Official List of Netflix Watch Instantly Titles w/5.1 Sound - Page 15

There are plenty of crappy encodes across all sources. Majority of the time, BD will be the best quality you can get, but it's certainly not guaranteed.

Yes, it is unfortunate that the studios are (attempting) to garner a premium price for what is often a second-rate product. BUT, perhaps that is why the Fry's Electronics chain is now peddling dozens of catalog BD titles at $7.99 or less(one of their local outlets has 'em in a big bin much like the $5 standard DVD tables at Wal*Mart). Problem from my perspective has always been, from day one, that the on-disk hi-def formats ARE good --- problem is that they're not "gooder" enough to warrant anything like the price-premium the studios would like to extract from the dummies who are 'true believers'. and will buy anything Sony and its cronies are peddling. Well, I suspect that as far as home movie viewing is concerned, the age of physical media is fast drawing to a close, and so disk format becomes more and more irrelevant. I don't know what is responsible for the extraordinary 1080p/5.1 performance of those Netflix titles I've seen, but it makes me more and more sure of that sound choice I've made to rent, rather than buy, BD movie disks.

Does this explain why my Denon AVR-3312ci shows it is receiving (from my Slim PS3) a PCM "Multi Ch In" input and does not show "Dolby Digital" on the receiver display, or the "Dobly Digital" icon light? I get this regardless of how I set my Slim PS3 Audio settings "Linear PCM" or oddly enough "Bitstream"? Streaming Netflix Monsters movie indicates 5.1, but not in "Dobly Digital" let alone DD+ (as I understand from this thread DD+ isn't going to happen). My receiver does display "Multi Ch In" regardless of settings, is this correct? I do have good bandwidth at 10+Mbps w/ "X-High / HD".

I'm in agreement with michaeltscott: "Netflix--surround sound is much more important and immersive for me than higher PQ", not that I don't like High PQ, but prefer good surround over it.

Sorry if this was discussed earlier, I've read through and am still a little confused.

Thanks,
Frank

I have been having the same issue ever since they changed Netflix and Vudu to another category on the XMB. Playstation support has not been very helpful.

Audio from the PS3 for Netflix is borked now. It is always sending multichannel audio even if you are only playing a Netflix title with stereo audio. And the result is the receiver cannot apply any post processing. This is not affecting VUDU and Hulu+ so something changed with the last update. It now behaves like the borked Revue media player(I just returned the POC today and got a Logitech K800 wireless illuminated keyboard instead. Much better for the money than the Revue was)

Interesting you mention the most recent PS3 update has F'd up their audio in the update! I did notice this audio change this week after I did my PS3 update. I'm frustrated with my PS3 and its lack of Netflix DD+, etc., so I'm going to return my PS3 to Best Buy's since I'm still within my 30 day purchase. Now I need to figure out if I buy an cheap inexpensive Blu-Ray player for $99 or so (I need a disc player), and buy the Ruku2 for Netflix (since it appears to be the best at the moment), or keep it all in one package and buy the Panasonic BDT110 or BDT210? Did someone comfirm the WD TV Live plays back DD+ as well?

Frank

Hi, is this issue cause by the PS3 v.3.70 software update or the Netflix v.2.04 software update (which was a couple of nights ago)?

So the PS3 is actually decoding DD+ to LPCM? I was under the impression that a DD+ track on VUDU was converted to standard DD before being processed into an LPCM track on the PS3? I'm also finding that not all movies have a DD and DD+ track, even though they are listed as such. I found a bunch of movies only outputting standard stereo. I could apply multichannel processing through my receiver, but it's always nicer to have the actual 5.1 track.

I turned mine on yesterday and it applied an update and then the audio was not correct. I also had not turned on my PS3 in a while. But the last time I used it this was not an issue.


Anytime a 7.1 receiver, receives a 7.1 signal, it cannot apply the normal DPLIIx processing to create a 71. soundfield since it's already receiving the 7.1 audio. So the Netflix application is always sending 8 channels(7.1), even though there might only be audio in two channels or or six channels, so it can't apply the post processing to create a proper 7.1 sound field.

The PS3 seems to be decoding the DD/DD+ from VUDU and sending out the proper number of channels. I have no problem with it decoding the audio as long as it is sending out the proper pcm channels which it is doing with the Vudu app but not the Netflix app.

Yes I'm talking about VUDU. Oddly enough there are some movies I can stream on HDX with my 3Mbps connection, although there is some minor buffering going on, but some movies are just impossible to do on HDX. Anyways I tested a bunch of two minute previews, and you are correct about Men in Black. The HD version was only stereo, but the HDX version came up with PCM 5.1. Not all movies do this, there's still a bunch out there on HDX that still come up as stereo, even though their labeled DD or DD+. These are at least my observations when I tested out the two minute previews.

I'm using v3.70 with a fat PS3 and a Denon AVR. I haven't opened the Netflix app in a few days so I hit cancel 4 times and it lets me get past the update screen to use the v2.03 app. This is what the Denon's Audio Input Signal screen shows.

PS3 menus: PCM 48kHz 3/4/.1
Netflix menus: STEREO PCM
Netflix playing 5.1 stream: Dolby Digital 48kHz 3/2/.1
Netflix playing 2.0 stream: PCM 48kHz 2/0/0

The PS3 "saving to the hard drive" clock inexplicably popped up partway through using Netflix.

I guess I'll try to keep the app at this version until they fix the update...

I looked under the more info tab, and the movies where coming up as DD Stereo or DD+ Stereo. That explains why I was seeing stereo on my receiver, So VUDO is correct in their codings. A lot of the HD and SD movies have have the 5.1 track. I can't really find to many HDX 5.1 only movies. With my receiver upconverting to 1080p, I can't tell a difference between HD and HDX. They both look great.

I'm pretty sure both Fellowship of the Ring, and Sunshine HDX only play in Stereo, but maybe somebody can verify it...

Sunshine is listed as DD stereo for HDX and DD 5.1 for the HD version.

I don't see Fellowship of the Ring anymore(although the other two are still listed). They must not have the streaming rights for it right now.

Yes. This is how it used to be before mine updated.

I would of thought that the HDX version would of gotten the 5.1 track....... Kind of odd that the HD version got it, since the HDX version costs a dollar more?

Wow. You're right. Why on earth would hdx be stereo hd be 5.1??

LOL!!!! I'm gonna have test this out when I get a chance.... He might have those flipped? I'll report back.

EDIT: I just confirmed it! HDX is indeed Dolby Stereo only, and HD is DD 5.1. Very odd.

Hi, thanks for the respond aaronwt and msgohan. I have not performed either software update so still getting Dolby Digital 5.1 on supported titles either watching Netflix or Vudu. It appears the new Netflix software (V.2.04) is the cause of the issue then. I will do the same and keep the old V.2.03 app until it is fixed.

True! Also my receiver says PCM Stereo, but the PCM part is in small letters, so I really didn't notice it before. Basically DD 2.0. On side note I really do think the PS3 is converting DD+ to LPCM, because the audio sounds superb.

Yeah RIO sounds awesome!

The audio on the Blu-ray was incredible. I tried the two minute HDX preview on VUDU through the PS3 and it is not even close. Very compressed sounding!

Obviously blu-ray will always have the advantage, and I never said VUDU was blu-ray quality, but for a streaming service they actually do a nice job with the audio and picture quality, despite the compression that is used. While not truly lossless, Dolby Digital Plus sounds much more better than standard Dolby Digital.