HD sound on games?

[Bear28]

Hi,

This is probably a silly question, but I just got a new receiver and put in a PS3game for the first time. My display still said MultiCh and I thought it would of changed to DD for the PS3 game, so I started to think that the PS3 game was in HD sound. I dont remember hearing anything about this so I might be mistaken and my receiver just keeps sayin MultiCh regardless.

Thanks

[SkantDragon]

Originally Posted by Bear28

Hi,

This is probably a silly question, but I just got a new receiver and put in a PS3game for the first time. My display still said MultiCh and I thought it would of changed to DD for the PS3 game, so I started to think that the PS3 game was in HD sound. I dont remember hearing anything about this so I might be mistaken and my receiver just keeps sayin MultiCh regardless.

Thanks

The PS3 will happily output full LPCM surround sound for its games. This is actually easier and more natural for it. The internal mixing for sound effects and everything will be in LPCM. LPCM is 'raw' uncompressed audio.

Outputting Dolby Digital is actually the harder thing for a game console to do. It requires the extra step of encoding the LPCM into DD (which is processing intensive). So this both takes additional processing power and reduces the audio quality at the same time.

In movies, LPCM is considered 'HD sound'. Historically, DVD's never had the bandwidth to handle the raw uncompressed audio from the original master. It had to be heavily compressed by Dolby Digital or DTS to fit onto the disc. But storage is not an issue for a console generating sounds on the fly. The only reason there has ever been for a game console to output these compressed formats is bandwidth bottleneck in the transport (ie. optical doesn't have the bandwidth for surround sound LPCM).

So yeah... if you've got a properly configured HDMI audio connection, it's a slam dunk for the PS3 to play raw LPCM multichannel over it.

[DonRSD]

make sure your ps3 is set to LINEAR PCM and checkl all the boxes that apply to your system

it will ALWAYS say 'multich' but its hd audio

[rlf3911]

Killzone 2 has 7.1 channel LPCM output, sounds friggin awesome(even in 5.1).

[Living Near Shamu]

I think my receiver automatically converts the audio to surround sound. All games sound great, especially the music games

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by DonRSD

make sure your ps3 is set to LINEAR PCM and checkl all the boxes that apply to your system

it will ALWAYS say 'multich' but its hd audio

Sort of true...Definitely set your PS3 audio option to LINEAR PCM. However, the audio output signal will not always show "Multich." For any HD audio games, yes. However, any other game that uses Dolby Digital (I notice it with Rock Band), the system will display "Dolby Digital." I haven't seen a DTS logo as of yet, but I think that if DTS makes audio tracks for games, they don't bother with anything but HD anyways. And, since the PS3 will automatically find the best track on a GAME DISC automatically, DTS HD would be sent as LPCM anyways...

So, basically, don't worry about it. "Multich" means that the PS3 is managing your audio for the best experience possible.

[oscarstegland]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Sort of true...Definitely set your PS3 audio option to LINEAR PCM. However, the audio output signal will not always show "Multich." For any HD audio games, yes. However, any other game that uses Dolby Digital (I notice it with Rock Band), the system will display "Dolby Digital." I haven't seen a DTS logo as of yet, but I think that if DTS makes audio tracks for games, they don't bother with anything but HD anyways. And, since the PS3 will automatically find the best track on a GAME DISC automatically, DTS HD would be sent as LPCM anyways...

So, basically, don't worry about it. "Multich" means that the PS3 is managing your audio for the best experience possible.

Then there's something wrong in your surround chain. Either you bitstream audio or you don't. If you select LPCM it should always (and that means always) say Multi-Ch PCM on your receiver. Sending it out as LPCM means all the decoding is done in the PS3 and it's sent out as 8 separate channels. Bitstreaming it means the decoding is done in the receiver (ie the dolby digital or dts logos showing up on the screen) and it's sent out as ONE chain and subsequently split up in the receiver. Either you send it as the decoded 8 channels or you send it as one chain. There's no in between.

Unless the PS3 has an option to only bitstream HD sound, I suggest you look into it.