Hello,
I use a Samsung up5000 combo player and I observe a strange case.
Matched with a Yamaha 661 receiver, the TrueHD tracks play in Dolby Digital only (according to Yamaha's panel) on blu ray disks but in correct MPCM on HD DVD disks.
All played through HDMI.

thank you!

Since your receiver can't decode TrueHD or DTS-HD, this is the correct behavior when you set your 5000 to Bitstream Audiophile mode. That is, it will output hidden DD 5.1 track on BD discs for TrueHD and fully decoded MPCM 5.1 for HD DVD disks (as HD DVD does not have hidden DD 5.1). With your setup, you should set your 5000 to PCM mode and this will guarantee all audio tracks are outputted as MPCM.

If you upgrade your AVR to a newer one that supports HD audio codecs, you can set your 5000 back to bitstream audiophile mode to take advantage of DTS-HD decoding in AVR.

Thank you very much for this fast and accurate response!!
I didn't have a clue about those hidden DD tracks...
Is the TrueHD track quality preserved during the PCM process?
What is the best choice for DTS-HD tracks, PCM or bitstream downconverted to 1.5 mbps ?

thank you !

Is the TrueHD track quality preserved during the PCM process?


Bit-for-bit identical.


What is the best choice for DTS-HD tracks, PCM or bitstream downconverted to 1.5 mbps ?


Doesn't matter. All DTS-HD tracks contain a DTS 1.5mbps core track. Since neither your AVR nor 5k can decode DTS-HD, you will always get DTS core either in PCM (decoded by player) or bitstream (decoded by AVR).

The only thing you will miss is if you have DD EX (6.1) or DTS ES (6.1) tracks, you will only get 5.1 in PCM mode. Those tracks are rare in HD discs but quite a few SD DVDs use them. In this case, you will have to set your player to bitstream audiophile mode. All other tracks you can use PCM mode.