The Official Sony BDP-S550 Owner's Thread - Page 8

oh well it would have been nice to get it that cheap. I just placed an order for the Panny 55 from CC. It states arrival date with express shipping 10/14

Besides all the internal decoding, I like "Made in Japan".

All Blu-ray players that can decode MA, and mix it with secondary audio, out put regular DTS as the mix. Reason being no, and I mean no Blu-ray player has a DTS MA encoder. If some one would want to prove me wrong please do, because I hope I am wrong. And if you are watching secondary audio along side the primary, to me, IMHO coming here, why does it matter? Just take the normal DTS track, mix that with the secondary audio and ta da, more then what I need to here some actor/director spew forth mindless dribble for two hours. Ok I admit I like mindless dribble, but I don't need lossless audio backing it up.

So...here I sit...reading all these posts about ready to apply for my Sony Credit Card to save some cashola on my next HT purchase and have a few questions about the current offerings of HD audio formats.

I have an older setup in my HT: HK AVR 635, Toshiba XA1, and a Panny AE500. My current setup is 5.1.

Will I reap the bennies of the current HD Audio formats with only 5 speakers?

I believe my AVR will pass the DTS-MA and Dolby Tru HD thru its 7.1 anolog inputs but will I hear a difference.

Is it worth spending the extra money purchasing a unit that decodes.

Or will I be best just connecting my new BD player to my AVR the same way I have my XA1 connected. i.e tosklink or coaxial

Or...better yet...should I climb into the attic once more...fish speaker cable down into the walls...and run yet another pair of surround speakers?

Please help!

Randy

I say start fishing wire in the attic. I go back and forth from 5.1 to PLIIx 7.1 and the two back speakers add so much, especially for DTSes and DDex. I have yet to hear any new surround formats yet.

I ordered from Crutchfield on September 29. I just (this morning) got an e-mail saying the expected shipping date was October 27.

Primary and secondary audio is normally decoded in player into PCM and then mixed appropriately before final output to the AVR as PCM. There's no need to re-encode it as anything else so I'm not sure why you think it needs to be re-encoded into DTS-HD MA.

I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on the BDP-S550. Two attributes that are key for me are:

1 - Ability to internally decode and output 7.1ch (via analog) both Dolby TruHD and DTS-MA: It appears this has been confirmed from various posts on this thread....check!

2 - Image Quality: For those of you who have received delivery and have now had a chance to use over the weekend, how would you rate the image quality: Outstanding, disappointing, detailed, soft, etc....?

Hi!
Just curious as to how people are finding the sound quality of the new codecs when decoded in the player and sent over Analogues?
Also does the unit still feature 1080p/24 source direct option for video.
Thanks in advance.
Nick.

Still has 1080P/24...

Abt did a price match for me last week even theough Buy.com is not a Sony authorized retailer. I think their sale price was $350 anyway though.

Ok, thats great.
Thank you Epontius.
Nick.

I ordered mine through Sony Style on Tuesday and it arrived yesterday. I wasn't expecting it until Tuesday actually. Nice surprise. I went ahead and hooked it up last night (replaced a HDDVD player), but could only watch standard DVDs since that was all I had. I think I'll pick up Transformers on the way home in BD.

The 150.00 credit from Sony Style is a great deal.

Bud

If it can output as LPCM, great, but he was asking about DTS MA.

Makes you wonder how much the credit card company stands to gain from these CC applications. Must be well worth it to them in future interest gain. Shows you how much these companies make from the public.

Source direct is history since Pioneer is no longer building the player (like the S1, S300, and S500). The S550 player like the S350 and S5000es have 1080p24, but source DIRECT is gone. You cannot get 480i for SD DVD, then pop in a blu ray and get 1080p24 (without going into the menu and changing resolution).

I really just want to know if I would still get lossless 7.1 (HDMI) if set to mix...

It's more than one simple inquiry; each card shows up as a revolving account, and the higher each card's credit limit goes, the lower the credit score goes. In other words: each new revolving account adds to the credit risk. And to make matters worse, it's not that easy to get cards off the credit report; it could take many months after cancelling a card.

My personal score hovers around 840, and learning little details such as I just shared helps me to keep it there.

I have never looked at my credit score.... or think about it... or care about it. I just pay my bills and I guess the credit rating will go wherever it goes. I imagine you can't protest a low score... or anything you can do about any score. That said, if you have to borrow to get a luxury item like a BD player, you probably shouldn't buy it. It getting a discount of a few bucks is possible with a credit card, go for it (and forget about whatever credit impact it may have).

