Official PS3 FAQ Master Thread - Page 51

No, it doesn't suck. It doesn't matter at all.

you've read some very misleading things, then.

I've been watching "Band of Brothers" on BD. Transcendantly great series, and the new BD special features (PIP commentary by the surviving veterans, and an interactive timeline which includes archival film clips) -- which are extraordinary -- require well-implemented secondary audio in the player.

As far as I'm concerned, this one release nails shut the coffin on the issue of bitstreaming vs LPCM; these features can't be used when bitstreaming.

The PS3 (as it does with most things) handles secondary audio perfectly, and maintains lossless audio on the primary audio track when mixing in the secondary track. Sure sounds like it does, anyway. (I understand many players revert to lossy on the primary track when using secondary audio.)

Seems like every time I turn around there's another reason to bless the day I chose a PS3! When when features I didn't understand or care about a year ago suddenly turn out to be important, the PS3 emerges as the player that implements them best.

I would think the jury is out on that. A AVR would do the decoding in firmware/Silicon I guess. No real opportunity to update the code. The PS3 does it in firmware and with 6(?) processors and constant firmware upgrades, they can get better if need be. After all DTS Master HD wasn't available initially but came with firmware releases.



For the existing model the consenus is that the HDMI chip in the PS3 cannot be upgraded to support bitstreaming. If that is the case, one would think that Sony might have implemented a different chip in the newer PS3's to support bitstreaming but from a business point of view, perhaps it didn't make sense? Why redesign a part of the unit when it's working fine?

That's like saying that an HP computer does a better job of unzipping a file than a Dell computer.

Reading compressed audio is like unzipping a .zip file. It doesn't matter what does it because all of the output is ones and zeroes that have to match the original file.

Bitstreaming is an unnecessary and useless feature if your player can send all formats as lossless via HDMI. There are no processors that can decode lossless codecs that can't also properly process multichannel HDMI, so the receiver's decoding is simply redundant. And inferior, in the presence of secondary audio, as I noted above.

It would be wasteful and silly for Sony to add a feature to the PS3 that would not enhance its functionality and would actually compromise BD playback when using advanced BD features.

PS3......( if it ain't broke.............)

+1

I've had my PS3 for going on 7 months and have yet to have one issue. It's played every BR I've thrown at it, does a decent job of upconverting, and is simple to use. Even with the price of stand-alones dropping I'd be hard pressed to pick one, any one, over the PS3. They all seem to have issues I'd have a hard time dealing with. It made coming over from the "red side" painless. Best purchase I've ever made.

Maybe they should look into the Sony AVR's....the blue decoder light is ON regardless of what device (the PS3 via LPCM through HDMI, or the AVR via bitstream from cable box through optical) performs the decoding....and yes, the light goes OFF when there is no decoding going on.

The oppo is coming.

Sorry, could not resist. I enjoy to this day my launch 60G model. A little noisy, required a $150 charge to fix just after warranty. The updates are amazing, if one has been there from the start. To think it did not upconvert at the beginning. And does a somewhat decent job now.

Now if I had not come down to the theater many times to see the PJ bulb burning for an extra 10 hours because the teens played Guitar Hero for 20 Minutes and did not shut down, well, I could live with the 983 and the PS3 as a two box solution.

Joe

If I were to buy a new receiver to hear the lossless formats, I would buy one that includes the decoders. Obviously, that wouldn't help my PS3 - I'd let it do the decoding, and pass the audio via HDMI. But there isn't a huge price difference between a receiver with decoders vs a receiver without, and it would keep my options open for the future. That's an important part of any decision of this sort - what might the future bring. You don't want to lock yourself in.

At the moment, though, I'm happy with plain old DTS and Dolby Digital. And with kids in college and the current economic climate, that's good enough for me.

It does matter if you have a receiver that can't fully process the LPCM signal to do DPL IIx or other things you might want. For example, someone just mentioned getting the Onkyo 606 and it will process it, but anyone who had the 605 is SOL.

To me, it's not a big deal as I upgraded to the 606, but I wouldn't have had to upgrade at all if the PS3 had at least added multi-channel analog outs as my previous receiver didn't have HDMI.

I'm having trouble installing Photo Gallery with the new firmware 2.60. I downloaded the update to a USB flashdrive and then used flashdrive to do the System Update on the PS3. System Info shows that 2.60 was installed and the Photo Gallery icon is present under photo. But, when I try to install the Photo Gallery, the screen message is that I have to download first. There is no option to use the storage media.

Did I miss a step somewhere?

The photo gallery software is independent of the firmware update software. As far as I know, you have to download it from the PS3's XMB network interface. It's a separate download. Do you not have your PS3 connected to the internet?

