Weak Uncompressed 5.1. Why?

[Marcusarilius]

I just purchased Gone in 60 seconds on BD. I was flipping back between 5.1 uncompressed and DD 5.1 sound. The uncompressed sounded terrible. It was weak, not dynamic at all and the volume level was very suppressed. On the other hand, the DD 5.1 really kicked some speaker butt! It was very dynamic and stunning as one woukd expect from Hi Def Sound! Does anyone know why this is or has anyone else experienced this? Thank you, Mark

[Luis_A51]

Must be an issue with that movie.

I have never once heard anyone claim DD was beter than PCM. Are you sure your receiver supports 5.1 PCM?

[Marcusarilius]

[QUOTE=Luis_A51;209130]Must be an issue with that movie.

I have never once heard anyone claim DD was beter than PCM. Are you sure your receiver supports 5.1 PCM?[/QUOT

Yes. I just bought the new Onkyo 805, 130W per channel, THX certified.
Never experienced this on any onther disk that supports PCM.

[WickyWoo]

are you hooked up via analog or HDMI?

[dobyblue]

You must have something incorrectly hooked up.
What is your settings?
What is your player?
What are your cables?

[crackinhedz]

bracke gave it only 3.5 for audio quality...maybe its just the movie?

[Brain Sturgeon]

Originally Posted by Marcusarilius

I just purchased Gone in 60 seconds on BD. I was flipping back between 5.1 uncompressed and DD 5.1 sound. The uncompressed sounded terrible. It was weak, not dynamic at all and the volume level was very suppressed. On the other hand, the DD 5.1 really kicked some speaker butt! It was very dynamic and stunning as one woukd expect from Hi Def Sound! Does anyone know why this is or has anyone else experienced this? Thank you, Mark

Assuming that you have your system set up correctly and that you are actually hearing both PCM 5.1 and DD 5.1, then your problem is highlighted in your statement above. When comparing soundtracks, there is usually a difference in the SPL's between the two-- you have to make sure that you have the volume level in your system adjusted so that the SPL's are identical for the identical passages in the two soundtracks. If you simply listen to the same soundtrack, be it PCM or DD, with volume up and volume down-- you'll notice the same issue. It just won't sound as good with the volume down. If you adjust your system such that the SPL's are identical between the two at your preferred listening volume, then, trust me, you will notice a big difference between PCM and DD.

[reiella]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

Must be an issue with that movie.

I have never once heard anyone claim DD was beter than PCM. Are you sure your receiver supports 5.1 PCM?

Prompts an interesting question, how do you determine if your reciever supports 5.1 PCM. I have a stupid HTIB (Sony DAV FX-500) that doesn't claim, but it works [and plays back] audio when I use the PCM tracks [the ps3 was set to send by pcm too].

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by reiella

Prompts an interesting question, how do you determine if your reciever supports 5.1 PCM. I have a stupid HTIB (Sony DAV FX-500) that doesn't claim, but it works [and plays back] audio when I use the PCM tracks [the ps3 was set to send by pcm too].

most any HTIB has the ability to play 2.0 pcm...the question is does your HTIB actually support 5.1 PCM...probably not. (are you connected to your PS3 via Optical?)

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by Brain Sturgeon

Assuming that you have your system set up correctly and that you are actually hearing both PCM 5.1 and DD 5.1, then your problem is highlighted in your statement above. When comparing soundtracks, there is usually a difference in the SPL's between the two-- you have to make sure that you have the volume level in your system adjusted so that the SPL's are identical for the identical passages in the two soundtracks. If you simply listen to the same soundtrack, be it PCM or DD, with volume up and volume down-- you'll notice the same issue. It just won't sound as good with the volume down. If you adjust your system such that the SPL's are identical between the two at your preferred listening volume, then, trust me, you will notice a big difference between PCM and DD.

