Quick Audio Question

[SkepticalGuy]

OK guys... I looked through the forums.. I KNOW this question has probably been dealt with a thousand times in this forum... but I am missing it in my searches. go easy on me because I am more of a newbie to using forums than I am to HD.

OK... so after the Warner thing I went out and got a 40G PS3. I still love my HD-DVD player just fine and I still prefer it if a movie is available in both formats... but... I can admit the writing is on the wall on this one. Congrats.

I have an older Denon receiver... I can't remember but I think it is a 3802.

Anyway... no HDMI... but it decodes DTS and DD 5.1 over Toslink just fine.

When I have the PS3 hooked up (HDMI to TV/Toslink to receiver) and I put in a regular DVD... when I listen to a DTS soundtrack my receiver shows "DTS" and when I play a DD 5.1 track the Receiver shows what it is and plays it just fine.

...but whenever I play a blu-ray (Spider Man 3)... my receiver only shows "Dolby Pro-Logic" and it doesn't seem like I am getting surround sound at all. I scroll though all of the different soundtrack options on the disk always with the same result.

The HD-DVD player converted the soundtrack to DTS 5.1 and played it like that. I am not trying to re-kindle any irrelevant arguments... I am SURE that the PS3 can give me better than Pro-Logic without upgrading my receiver... but I am apparently too dense to figure out what check box to check.

Help me out guys.

[Slec]

Welcome!
Sounds like you might be getting 2 channel PCM over TosLink (optical). Was any sound coming out of the center channel? I'll see if I can replicate what your going through tonight. I see you went through the disc sound options, did you mess with the receiver sound options too during BD playback?

fyi, I got a Onkyo TX-SR605 for the holidays, apparrently lossless multi-channel is worth the upgrade if you can swing it. I think it's $380 at Amazon right now, pretty reasonable. I'm watching my first lossless audio movie tonight... If only I could decide which one

[SkepticalGuy]

Thanks for the reply.

I will have to check again tonight. I think I WAS getting the center channel... which would seem to mean I was getting something other than 2-channel... but whatever it was, my receiver was recognizing it as Pro-logic.

I simply unplugged the cords from my HD-DVD player and plugged them in to the PS3, so I don't think I will need to change any settings on my reciever.

Also... remember... DTS and DD STANDARD DEF DVDS are handling the audio perfectly... it is only on the Blu-ray that I am not getting good audio. That is what is weird.

I am running the latest firmware BTW. 2.10 or whatever.

Buying a new receiver is not feasable for now. I will eventually upgrade but it will be months before I can spend the money on that.

[SkepticalGuy]

I think I found my answer finally on the "Linear PCM vs Bitstream" part of the site.

I think on my Blu-ray audio options, I selected "bitstream" and it threw up the warning that some of the audio might not play... so I put it to "Linear PCM"... which isn't gonna fly over the Digital Optical cable.

Sound right?

...and I guess that the warning about parts that wont play just refers to things like the 2 extra channels in a 7.1 track? Am I right?

[bda4life]

Since your receiver does not have an HDMI port, you are using the optical (Toslink) cable, right? If that is true, you will need to select bitstream for audio on the PS3. You should be able to get DTS and DD 5.1 with no problems from this setup. I would not be too concerned with that warning message, I got the same thing once and went forward. No issues.

Here is another tip, Toslink will not be able to pass the uncompressed audio track or the Dolby TrueHD or the DTS HD MA due to bandwidth limitations. So, if you choose these audio tracks on the disc, you would only hear a 2.0 setup.

If you are serious about your Home Theater and movies, I would look into a new receiver that can decode the audio tracks I listed above. I recently purchased a new receiver and LOVE the lossless audio tracks.

[Slec]

You would want it set to Bitstream. The PS3 can't send advanced codecs over Toslink PCM. Ignore the messages about lost content...

[RacerX]

I don't have a PS3, so I'm not sure what output options are available to you. However, I had great success by following the advice in this thread:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=17648
Also, if you have questions, Crackz is very willing to answer and help you out. It's definately worth a look. Good luck, and Welcome to Blu!

[SkepticalGuy]

Thanks guys... I set it to bitstream and it works fine. I will upgrade my receiver when I can afford a Denon AVR-3808CI ($1600) or something comparable. I need min 3 HDMI inputs w/switching to one out... otherwise I am wasting money.