Multichannel HDMI to analog output

[the_r]

Originally Posted by winoni71

I meant with a "non-HDMI" receiver.
Would the quality difference between listening a movie in Dolby Digital/DTS with an Optical Cable as oppose to listening in Analog LPCM with this tool be that big in terms of quality?

So your question is, in more familiar words, what is the quality difference between Lossy audio (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) versus Lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, PCM).

There are about a billion threads on that one, and it depends on each unique situation. It's a mixed bag based on my experience, in that some blu-ray titles sound fine in their lossy soundtracks, while some sound quite poor in the first place, and then their lossless counterparts just blow them away. For example, the first release of Casino Royale. The DD 5.1 track sounds almost muted compared to the PCM track. Other titles like Live Free or Die Hard, the standard DTS 5.1 sounds very good, and while the DTS-HD MA track did sound better sonically, although it's not like you can say "Yeah that sounded $500 better, and worth the upgrade."

Today's geek society is specifications driven, so even if we can't necessarily hear the difference, we like to just know we have the right equipment that can at least enable us to get the best we can out of what we have.