New to Blu? Buy a PS3: the most featured BD hardware available... (1 Viewer)

[Chris Atkins]

I like these two updates.

 

[Nick Martin]

Within the last hour or so (between 1:30 and 2:30 AM EST, had to stay up for Eli Stone's pacific standard time broadcast) the PS3 update was made available for download.

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm really digging on this. I download a lot of demos which are 1GB+ in size. I like to start it late at night as I'm going to sleep and would like the machine to shut itself off afterwards.

Now all they need to add is *choosing highest bit rate soundtrack as default* for Blu-Ray play and I'll be happy as a clam!

And if they could possibly do it without pissing off the other companies, allow us to disable BD-J stuff like U-Control and other things that substitute for, and disable some of, the controls on the PS3 BD remote.

 

[Chris Atkins]

That's news to me. What settings do I need to fiddle with to ensure that I am passing out the highest bitrate soundtrack?

 

[Carlo_M]

That's the point, Chris, there is no setting. So for example, on many WB discs, including the new Matrix discs, the movies just begin after inserting the DVD. If you don't know to check, you're listening to DD. You have to manually select the DD TrueHD track. On other discs, where there is only a TrueHD or DTS-MA track, they will start playing by default.

I don't understand why some discs have both DD and DD TrueHD, or DTS and DTS-MA. As I understand it, if you play either the TrueHD or DTS-MA track, and your receiver can't handle it, you'll get the core DD/DTS track embedded in the TrueHD/MA track. So why include both?

For PS3, which doesn't output the HBR codecs, having both completely trips it up because most of the time (and I don't know how it goes about choosing it) the PS3 defaults to the DD/DTS track and not the TrueHD/MA track.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Thanks for the explanation, Carlo. Now that I think about it, I've seen it happen on my Cars blu-ray: it automatically selects the DD instead of the Uncompressed audio.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Maybe it's the same reason so many DVD's included separate 5.1 and 2.0 stereo mixes?

 

[MarkHastings]

As far as upgrades, I'd love to see an upgrade that allowed you to keep the power running to the USB ports even when the system is off. This would make it easier for me to purchase a proper IR Transmitter for my Universal Remote Control.

I'm not claiming to know what that all means, but (to me) it kind of sounds like the original DTS is included in the track, but only the DTS-HD decoder can see it (i.e. strip it out). Without a proper decoder, it doesn't sound like you'd be able to just listen to the DTS track.

I could be reading it wrong, but my take is that the DTS-HD encoder strips out the DTS track and send it to the DTS decoder (i.e. the backwards compatibility part of it), and then the DTS-HD decoder takes the 'extra' info and adds it to the regular (decoded) DTS track to make it lossless. Again, without the availability of a DTS-HD decoder (which sends the DTS track to the regular DTS decoder), it doesn't sound like the signal can be processed by a regular DTS decoder.


EDIT: Zack, I think the reason for separate 5.1 and 2.0 mixes was for those people who wanted a true 2.0 mix, rather than having the system do the 'downgrading'. What I mean is, most DVD's that have a 2.0 mix are movies that only had a 2.0 mix originally. The 5.1 mix was the 'enhancement' to the DVD, so including the 2.0 mix was to maintain the original presentation of the movie.

 

[Jari K]

I did the v2.50 update last night. Worked fine.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

PS: The 1509kbps DTS core is far superior to what you may have heard on DTS DVDs, which commonly operates at 754kbps.

 

[Nick Martin]

That's what early DTS DVDs like "Apollo 13" had, those full-bitrate tracks that required their own separate DVD release.

 

[MarkHastings]

Thanks for the clarification Sanjay, but that brings up another thought.

If the DTS-HD signal contains the info for a 'downgradable' DTS stream, can it still be sent via the optical out? or does it have to be sent only over HDMI?

 

[Nick Martin]

The full HD will never be sent through optical because it's too much information for that type of connection.

Therefore, even without the ability to enjoy the HD audio formats, it's still technically better than the average DVD.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

The DTS core will be sent via optical/coaxial out. I personally have a PS3 which I use with an older receiver, the Denon AVR5800, which does not have the new HD formats and/or HDMI support. Thus the PS3 is connected via the optical out to the receiver and I am able to not only get DTS from DVDs but also when playing a a Blu-Ray Disc with DTS-HD I still get the core DTS on my receiver.

Bottom line is, if it were not for commercial politics, DTS-HD Master Audio is all we need and which ought to be the single default standard for all Blu-ray discs. It is the only format that singularly and universally meets the needs of everyone.

 

[MarkHastings]

^^ oh, that's interesting.Ugh, I hate when politics screws up technology.

 

[Carlo_M]

Correct on DTS-MA not being sent out as HBR via optical. But I believe the core DTS track embedded within the DTS-MA would. Otherwise I don't know how those BDs with only DTS-MA soundtracks would play for people without HBR decoding hardware (and I think there's a few out there that only have DTS-MA tracks for english).

 

[Nick Martin]

My original receiver was optical and coaxial only, and FOX discs use DTS as their english tracks (ID4, Simpsons Movie are the two FOX BDs I have) and I played them just fine with the core stream. That is what ensures backward compatibility.

 

[Jari K]

Minor PS3 firmware update v2.52 available:

PlayStation.Blog » PS3 Firmware (v2.52) Update

"*The playback quality of some PS3 format software has been improved.

*A text entry issue that occurs when using the on-screen keyboard, USB keyboard or Bluetooth keyboard with some PS3 format software has been addressed."

Just did it myself.

 

[Phil Carter]

Man, this has been a useful thread. I'm about to make the jump to HD and Blu-Ray, so I'm playing sponge and soaking up all the info I can. I've already pretty much decided on a PS3 as my Blu-Ray device since it's a fantastic BD player and has that added bonus of being a cool gaming system. (My girlfriend and I are both avid console gamers).

I guess I'm going to need a new digital optical cable, though (I was using digital coax on my old DVD player), since the PS3 apparently doesn't support digital coax. I'd use HDMI for sound, but my current receiver doesn't support HDMI. Wahhh! Oh well, one more thing to add to the update list (buying the PS3 and a new plasma set is going to be enough for now, thankyouverymuch).

Am I right in gleaning from the past mentions in this thread that the PS3 has Wi-Fi support out of the box? No adapters or anything needed? If that's the case, sw33t! My Linksys wireless'll get some use at last (I'm currently using it wired as both my work PC and home PC sit in the same room with the router, but the PS3 and TV will be downstairs, so I need wireless to be able to use the BD-Live and Internet-related features of the PS3).

Already plotting and scheming for all the things I need (BD versions of Iron Man and Speed Racer to start with, plus Digital Video Essentials for calibration; a pair of HDMI cables, the new optical cable....maybe upgrade my front speakers....wow I'm gonna spend a lot of $$ over the next couple weeks.......)

cheers,
Phil

 

[MarkHastings]

Do you have Digital/HD cable? FYI: My cable company gave me a free Optical cable (in a pack of high-end cabling).