Thank you everyone for the excellent information. I will do some volume tests and comparison with this disk and a few other BDs to compare the PCM vs. DD 5.1 sound. As I mentioned, it was the first time I had experienced this, but will experiment a bit. Thanks again for your help everyone. Mark

[reiella]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

most any HTIB has the ability to play 2.0 pcm...the question is does your HTIB actually support 5.1 PCM...probably not. (are you connected to your PS3 via Optical?)

Yep [connected via optical], sent a question in to Sony on my unit, mostly as I can't find a straight answer. It does mention PCM alot throughout the manual, never specifies though, so I have my suspicions.

If it doesn't, more incentive to look aggressively this winter for a new reciever.

[ add / edit ]
I am not that much of an audiophile, so I can't tell really if it's the just the Pro Logic stuff making it 'surround' or what not. Guess will muck with it later.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by reiella

Yep, sent a question in to Sony on my unit, mostly as I can't find a straight answer. It does mention PCM alot throughout the manual, never specifies though, so I have my suspicions.

If it doesn't, more incentive to look aggressively this winter for a new reciever.

are you connected via optical?

[WickyWoo]

I seriously doubt any HTIB on the shelves right now supports 5.1 analog ins or HDMI audio

[GreenMotion]

You cannot get PCM 5.1 (or PCM 7.1 for that matter) out of an optical connection.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Marcusarilius

Thank you everyone for the excellent information. I will do some volume tests and comparison with this disk and a few other BDs to compare the PCM vs. DD 5.1 sound. As I mentioned, it was the first time I had experienced this, but will experiment a bit. Thanks again for your help everyone. Mark

Can you please tell us how you have everything connected and what the player is?

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by GreenMotion

You cannot get PCM 5.1 (or PCM 7.1 for that matter) out of an optical connection.

Please pardon my ignorance, but how does one get PCM if not thru optical? Thanks, Mark

[Brain Sturgeon]

You can play multichannel PCM out of Blu-ray players via either HDMI or the 5.1/7.1 analogue outputs.

Neither optical (TOSLINK) or coaxial S/PDIF have the bandwidth to handle anything more than two channel 24/192 audio. These formats can, of course, also pass DD and DTS bitstreams.

[Zaphod]

Originally Posted by Marcusarilius

I just purchased Gone in 60 seconds on BD. I was flipping back between 5.1 uncompressed and DD 5.1 sound. The uncompressed sounded terrible. It was weak, not dynamic at all and the volume level was very suppressed. On the other hand, the DD 5.1 really kicked some speaker butt! It was very dynamic and stunning as one woukd expect from Hi Def Sound! Does anyone know why this is or has anyone else experienced this? Thank you, Mark

It's got to be your copy. This was the first title I played using PCM and it was a night and day difference from DD. The rears came alive compared with the DD and the sonic impact was far more better than DD. Keeping the volume the same, just listen to each one during the opening title sequence and you will hear a difference in channel seperation expecially in the rears.

Originally Posted by reiella

Prompts an interesting question, how do you determine if your reciever supports 5.1 PCM.

It would advise you in the instruction manual whether or not it accepts a 5.1 PCM signal. If it doesn't mention it as supported then it probably doesn't.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by Zaphod

It's got to be your copy. This was the first title I played using PCM and it was a night and day difference from DD. The rears came alive compared with the DD and the sonic impact was far more better than DD. Keeping the volume the same, just listen to each one during the opening title sequence and you will hear a difference in channel seperation expecially in the rears.



It would advise you in the instruction manual whether or not it accepts a 5.1 PCM signal. If it doesn't mention it as supported then it probably doesn't.

Thank you. I'll go over everything this weekend. Appreciate the help everyone. Mark

[Brain Sturgeon]

Mark,

From your earlier question, do you have your player connected to your receiver/prepro via TOSLINK? If so, then you weren't hearing 5.1 PCM-- you were hearing a 2.0 PCM downmix, and you were comparing this to 5.1 640Kbps DD. In this comparison, the bass would obviously sound better because of the LFE/Sub track in DD vs. the 2 channel PCM.