PCM vs. TrueHD sound?

[Blu-dock Saint]

I'm getting a little confused, on some other forums hd dvd fan's are boasting that they are getting TrueHD on the movie Next, is TrueHD suppose to be better than PCM or the other way around?

[WickyWoo]

PCM is better than TrueHD because there are no chances of decoding errors

If everything is working properly, the end resulting sound should be identical however.

[Blu-dock Saint]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

PCM is better than TrueHD because there are no chances of decoding errors

If everything is working properly, the end resulting sound should be identical however.

Well what was hd dvd using before that they would go and brag about this now, was it really worse?

[Zaphod]

Originally Posted by Blu-dock Saint

Well what was hd dvd using before that they would go and brag about this now, was it really worse?

Just goes to show you how stupid the fanboys are, they keep looking for any reason to show that their format is superior to Blu-ray, when the fact is that HD-DVD's have been encoded with a Dolby TrueHD track since the beginning.

Here is a partial list of HD-DVD's with Dolby TrueHD tracks:

• The Phantom of the Opera
• Training Day
• Constantine
• Troy
• The Perfect Storm
• The Wicker Man
• End of Days
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (isolated music-only track)
• Batman Begins
• V for Vendetta
• The Ant Bully
• Superman Returns
• Lady in the Water
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (UK only)
• Clerks II
• Pulse
• Nine Inch Nails - Beside You in Time
• Poseidon
• The Departed
• Happy Feet
• The World's Fastest Indian
• Feast
• School for Scoundrels
• Alpha Dog
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• The Matrix
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix Revolutions
• Black Christmas
• Harsh Times
• District B13
• Blood Diamond
• The War
• Lost City
• Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
• Purple Rain
• Royal Space Force—The Wings of Honneamise (Japan Only)
• Patlabor The Movie (Japan Only)
• Darkman (release on July 31)
• 300 (release on July 31)
• Blue Planet(IMAX) (release on July 31)
• TMNT(2007) (release on August 7)
• Dawn of the Dead(Unrated Director's Cut) (release on August 28)
• Notting Hill (release on August 28)
• Blades of Glory (release on August 28)
• Patlabor 2 The Movie (release on August 28, Japan Only)
• We Are Marshall (release on September 18)
• Viva Las Vegas (release on September 18)
• Jailhouse Rock (release on September 18)
• Elizabeth (film) (release on September 18)
• For Love of the Game (release on September 18)
• The Last Starfighter (release on September 18)
• Cat People (1982 film) (release on September 25)
• Patch Adams (film) (release on September 25)
• The Getaway (1994 film) (release on September 25)
• Manilow Live!
• Heart: Alive In Seattle
• Nature's Colors With The World's Greatest Music

[GTP]

Originally Posted by Blu-dock Saint

I'm getting a little confused, on some other forums hd dvd fan's are boasting that they are getting TrueHD on the movie Next, is TrueHD suppose to be better than PCM or the other way around?

Ask them how many hd dvd exclusive studios have any form of HD audio...because the answer is zero...as compared to three studios for BD.

hd dvd has maybe 10% of its entire catalog in DD-THD as compared to Sony , Disney and Fox having it in one form or the other on every single release = 100%.

Also DD-THD was only 2 channel on hd dvd at launch with PCM being multi channel on BD from day one.
You can also ask them how many hd dvd's have two HD audio tracks because the answer is zero.

Only a fool would try and use HD audio soundtracks on hd dvd as a positive for hd dvd as BD has absolutely ruled for audio since day 1.

[cdot2four]

so PCM is basically DTS? do you have to have a receiver that has PCM on it??

[MatrixS2000]

^ No DTS is a lossly compressed version of the audio track (unless you mean DTS-MA).

To simplify - PCM is what is used by all other codecs (DTS, Dolby, DoblyTHD, etc) to encode their versions.

So in short, the best TrueHD can do is MATCH PCM.

The claim to fame for TrueHD is that it requires less space than PCM - important to capacity lacking formats such as HD DVD.

[Anthony P]

PCM is the original digital sound used before compression.

when a lossless CODEC like DTS HD and DTHD is used then once decoded in theory you get the original PCM, if it is lossy like DTS or DD or DD+ then there is absolutely no way to get the same PCM that was encoded.

the down side of PCM is that it takes more space and higher bandwidth. On the other hand it also is easier to decode (since there is no decoding )

the other thing is that not all lossless are the same. When the original digitalization occures and the digital master is produced the technicien can decide on a couple of factors you will see this when they talk (for instance) about 16/48 or 24/192. One (usualy 16, 20 or 24) is the word length, the other one is (48, 96 or 192) the frequency. In essence the bigger the numbers the better.

so a PCM that is 16/48 won't be as good as a DTHD that is 24/192. even though both are lossless compared to their master because the DTHD used a better master