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Question regarding Audio decoding

494 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by jdsmoothie, Sep 19, 2019

Younes BECHEKH

Discussion Starter · Sep 17, 2019

Hello everyone,
Im new in the this forum and wanted to clarify something i couldn't understand with AVR and Blue ray Player.
Let's say I the following configuration (the one I want to buy)
01 - 4K TV
02 - AVR : DENON AVR-X3600H for example
03 - Home theater 5.1 or 7.1
04 - Blue ray plyaer

If i want to play a MKV movie (with dolby sound or DTS) downloaded from internet I will have to buy and Blue ray player
So, the video and sound of the movie will be decoded in the Blue ray player, then go to the AVR, also played through home theater and displayed in the TV.

Since the most AVR cannot play MKV files, and Blue ray will be decoding both video and sound. Why all the AVR have Dolby and DTS IMAX decoding feature knowing that the Blue ray player will be doing that task and will be having the same features.

Is it only marketing or the sound will be decoded first in Blueray PLayer, and then again the AVR and played finally in the home theater + TV.

Thanks in advance.

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Bill-99

· #2 · Sep 17, 2019

Blu ray audio can be decoded at the player or at the AVR / processor. It's a configuration choice.

In my system, I could hear no audible difference either way, so I chose to send BitStream from the blu ray player to the processor, letting the processor do the decoding. I've read about others that have blu ray players with a superior decoding in their players that do just the opposite. You could try it both ways and decide which you prefer.

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Leeliemix

· #3 · Sep 17, 2019

Bill-99 said:
Blu ray audio can be decoded at the player or at the AVR / processor. It's a configuration choice.

In my system, I could hear no audible difference either way, so I chose to send BitStream from the blu ray player to the processor, letting the processor do the decoding. I've read about others that have blu ray players with a superior decoding in their players that do just the opposite. You could try it both ways and decide which you prefer.

For decoding in the player you need analogue 7.1 in on the AVR and thats not very common anymore so most do like you do.
Or use a pc/laptop to AVR then on to the TV.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Leeliemix

· #4 · Sep 17, 2019

Afaik MKV is basically just a container the bluray player/PC/other device (like appleTV) opens up and send the video and audio stream to the AVR and/or TV.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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jdsmoothie

· #5 · Sep 18, 2019

The audio is only "decoded" once, either in the Blu Ray player or the AVR. In most cases, playing a standard BD or UHD BD, it's best to pass it to the AVR as "bitstream"; however, you're asking about a specific format (ie. MKV) which as you noted cannot be decoded in the AVR and therefore must be decoded by the Blu Ray player. Dolby Atmos and IMAX Enhanced DTS audio can be decoded by the X3600H and therefore can (and actually must) be sent as "bitstream."

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Alan P

· #6 · Sep 18, 2019

jdsmoothie said:
The audio is only "decoded" once, either in the Blu Ray player or the AVR. In most cases, playing a standard BD or UHD BD, it's best to pass it to the AVR as "bitstream"; however, you're asking about a specific format (ie. MKV) which as you noted cannot be decoded in the AVR and therefore must be decoded by the Blu Ray player. Dolby Atmos and IMAX Enhanced DTS audio can be decoded by the X3600H and therefore can (and actually must) be sent as "bitstream."

While this is a great answer JD, I have to comment because I (and many others here on the forum) have my BR library ripped to MKV (with lossless audio - DTS MA, True HD, even Atmos), stored on a NAS, played through an Nvidia Shield and my AVR decodes the bitstream just fine.

I have no idea if playing an MKV from a flash drive through a BR player would work the same way though.

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jdsmoothie

· #7 · Sep 19, 2019

Alan P said:
While this is a great answer JD, I have to comment because I (and many others here on the forum) have my BR library ripped to MKV (with lossless audio - DTS MA, True HD, even Atmos), stored on a NAS, played through an Nvidia Shield and my AVR decodes the bitstream just fine.

I have no idea if playing an MKV from a flash drive through a BR player would work the same way though.

The .mkv container is likely being striped by an app in the Nvidia Shield first which then allows the DD/DTS audio file to be decoded by the AVR.

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