nothing can do that.

A mute point (pun intended ) now with lossless audio on blu-ray, but I'm still curious.

You mean moot, right?

[Cooley]

Hi Duke,

I believe there is. For ordinary Dolby Digital or DTS I run on an Elite SC-05 with JBL ES60. The sound from the ICE Class D Amplifier is detailed and crisp, and powerful enough (e.g. Nicholas Cage Knowing the air disaster) emulating Blu-Ray sound. I am into Sci-Fi Action. So for B Sci-Fi movies like Surrogates, Book of Eli, and Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (DTS) I am already happy with DVDs running on SC-05. I use Samsung non-blu-ray DVD players to play these and output from coaxial or optical to SC-05 input. I do have a Pioneer BDP-430 to play blu-ray with SC-05.

(Refurbished) SC-05 should be in the used market for good price, or if you like to go for HDMI-1.4 specs there are SC-35 SC-37.

If I connect the SC-05 with more edgy tweeter speakers e.g. Klipsch Icon series, RF series I can imagine it would raise even a higher bar.