Not Running Dolby with PS3 Games. Help..

[Meat]

I think the issue lies with the cable used...optical Vs. HDMI. I never noticed this issue until I swithched to HDMI, I donno.

[Pelican170]

Originally Posted by Meat

I think the issue lies with the cable used...optical Vs. HDMI. I never noticed this issue until I swithched to HDMI, I donno.

Yes, i agree with this. its very strange and really with i knew the answer.

[foots]

To me it sounds like when you are using a HDMI cable the PS3 is processing the DD signal internally and outputing the audio via PCM 5.1/7.1. The reason it doesn't do this with optical cable is that you can't get > 2.0 PCM through optical so it passes the DD bitstream to your receiver to be processed.

This would explain why when using your HDMI cable and you deselect all of your PCM options in the settings you are forcing the PS3 to send the bitstream (unprocessed) information to your receiver while playing a game. Thus it shows up as DD on your receiver display.

So why doesn't it do this while playing games off the hard drive? It is probably just different profile settings in the firmware (that sony hasn't allowed you to change). Similar to how the DVD upscaling only works on a disc and not on video played back off the hard drive.

Now why you are experience a different quality sound? I would think they would sound the same but the quality of the DACs in your receiver could be superior which could give you a slightly noticeable improvement in sound quality.

[Pelican170]

Originally Posted by foots

To me it sounds like when you are using a HDMI cable the PS3 is processing the DD signal internally and outputing the audio via PCM 5.1/7.1. The reason it doesn't do this with optical cable is that you can't get > 2.0 PCM through optical so it passes the DD bitstream to your receiver to be processed.

This would explain why when using your HDMI cable and you deselect all of your PCM options in the settings you are forcing the PS3 to send the bitstream (unprocessed) information to your receiver while playing a game. Thus it shows up as DD on your receiver display.

So why doesn't it do this while playing games off the hard drive? It is probably just different profile settings in the firmware (that sony hasn't allowed you to change). Similar to how the DVD upscaling only works on a disc and not on video played back off the hard drive.

Now why you are experience a different quality sound? I would think they would sound the same but the quality of the DACs in your receiver could be superior which could give you a slightly noticeable improvement in sound quality.

That is what I was leaning towards and makes sense. I will have to check the sound quality again to be sure that i correct, but im pretty sure that I did notice a difference. Thanks for you advise. This seems to be the closest to a solution so far...

[foots]

Originally Posted by Pelican170

That is what I was leaning towards and makes sense. I will have to check the sound quality again to be sure that i correct, but im pretty sure that I did notice a difference. Thanks for you advise. This seems to be the closest to a solution so far...

If that is the case then sadly there isn't a nice clean solution until Sony lets you choose how to send the audio (PCM or bitstream) while playing a game off a disc. Similar to how they do it for BD/DVD playback.

[Pelican170]

Originally Posted by foots

If that is the case then sadly there isn't a nice clean solution until Sony lets you choose how to send the audio (PCM or bitstream) while playing a game off a disc. Similar to how they do it for BD/DVD playback.

Unfortunately i have a feeling that is exactly the problem and Sony should address this. Seems more and more people are beginning to notice this.

[kingofgrills]

WriteSimply's initial response was right on.

Uncompressed PCM offers much higher quality than lossy Dolby Digital. Digital optical cables do not have the bandwidth necessary to transmit multi-channel linear PCM. If your receiver handles audio via HDMI, you should be able to configure it to multichannel PCM. Otherwise you get the 2.0 channel soundtrack, which your system will decode with a matrixed (not discrete) back surround channel.

If you don't have HDMI inputs, just use a digital optical cable and make sure your PS3's audio outputs are set accordingly. This will give you access to the lossy formats Dolby Digital 5.1 (or 6.1 EX) and DTS 5.1 (or 6.1 ES).

The same principles for Blu-ray playback hold true for PS3 games.

[foots]

Originally Posted by kingofgrills

WriteSimply's initial response was right on.

Uncompressed PCM offers much higher quality than lossy Dolby Digital. Digital optical cables do not have the bandwidth necessary to transmit multi-channel linear PCM. If your receiver handles audio via HDMI, you should be able to configure it to multichannel PCM. Otherwise you get the 2.0 channel soundtrack, which your system will decode with a matrixed (not discrete) back surround channel.

If you don't have HDMI inputs, just use a digital optical cable and make sure your PS3's audio outputs are set accordingly. This will give you access to the lossy formats Dolby Digital 5.1 (or 6.1 EX) and DTS 5.1 (or 6.1 ES).

The same principles for Blu-ray playback hold true for PS3 games.

I did not realize that games were being encoded with PCM sound. If that is the case then it seems odd that the OP thinks the lossy DD sounds better than the uncompressed PCM (assuming his hardware is setup properly).

[Pelican170]

Originally Posted by foots

I did not realize that games were being encoded with PCM sound. If that is the case then it seems odd that the OP thinks the lossy DD sounds better than the uncompressed PCM (assuming his hardware is setup properly).

That is not correct. Games do not offer Uncompressed sound...

[Shin-Ra]

Many on PS3 do, even Resistance: Fall of Man, a launch title outputs LPCM 7.1 uncompressed surround sound.

Off the top of my head:

LPCM 7.1

Warhawk, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Colin McRae: DiRT, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, LAIR

LPCM 5.1

Devil May Cry 4, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! (Yakuza 3)

Many PSN downloadable games too.

[foots]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

Many on PS3 do, even Resistance: Fall of Man, a launch title outputs LPCM 7.1 uncompressed surround sound.

Off the top of my head:

LPCM 7.1

Warhawk, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Colin McRae: DiRT

LPCM 5.1

Devil May Cry 4, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! (Yakuza 3)

Many PSN downloadable games too.

Based off the info the OP has provided (I've never really paid attention myself) it seems like the PS3 passes audio via bitstream when playing games off the hard drive while passing audio via PCM when playing playing games off of a BD despite the two supporting the same codecs.

What reasons would Sony have for treating the two differently?

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

Many on PS3 do, even Resistance: Fall of Man, a launch title outputs LPCM 7.1 uncompressed surround sound.

Off the top of my head:

LPCM 7.1

Warhawk, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Colin McRae: DiRT

LPCM 5.1

Devil May Cry 4, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! (Yakuza 3)

Many PSN downloadable games too.

Does it say LPCM on the back of the display case? I have never noticed it before. What about a game like Tiger Woods '07? It shows Dolby Digital on the back of the case, but when I play it my Onkyo shows Multichannel on the display.

[foots]

Originally Posted by schultz

Does it say LPCM on the back of the display case? I have never noticed it before. What about a game like Tiger Woods '07? It shows Dolby Digital on the back of the case, but when I play it my Onkyo shows Multichannel on the display.

If a game isn't LPCM but still displays multichannel PCM on your reciever it more than likely means that the PS3 is internally decoding the DD/DTS and is outputing it via PCM to your receiver.

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by Pelican170

That is not correct. Games do not offer Uncompressed sound...

There are several games that offer uncompressed sound.