PS3 slim refusing to "bit-stream" to my receiver?

[globalist]

Hi,

I just hooked up my brand new PS3 slim via a HDMI cable to my trusty Yamaha RX-v465 receiver, thinking it can decode whatever the PS3 outputs.


I've set the PS3 to "bitstream" mode but I suspect the receiver is not playing along nicely:

- when playing the game (demo) Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two the receiver shows "DTS" on the display which I think is correct but

- when playng other PS3 demos (haven't got any full games yet) it shows "multichannel PCM" no matter what. I think in Ultra Bomberman it was showing "2-channel PCM" though...

- when playing movies with AC3 (DD 5.1) it also shows "multichannel PCM" sound (pressing "Select" I can see the track is encoded in AC3)

- in XMB it's also showing multi PCM

Is my PS3 ignoring the "bitstream mode" setting and deccoding the audio itself, instead of the receiver? I know it shouldn't do this when set to "bitstream". I would expect this sort of behavior if I were running the PS3 in LPCM mode and even then I would at least expect the receiver to show DD5.1 for AC3 sources.

Can somebody help me troubleshoot this? Many thanks!


P.S.


I've found this bit of info elsewhere:

"Games are never streamed as the format they are supplied on disc as and should always be decoded by the PS3 and not the amp. You'll get multichannel LPCM with games via HDMI. This is to allow the PS3 to mix button sounds into the audio, something it cannot do if games audio is bitstreamed to your amp."

OK so assuming this is correct then that would explain why I'm seeing "multi PCM" in games (although does not explain why I saw "DTS" in the Mickey game). But why am I seeing it also for DD5.1 movies?

[GeneticMutation]

I'm no expert but I think it's to do with the PS3 settings.

If you have the PS3 set to bitstream I believe the AMP will do all the processing and show Multi Ch on the AMP, which mine does!

If you let the PS3 do the processing it will show as the sound format on the AMP, i.e. DD5.1, DTS, DD HD & DTS HD.

Don't quote me on this as I've probably not explained it correctly or I've got something wrong somewhere lol!

[globalist]

Originally Posted by GeneticMutation

Don't quote me on this as I've probably not explained it correctly or I've got something wrong somewhere lol!

Yeah, you've got it exactly backwards.

The amp should display the exact signal it is receiving, so if PS3 is passing e.g. DD5.1 to the amp it should display "DD5.1", not LPCM.

[GeneticMutation]

Originally Posted by globalist

Yeah, you've got it exactly backwards.

The amp should display the exact signal it is receiving, so if PS3 is passing e.g. DD5.1 to the amp it should display "DD5.1", not LPCM.

Can't remember what I've got mine set at but my AMP always shows Multi Ch.

When I watch a Blu Ray it shows Multi Ch but when checking the display it shows it's out putting the DD or DTS soundtrack!

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by GeneticMutation

Can't remember what I've got mine set at but my AMP always shows Multi Ch.

When I watch a Blu Ray it shows Multi Ch but when checking the display it shows it's out putting the DD or DTS soundtrack!

If your AVR shows MultiCh, the PS3 is doing the decoding. If you're referring to the PS3's display feature showing DD or DTS, that's what audio track is being played from the disc, how it's being transmitted to the receiver isn't shown there. BTW, there's nothing wrong with letting the PS3 doing the decoding. Even some older AVRs that can decode all of the newer lossless codecs will have problems with the new watermarks on some BD discs they weren't designed to recognize.

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by globalist

Hi,

I just hooked up my brand new PS3 slim via a HDMI cable to my trusty Yamaha RX-v465 receiver, thinking it can decode whatever the PS3 outputs.


I've set the PS3 to "bitstream" mode but I suspect the receiver is not playing along nicely:

- when playing the game (demo) Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two the receiver shows "DTS" on the display which I think is correct but

- when playng other PS3 demos (haven't got any full games yet) it shows "multichannel PCM" no matter what. I think in Ultra Bomberman it was showing "2-channel PCM" though...

- when playing movies with AC3 (DD 5.1) it also shows "multichannel PCM" sound (pressing "Select" I can see the track is encoded in AC3)

- in XMB it's also showing multi PCM

Is my PS3 ignoring the "bitstream mode" setting and deccoding the audio itself, instead of the receiver? I know it shouldn't do this when set to "bitstream". I would expect this sort of behavior if I were running the PS3 in LPCM mode and even then I would at least expect the receiver to show DD5.1 for AC3 sources.

Can somebody help me troubleshoot this? Many thanks!


P.S.


I've found this bit of info elsewhere:

"Games are never streamed as the format they are supplied on disc as and should always be decoded by the PS3 and not the amp. You'll get multichannel LPCM with games via HDMI. This is to allow the PS3 to mix button sounds into the audio, something it cannot do if games audio is bitstreamed to your amp."

OK so assuming this is correct then that would explain why I'm seeing "multi PCM" in games (although does not explain why I saw "DTS" in the Mickey game). But why am I seeing it also for DD5.1 movies?

I'm not familiar with your Yamaha, but it sounds like it's a legacy receiver that doesn't support the new audio codecs. For such receivers, it's fairly common for them to show dts with dd sources higher than the 448kbps lossy DD they were designed to support. Lossy DD with most BD movies - and presumably most games - is encoded at 640kbps, which is also what you're going to get from a TrueHD track if your AVR doesn't support lossless decoding. Most legacy gear can still play 640kbps DD, even though it wasn't really designed to. But the displays will often erroneously show it as dts instead of DD.

Regardless, if you've got a legacy AVR, you need to let the PS3 do the decoding for everything. It'll do just as good a job even with dvd quality DD 448, when being transmitted to the AVR digitally via HDMI. The stage where AVRs tend to be better than players is when the digital signal is converted to analog for output to the speakers, as cheaper players don't even support multi-channel analog output, and many that do, traditionally, have lower quality DACs than AVRs. So letting the PS3 do the decoding won't hurt a thing, especially if your AVR itself isn't capable of decoding lossless audio, as most legacy receivers can still process the digital signal once it's been decoded and converted to PCM by the PS3. The only exception is that some legacy gear might not support room EQ, THX post processing, sync delay, and similar features with PCM signals.

[masc360]

Globalist, after you plugged your ps3 into the receiver did you go into your ps3 audio settings and make sure all the hd codecs were checked. If they are not checked even if you are bit streaming you will not get the hd audio

[globalist]

Thanks a lot for your replies guys!

My Yamaha AVR should be able to decode HD codecs, at least according to the specifications:

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio..._u/?mode=model

And yes I can see there are checkboxes for these codecs in Audio Settings and they are checked.

Some checkboxes such as DD5.1 are checked too, but they are greyed out which is quite confusing to be honest. But I assume the settings are correct.

[globalist]

OK I just unticked all multichannel LPCM checkboxes in manual mode Audio Settings and voila now my receiver is showing DTS in games such as Gran Turismo 5. Gonne try bluray playback next.

What the settings have to do with bitstreaming or not I have no idea, though. Or is it possible that if there is multichannel LPCM decoding available on the AVR, PS3 will simply refuse to bitstream to it?