which audio to use PCM or Dolby HD

[ay221]

I know some bd movies have both a pcm audio and Dolby HD. Does the dobly HD sometimes have a higher bit rate and how does one tell?

[tofur69]

If you have an awesome receiver, great speakers PCM and a good ear on your part...PCM all the way. Most people really do not have an ear for that sort of thing but I am going to assume since you are here, you have all of the requirements to run PCM and enjoy it.

[quetzalcoatl]

Originally Posted by ay221

I know some bd movies have both a pcm audio and Dolby HD. Does the dobly HD sometimes have a higher bit rate and how does one tell?

It really depends on your system. What BD player are you using and what receiver do you have. If your receiver will decode the audio most think it is better to bitstream the audio. But if your receiver cannot decode it or your BD player cannot send it then it is really a mute point.

But not all incodes are created equal. What I would consider the best audio disc on the market is Dave Matthews and it is a 24/96 TrueHD track. If you look at the movie section here it tells on most movies what the tracks are.

[dakota81]

Whichever one sounds better. I use optical out, and 2 channel PCM always sounds better than Dolby Digital, but on some titles, The True HD core audio sounds better to me than 2 channel PCM like with The Fifth Element.

[cleric]

Unless your player has an issue with one or the other, they are the same so whatever toots your horn.

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by cleric

Unless your player has an issue with one or the other, they are the same so whatever toots your horn.

This isn't true, e.g. on Ghost Rider and Stomp The Yard, for example, they had 16 bit PCM tracks, but they also had 24 bit TrueHD tracks, so in those cases the TrueHD tracks should have been higher quality. There may be others, I only know of those two because paidgeek gave the info out in the insiders thread.

[cleric]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

This isn't true, e.g. on Ghost Rider and Stomp The Yard, for example, they had 16 bit PCM tracks, but they also had 24 bit TrueHD tracks, so in those cases the TrueHD tracks should have been higher quality. There may be others, I only know of those two because paidgeek gave the info out in the insiders thread.

Yea except in the situation where one has more channels or different sample size.

But all things constant they will sound the same.

[ay221]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

This isn't true, e.g. on Ghost Rider and Stomp The Yard, for example, they had 16 bit PCM tracks, but they also had 24 bit TrueHD tracks, so in those cases the TrueHD tracks should have been higher quality. There may be others, I only know of those two because paidgeek gave the info out in the insiders thread.

This is what I am trying to get at. If I look at the Ghost Rider disc box, it list audio as pcm 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD, but doesn't list the bit rates.

I have a new yammy 1800 receiver that handles all the high end codecs and a panny bd30 receiver that can bitstream them all. So I assume then that it is safer to pick the compressed codecs if at least Dolby TRUEHD or DTS-MA is available. Otherwise pick the PCM sound.

[tkusterb]

I have a Sony BCP-S1 with firmare upgrade 2.00 (which supposedly allows for decoding Dolby TrueHD and other HD audio tracks) and am getting the Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver which also decodes these signals. Will I be able to enjoy these tracks on BD movies with no other equipment?

Thanks