Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am not exactly an expert...

I have a PS3 that I use as a bluray player. I was thinking of getting a receiver like the Sony STRDG820 with DolbyTrueHD and DTS Master Audio. I am getting that to be future proof.

For right now, my apartment only really allows for a 2 floor-speaker setup (I have pretty nice ones). Can I get the benefit of those lossless audio formats with this setup, or are they only compatible with surround sound?

Thanks.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am not exactly an expert...

I have a PS3 that I use as a bluray player. I was thinking of getting a receiver like the Sony STRDG820 with DolbyTrueHD and DTS Master Audio. I am getting that to be future proof.

For right now, my apartment only really allows for a 2 floor-speaker setup (I have pretty nice ones). Can I get the benefit of those lossless audio formats with this setup, or are they only compatible with surround sound?This is a good question and someone asked a similar question several days ago thatI do not think was sufficiently answered. I would think that there is definitely a way to downmix the soundtrack to 2 channel if a receiver is set up as such. The question is, is it still maintained as the lossless audio or is it converted to plain ol' DD or DTS prior to the downmix.

Along those same lines, I am wondering if any Blu-Ray discs contain specifically authored 2-channel stereo tracks in the lossless formats, as some DVDs contained specifically-authored stereo tracks. Or are these formats being strictly used for multichannel encoding.


Sanjay, where are you?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? :(

I am wondering if any Blu-Ray discs contain specifically authored 2-channel stereo tracks in the lossless formats, as some DVDs contained specifically-authored stereo tracks.Dolby TrueHD uses a core+extension structure, where the core is a lossless 2-channel mix (automated downmix or specifically mixed for stereo) of the entire soundtrack. The first extension packet contains the data needed to convert the core into a discrete 5.1-channel mix. The second extension packet, if present, contains the data needed to convert the core and first extension packet into a discrete 7.1-channel mix. And so on, with more extension packets adding more discrete channels. Each stage presents all the contents of the entire soundtrack (again, automated downmix or specifically mixed).

Which Blu-ray discs contain stereo-specific mixes is anybody's guess, since those details are not typically released.

BTW, the reason for a lossless stereo core (as opposed to, say, DTS' lossy 5.1 core) is because TrueHD is based on Meridian Lossless Packing. As you know, MLP was originally conceived with hi-rez multi-channel music in mind, like DVD-A. Any time music delivery comes up, so does the importance of 2-speaker playback. So MLP was designed to encode lossless stereo and multi-channel mixes in one track. And TrueHD inherited this structure (MLP is licensed by Dolby Labs anyway).

Sanjay

I have a PS3 that I use as a bluray player. I was thinking of getting a receiver like the Sony STRDG820 with DolbyTrueHD and DTS Master Audio.Understand that the PS3 cannot transmit TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in their native bitstream form, so the decoders in the Sony receiver won't be getting any use. Instead of bitstreaming, the PS3 decodes those lossless codecs internally, transmitting them as PCM digital audio. Can I get the benefit of those lossless audio formats with this setup, or are they only compatible with surround sound?That depends on whether the PS3 has the ability to downmix to 2 channels. It's sometimes easier to do that with coded soundtracks (since they're designed for backwards compatibilty) than with 5.1 or 7.1 PCM soundtracks. I'm not familiar enough with the PS3 to know what it can and cannot downmix.

Good Luck,
Sanjay

Wups, I guess we just lost the last 9 days of (helpful) posts in this thread. Anybody remember what was posted last week?

Sanjay

Start over..

Understand that the PS3 cannot transmit TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in their native bitstream form, so the decoders in the Sony receiver won't be getting any use. Instead of bitstreaming, the PS3 decodes those lossless codecs internally, transmitting them as PCM digital audio. That depends on whether the PS3 has the ability to downmix to 2 channels. It's sometimes easier to do that with coded soundtracks (since they're designed for backwards compatibilty) than with 5.1 or 7.1 PCM soundtracks. I'm not familiar enough with the PS3 to know what it can and cannot downmix.

Good Luck,
Sanjay

See pages 3 and 4 of this Dolby Audio Coding for Future Entertainment Formats (http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/English_(US)/Professional/Technical_Library/Technologies/Dolby_TrueHD/DPlus_TrueHD_whitepaper.pdf) document for the conceptual architecture of a TrueHD soundtrack. A quick look shows that a 2.0 'downmix' should always be available [no additional 'downmix' computation required!] [However, remember that the HDMI 'signal layouts' contain some "inhibit downmix" flags, so it is, perhaps, theoretically possible for some BD to be available in only 5.1, because access to the 2.0 base track, alone, has been specifically defeated...?!]

DTS is more secretive, but the '2.0 downmix' controls visible in their authoring software suggest DTS-HD MA internel architecture could be treated as canonically equivalent to TrueHD -- at least for the purposes of this discussion. However, there might still be practical differences between TrueHD and DTS-HD MA in the capabilities of specific decoder chips to resolve permitted 'downmix' features...

And for any number of reasons, Sony might choose to defeat/not_implement in the PS3 some feature otherwise permitted/supported by the codec and the [PS3's] decoder chip...

A quick look shows that a 2.0 'downmix' should always be available [no additional 'downmix' computation required!]Didn't I just explain that in post #3?

Sanjay

Didn't I just explain that in post #3?

Sanjay

Sorry, I thought I was agreeing with and expanding on your statement. However, if you thought I was contradicting you or unnecessarily restating your explanation, I'm only too happy to apologize for my inappropriate post.