Dolby TrueHD? Where is it?

[gwinkelmann]

When will the advanced audio codecs such as Dolby TruehD be incorporated into Blu-Ray movie releases?

[suprmallet]

A) When companies start using advanced video codecs.
B) When you get players that can decode the format.

[Psiweaver]

3) when you get recievers that support it.
4) when you get hdmi 1.3

[suprmallet]

If the player can decode it, then you can plug the player into any receiver that has analog inputs to get full DolbyTruHD. So you don't have to have receivers that specifically support it.

[Psiweaver]

Thats true. But i think it'll be a big help to have a player support it so you can use a simple cable rather than an analog run.

[Dave Moritz]

This is one of the sad things regarding Blu-ray right now. It stupid because you can find a few Dolby True HD titles and a DTS-HD title on HD-DVD. So why is Sony dragging there feet? Why has VC-1 encoded discs not being used for Blu-ray yet. I am not sure I buy the excuse that the authoring software just came out. Heck Sony hasn't even been able to produce dual layer 50 gig blu-ray discs yet. Something they swore up and down that was not going to be a problem. I really would like to see Blu-ray succeed and I hope the Sony Blu-ray player is rock solid. It has been my plan for the Blu-ray format to be the crown jewel of my HT. Till then I will just deal with HD-DVD until Sony can pull there head out of a certain hole in there collective bodies.

I hope to buy the Sony in December so I am hoping that if there are any horible problems and or bugs, I will know about them before spending the money. Right now I am more interested in seeing DTS-HD on Blu-ray discs than I am about Dobly True HD. Thats not to say I am not interested in hearing Dolbys latest entry to surround sound goodness.

[KC-Technerd]

I've gotta say it one more time. The advantage of Dolby TrueHD is not that it provides a better quality of audio than LPCM but that it requires less digital storage space than LPCM.

Also an audio receiver capable of decoding Dolby TrueHD (or other audio codecs) will not be required to use a single cable from your Blu-ray player to your audio receiver. The Blu-ray player will convert all audio codecs to multi-channel LPCM and will send that to the HDMI output. The necessity will be to have an audio receiver capable of accepting multi-channel LPCM over HDMI.

According to Dolby, only a limited number of discs that have Dolby TrueHD will allow the TrueHD stream to be output to the receiver anyway. In other words, DD TrueHD decoding will be a rarely used feature on an audio receiver, in comparison to the number of TrueHD titles available.

[Longshot]

Okay, so how do I get the best sound from my XA1 right now?

I have a Lexicon MC-1 (a little long in the tooth but still kicks ass) and Bryston amps. I have both component and HDMI cables.

[PurpleAardvark]

Use the HDMI cables and enjoy.

[KC-Technerd]

Does the MC-1 have an HDMI input for audio?

If not, then there are two choices. Multi-channel analog connection, which will yield the full capabilities of any of the audio formats available on Blu-Ray disc, but has the downside of multiple D/A conversions.

The other choice is to use Dolby Digital or DTS output from the Blu-Ray player. LPCM, True HD, etc. will be converted by the Blu-ray player to the highest quality (highest bitrate) Dolby Digital or DTS bitstream to be output to your receiver. This retains a full digital transmission to the receiver, but does not does not yield the full capability of the newer Blu-Ray audio formats.

Each choice has it's own downside, so it's really whatever you prefer. Either way though, the audio quality should be superior to that previously available on DVD.