Warner releases Poseidon on HD DVD, but not on BD?

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by Polyh3dron

Dolby TrueHD is lossless and therefore sounds EXACTLY the same as uncompressed LPCM.

A lot of people think that. And, logically you would think that that would be an accurate statement. But when you hear PCM you'll know that none of the TrueHD tracks that have been done to date are in the same league. Maybe it's the lesser capable TrueHD audio stream that HD DVD is currently using. Or maybe the hardware is the limiting factor. But none of the TrueHD tracks I've heard on HD DVD even approach the level of wow that PCM does on almost every disc. There's more ambient detail and more of an utter sense of transparency even in a movie like Little Man from PCM, than the best TrueHD track I've heard. That actually worries me, as I don't think PCM will stick around once most hardware will support decoding of lossless compressed. I fear going from PCM to something else will seem like the same step in the wrong direction that DTS halfing their bitrate on DVD to get more software support was, but possibly an even more monumental downgrade.

But don't trust me, listen for yourself. My colleague, Dave Vaughn who does most of the HD DVD reviews for our site recently said he thought I had been exaggerating how much better PCM was in sound. He just got a PS3 and now he knows I wasn't. There's nothing else out there on the same level right now. Though, I still have hope that once we can decode lossless DTS HD it'll be comparible. Or maybe the more capable TrueHD stream will be. Regardless of whether or not it SHOULD sound better, that doesn't change the fact that it DOES. And by such a margin that once you hear it in a dedicated system capable of making the distinction, you'll hope PCM becomes the standard instead of lossless compressed of any flavor.

Lets put it another way. If Sony filed bankruptsy tomorrow and ended BD as a result, and all Columbia and Disney titles were re-released on HD DVD in TrueHD instead of PCM, I'd buy another BD player or two, to ensure that should my current model become irreparable, I'd still have a backup for all the PCM discs that have already been released.