Not so far it seems. If set to "mix" it seems to be using the core DTS 5.1 regardless of whether the disc actually contains secondary audio or not.

The Yamaha BD-2900 manual contains a chart showing its output formats for mixed audio, for all of the possible primary audio formats: all mixed content output over HDMI is either LPCM-5.1 or DD5.1. I assume the DD5.1 encoder's primary purpose is to [re]encode mixed DD5.1/DTS-5.1 soundtracks plus secondary audio into a format that can be output through optical.

This is admittedly off-topic, but yes, although I'm sure it costs the cc companies to open new accounts, not to mention the $150 lost on the player discount, so many people run high monthly interest charges on their credits cards every month that the companies make a nice profit.

This is why, my entore adult life, I've never bought anything on credit I couldn't pay the balance on at the end of the month, other than a car or a house.

The behavior is different with Dolby TrueHD. I just popped in "Constantine". It has Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and bonusview with commentary.
When set to "MIX" on S550 and the Disc is set to Dolby TrueHD. The display button shows Dolby TrueHD 3/2.1 48khz. When you enable the bonus view, you see and hear the PIP video/audio and program audio (it's mixed) and the display button still shows Dolby TrueHD 3/2.1 48khz.
So I would think this is the way DTS-HD is supposed to work as well...but instead shows DTS 3/2.1 .
I would think that if this core 5.1 when set to MIX scenario is the way it is supposed to be that discs with DD TrueHD and secondary audio would behave the same way...it should read DD 3/2.1 48khz.
Since it isn't it leads me to believe that this may be a bug in the way the player is dealing with DTS-HD when set to MIX. Granted they are different codecs, but if it is able to internally decode both formats to LPCM it should be perfectly capable of mixing that decoded audio with the secondary audio before sending it out.

And of course if set "direct" and bonus view is enabled, I get 5.1 LPCM the display button still shows Dolby TrueHD 3/2.1 48khz, but I just don't get audio from the PIP window (as expected).

Doesn't really answer my question about the new audio formats.

Any help out there? Please!

Lossless is about the quality of the audio, not the number of channels. So, a 5.1 system will benefit from lossless. If you have a room where you can properly position two more rear speakers, 7.1 would be a good idea for both lossless and legacy 5.1, where you can matrix the rears with a DSP like PLIIx.

As for the benefits of lossless, there are many threads on that topic. Read through some of those. There's really no answer to that question that isn't based on personal preference, your equipment, and how inidividual discs are mastered. DTS and DD on BD are encoded at higher bitrates than you get on DVD. So, you will likely notice some improvement even without lossless.

If the analog outs on the XA1 are like those on the XA2 - use toslink, because otherwise your levels will be all screwy, esp. LFE. 1.5 mps DTS will sound damn good - few lossless tracks will truly outshine it, unless:



a) Your system is properly calibrated and you have decent or better speakers (no HTIB or little satellites);

b) the mix itself is an upgrade from the legacy track (I've heard some lossless tracks that were barely imporved over the legacy because the mix was lousy or the track is too old for lossless to matter).

Also, most lossless tracks are 5.1, so don't sweat the rear speakers issue.

Wow, a lot of talk about audio on this thread. Could any owners comment on how this player handles upscaling of SD-DVD's? How does it compare to the Playstation 3 in terms of upscaling? I'd rather not have to buy separate bluray and upscaling drives!

Yes, I would like to know what you thought of the SD upconversion compared to your HD DVD player? And what kind of HD DVD player was it (what upscaler did it use)? Thanks

It's an urban myth that an inquiry will lower your credit score, or even 10 inquiries. An excessive number, say 30, inside of 30 days, might have a small impact (I don't know the "exact" number, but it's a lot).

Also, it isn't the number of open revolving accounts that impacts your bureau so much as where the limits are in proportion to what you have on the card. So if you had 10 open credit cards with, say $5,000 limits on each, but not even half that on each of them, it isn't that big a deal. However, if you had $5k limits and $4800 charged on them, that does impact your credit score. On the other hand, there could be a negative impact with "numerous" revolving accounts if there's an overall lack of depth in the file. If you're younger and had 10 open credit cards in an otherwise "light" credit file, for example, that might go against you ("applicant borrowing too quickly..."). However, for the average mortgage/car payment(s)/credit cards middle class credit report, numerous revolving credit lines is no big deal, unless they're maxed or nearly maxed out.

I'm sure it is, but mine will be canceled shortly.

Bud