[RhodyAVphile]

Is it better to have the Pre/Pro convert the HBR audio or to let the player convert and send MPCM to the processor?


I noticed in another thread about the ability to add processing, like matrixing a 5.1 to 7.1 in some processors using HBR, so what other issues/limitations/advantages are there between the two methods?


If a Pre/Pro does HBR, by default should it also handle MPCM?


If you let the player decode to MPCM does the quality of player impact the quality of the MPCM stream?


I am curious as I am looking into replacing my Lexicon MC 12B with something else and adding a Blu-Ray player. I currently use a Radiance XD in front of the Lexicon to strip the audio from the HDMI connection and pass it over SPIDF. The replacement options narrow if HBR in Pre/Pro is better than MPCM...


Thx

 

[BIslander]

Audio quality should not be affected by the device doing the decoding. The resulting PCM will be the same in either place. And, all of the audio processing will be done in the receiver either way in most cases. I haven't hard that AVRs handle PCM over HDMI differently than PCM produced by their own decoding. But, I suppose it's possible.


Some AVRs lack the processing power to both decode lossless tracks and apply a DSP such as PLIIx. So, in those cases it may be better to decode in the player and have the processor add the DSP. The same goes for mixing in secondary audio, which requires player decoding.


But, that aside, I've seen a fair number of posts from people who say they prefer the audio produced by bitstreaming over player decoding. So, there doesn't seem to be a simple, precise answer to your question.

 

[RhodyAVphile]

Guess my only thinking is that jitter might come in to play in having the PCM transmitted vs the bitstream... Not sure though...