What kind of audio can the PS3 do?

[vick vega]

This might already have been talked about,but what kind of audio can the PS3 decode to send via 6 ch? Any links? Will it even have 6ch analog outs?

[theknub]

i haven't seen anything saying there is 6 ch out. i don't believe there is. anyone know for sure? k-man?

[jayselle]

There are only a handful of movies with 6 channel audio. Typically you receiver mixes 5.1 into 6.1 or 7.1.

The BD spec support 7.1 audio. You will obviously have to use HDMI to get this.

[Blackraven]

I can see that there is a "DTS" logo on it.

Question is, what kind of DTS audio will it support?

[partridge]

Hopefully it is an umbrella logo for all DTS format?

[dobyblue]

Your receiver should have an extended mode on it if it's 6.1 or 7.1 - it will only convert 5.1 sources into 6.1 or 7.1 if you tell it to.
When the extended mode is set to auto it will only play 6.1 or 7.1 if there's a rear centre channel encoded into the audio, like DTS:ES 6.1 Matrix, DTS:ES 6.1 Discreet and Dolby Digital EX.
7.1 receivers will play the same channel through the 6th and 7th.
If you turn the setting to ON then it will use either PLII, Neo:6 or L7 to add the 6th and 7th channels from a 5.1 source.
DTS:ES 6.1 tracks with bit rates (includes all DTS tracks as well, interesting to see which ones have the full 1.5Mbps on DVD) - http://www.spannerworks.net/reference/10_6a.asp
The PS3 has optical out and HDMI for audio.
Here's the back of the unit.


According to Scott Esterson from DTS the logos were not all finished yet. The DTS Digital Sound logo seems to cover everything up to, but not including, DTS-HD and DTS-MA. He said they did not have specifics on the PS3. It looks to me though like the DTS logo on there is one of the new ones.
One thing is for sure, in Q1 2007 if you upgrade your receiver to one with HDMI 1.3 that can decode TrueHD and DTS-MA in the receiver, then you'll be able to use the PS3's HDMI port to pass those signals through and get the highest resolution of PCM, Dolby and DTS that's available.

[vick vega]

I think I might be confused on what these new audio formats do. I thought they would still be 5.1 or 6.0 with just higher bit rates to improve sound quailty? Or are the new formats adding more channels?

So the PS3 will be able to decode the new audio formats and send them as PCM over 6ch. analog or hdmi I'm confused about this part of the PS3 and the BDP-S1. Can someone clarify?

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by vick vega

I think I might be confused on what these new audio formats do. I thought they would still be 5.1 or 6.0 with just higher bit rates to improve sound quailty? Or are the new formats adding more channels?

So the PS3 will be able to decode the new audio formats and send them as PCM over 6ch. analog or hdmi I'm confused about this part of the PS3 and the BDP-S1. Can someone clarify?

DTS ES, which is the current codec you can get with DVD, can deliver 6.1 discrete channels at 1.5Mbps. Dolby Digital EX, as on DVD, can deliver 6.1 matrixed channels at 640kbps. Both bitstreams can be used through the optical digital out.

The new codecs can deliver anything from 5.1 to 7.1 channels, from lossy to lossless, from 16-bit/48kHz to 24-bit/192kHz.

PS3 can decode TrueHD out of the box but the LPCM decoded signal will be delivered through HDMI only as there are no analog outs. So to get the higher resolution audio, you must use HDMI.


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