Brandon

Not sure if this has ever been discussed, but I find that when I watch Blu-Ray on my PS3 the voices are very soft compared to the sound effects. I have surround sound and have tried messing with the setting, but nothing has worked. Has anyone else had problems like this before? Thanks for any help.

Brandon,

Yes, my PS3 is connected to the internet. but, I thought the update might go more smoothly by downloading directlu to my pc first and not have to worry about any interruption in the wireless internet connection with the PS3 (I'm new to the using a wireless network).

Is there a separate download file one can access with a PC?

Randy

NO - you need to download it from whereever Sony Keeps it.

From playstation.blog:
"The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3's firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button."

Question for you. If the 605 doesn't have enough processing power to apply the various listening modes to an LPCM stream, what makes you think it will suddenly be able to decode an HD bitstream and then apply those same listening modes to the output? Decoding + processing requires MORE processing power than just simply processing an already decoded signal.

I have no idea why the 605 will decode and process the bitstream, but doesn't do the LPCM. (I do recall something about LPCM being immediately converted to analog while the bitstream signal stayed in the digital domain until after processing, but I'm not 100% sure.) They "fixed" it with the new model 606, but if you read the threads here for the 605, you'll see that some people weren't happy about it (and some who were still in there return window did so). It's a big reason why many people (myself included) held off on the 605 when it was being cleared out at great prices after the 606 specs were known. People who had (or were considering) the PS3 were impacted by this the most as most stand alone BD players at that time seemed to be able to bitstream, but not always decode which made the processing point moot.

Personally, I wouldn't have bothered to upgrade at all if the PS3 had multi-channel analog outs. As far as I know, none of the reasonably priced receivers will do any processing of the multi analog inputs, but I could have lived with that.

But that's the thing--the 605 doesn't apply the post-processing modes to ANY of the HD audio formats (LPCM or bitstreamed TrueHD & DTS-HD). It doesn't have the processing power to do it with any of them. And assuming it did, LPCM would be the first one on the list because it's the least processor-intensive. As for your "fixed" 606, they added more DSP power to it, which is why it's capable of doing more.

Pugnax,

Sorry, I was editing my post while you were replying. The thing is, it WOULD process the bitstreamed HD audio formats, but not the LPCM signal. As I added to my original post, I'm not 100% sure why, but I recall something about the bitstreamed signal stayed digital for processing while LPCM was immediately converted to analog.

Actually, no, it couldn't post-process all of the bitstreamed HD audio formats.

hello, i have a question. i have searched high and low on this forum and can't seem to find the answer. well here it goes, i have the onkyo 6100 hooked up to my ps3 with hdmi, and i play guitar hero world tour. my question is the receiver says multichannel 7.1 when i play GH:WT, when i know the game is Dolby Digital. should i set the ps3 to dolby digital when playing GH:WT or is multichannel 7.1 better for it ? i would think dolby is better for it since it says dolby digital on the game. any input would be appreciated.

Did you start by reading the How to Setup your PS3

Has the playback of 1080/50i BD on US PS3 been made possible yet?
If not, is it possible that work-arounds such as using different type of cable and/or output resolution to at least make such BD playable on US PS3?

The Denon 3808 (and their higher models) have upgradeable firmware via an internet connection. *And* Denon has released several firmware upgrades since I purchased mine. Including one which added significant new features. Only the one which added new features was a paid upgrade.

Regardless, there is no reason to be unhappy with the PS3 doing the decoding and sending LPCM to the AVR other than you don't get a pretty indicator light on the AVR telling you "something fancy is happening".

I am not trying to bash the PS3. I bought it because it was the only upgradable player on the market at a reasonable price and it does a great job.

Yes they added DTS HD master etc in firm upgrades and that made me extremely happy because when I bought it I was hoping they would do that down the road.

I was just wondering if they had added it. I am not electronics engineer who knows exactly why it will not do and what would have been required for them to do it. I had read on the internet that was a hardware problem and people where arguing that it could be done. The same argument happened with the DTS master firmware update.. people said it could be done and other swore it could not be done. So I was just checking back.

Some people might think that bitstream is not required while other thing it is a necessity because they will swear it sounds better decoded in the receiver or high end processors. While others would just like to have the choice. I personally don't care I just want to listen to which one sounds best to me. I am not unhappy with the way PS3 handles the audio right now but figured since my buddy just got a receiver that could do the processing I would find out if they had somehow fixed that through a firmware update or new chip or something and then we could compare and see for ourselves.

Again I am not and was not trying to bash the PS3. If I was going to do that I would not have bought one and would have waited for a dedicated player to come out that could do what I wanted it to. I think the PS3 does a great job at playing Bd movies and mine has worked great for better part of a year or more now.

Thanks.

they need to develop a IR to bluetooth reciever so we can use our Harmony remotes. The ps3 remote kinna suck with no back light options.

?????



Do a search, as several such solutions already exist, PS3ToothFairy for example.