Why do some soundtracks default to non-lossless when they're available??

[NMErickson]

As soon as I popped in my new blu ray, Natural Born Killers today, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack came up as the default. The disc clearly supports Dolby TrueHD 5.1. WHY DOESNT TRUEHD COME UP AS THE DEFAULT?? For some of my blu rays that have it, TrueHD comes up first and theres no need to change the sound setting. But for others, notably Blade Runner, 300, and V for Vendetta, TrueHD is there, I just have to change it manually from Dolby Digital. Is this normal for these discs or do I need to change the settings on my receiver?

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by n8ryder

As soon as I popped in my new blu ray, Natural Born Killers today, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack came up as the default. The disc clearly supports Dolby TrueHD 5.1. WHY DOESNT TRUEHD COME UP AS THE DEFAULT?? For some of my blu rays that have it, TrueHD comes up first and theres no need to change the sound setting. But for others, notably Blade Runner, 300, and V for Vendetta, TrueHD is there, I just have to change it manually from Dolby Digital. Is this normal for these discs or do I need to change the settings on my receiver?

Because all bluray players can natively decode Dolby Digital 5.1 (and DTS), while not all can decode TrueHD. If it was the default many uneducated people would assume the audio doesnt work when they dont hear any sound.

[NMErickson]

Yea i see your point, but why do most of my titles that have TrueHD play as the default? My player is running to my receiver via HDMI and my receiver can decode lossless soundtracks. Do you have the same problem then or is there any changes I can make to my receiver?

[tmok2000]

It's called "The Lowest Common Denominator".

[ClaytonMG]

It's nothing that you can change, it's how they are on the disc. However, I think most studios shouldn't have the option for English Dolby TrueHD and English Dolby Digital. I think it should just be English and then if your player/reciever can decode TrueHD, it will. And if it can't, it'll just pick up the regular Dolby Digital core. Pretty simple if you ask me...

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by n8ryder

I just have to change it manually from Dolby Digital.

This is what you gotta do. It's no difference from dvd where you had to manually select the DTS track or 5.1 DD track when there was one, versus getting the standard 2.0 DD track. This shouldn't be a drastic change for you.

[NMErickson]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

It's nothing that you can change, it's how they are on the disc. However, I think most studios shouldn't have the option for English Dolby TrueHD and English Dolby Digital. I think it should just be English and then if your player/reciever can decode TrueHD, it will. And if it can't, it'll just pick up the regular Dolby Digital core. Pretty simple if you ask me...

I really appreciate that ClaytonMG. This is been bugging me for awhile but since I now know its the individual discs, Im not too worried that Ive got some misconfigured or whatever. You're solution would be ideal. Although too easy and practical for anyone to actually implement it.

[WickyWoo]

Players are hypothetically coming that will let you set default preferences for soundtracks which discs will then be able to read

[NMErickson]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Players are hypothetically coming that will let you set default preferences for soundtracks which discs will then be able to read

Thats very interesting. I thought I could get control over it on my Onkyo 605. In the setup theres "listening channel preset" and by default all the soundtracks say "Last Valid". But you can change them to say the soundtrack name (example Dolby TrueHD-->Dolby TrueHD instead of Last Valid) I thought by changing those around but I thought wrong. If they add that, it will make things alot more streamline in the future.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Players are hypothetically coming that will let you set default preferences for soundtracks which discs will then be able to read

Well that's good. I had a Sony 5-Disc DVD changer that did this... unfortunately it actually worked very little as most DVD's that allow the use of DTS don't let you change audio while the movie is playing. However on Blu-Ray, that shouldn't be a problem as I don't think there's a single disc out there that doesn't let you change the audio.

[helius]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

It's nothing that you can change, it's how they are on the disc. However, I think most studios shouldn't have the option for English Dolby TrueHD and English Dolby Digital. I think it should just be English and then if your player/reciever can decode TrueHD, it will. And if it can't, it'll just pick up the regular Dolby Digital core. Pretty simple if you ask me...

I don't think the player is able to tell if the receiver can decode what is being bitstreamed; otherwise this would be a great idea. If the player can't, I think the only good option to implement on a player is what WickyWoo posted.

[Kilian]

It is incorrect to refer to DD core. There is no DD core but a parallel DD track with Dolby TrueHD whether it is listed or not separately in the menu.

I think it all comes down to how the disc is authored with regard to the menu and the default options. It would be nice when players can be set to override the disc options.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by Kilian

It is incorrect to refer to DD core. There is no DD core but a parallel DD track with Dolby TrueHD whether it is listed or not separately in the menu.

I think it all comes down to how the disc is authored with regard to the menu and the default options. It would be nice when players can be set to override the disc options.

I actually thought that Dolby refered to it as a core for some reason, even though it really has nothing to do with the Dolby TrueHD track.

[Anthony P]

Yea i see your point, but why do most of my titles that have TrueHD play as the default?

earlier on studios defaulted to DD because most players did not handle DTHD . But as the number of players with DTS-HD MA and DTHD grows studios have started giving preference on the lossless.

[Canada]

I wish there was a setting on the PS3 or whatever that you could set it to defalt to the lossless track.

[m_tyson]

I hate it when the menu is arranged so that you don't even see the lossless option unless you scroll to find it. Surf's Up comes to mind. I think one of the POTC menus have this retarded design too.

[Clark Kent]

Warner is guilty of this as their BD releases go straight to the movie instead of a menu when one first puts the disc in the player. I personally like seeing a menu before the movie to make the correct options(like subtitles and audio selection) but I realize that many like how Warner cuts out the previews and goes straight to the movie. It seems that the various studios have decided differently on how to handle whether the disc defaults to lossless audio on its own.

[aiman04]

Yeah, this irritates me too. I appreciate the quick start to the movie like Warner is doing (Disney has to stop with the trailers/ads and flashy menus), but when it's defaulted to Dolby Digital instead of TrueHD, that really annoys me.

I agree that not all players can support lossless audio, so at least what they can do is put a quick simple audio/subtitle menu right after the disc inserted, select preferred audio/subtitle, and just hit the play button.

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Players are hypothetically coming that will let you set default preferences for soundtracks which discs will then be able to read

What about our PS3? Will a firmware update do that?

[w_tanoto]

I know it's annoying, but the lowest setting always win. like HD DVD bitrate and BD bitrate on warner releases always follow HD DVD because it's worse than BD.

I always changed the settings each time I inserted BD disc. Audio first, then subtitle to either English/English SDH/French/Indonesian/Bahasa

[Kilian]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

I actually thought that Dolby refered to it as a core for some reason, even though it really has nothing to do with the Dolby TrueHD track.

The core 5.1 packet in Dolby TrueHD refers to its core + extension substream scheme, it is not conventional DD but MLP lossless and can only be decoded by a BD player with a Dolby TrueHD decoder. In a 7.1 encoding scheme, the core 5.1 is designed for a 5.1 configuration without downmixing.

There is a separate companion DD track for players without Dolby TrueHD decoder.

The core 5.1 packet in DD+ is conventional DD which can be decoded by any BD player equipped with a DD decoder.

Readers interested in more details can refer to the Dolby Audio white paper.

Dolby Audio Coding for Future Entertainment Formats.