What's the Deal with the HD Audio Tracks? (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Edwin,
Do you have the Dialog Enhancement turned off when listening to the TrueHD track? If not then you need to because Dialong Enhancement only works with DD and DD+.

 

[Jimjum27]

Karim: I'm by no means an expert, and don't know anything about your particular receiver, but if it is 5.1 capable, then yes...you should be able to get lossless sound. Depending on your player, you may have to download a firmware update. For example if you have a Toshiba HD-A1 you would need update 2.0. If your receiver has analog inputs and your player has analog outputs, you should be all set after that.

 

[RAF]

No, I don't think it's your ears (mine are 64 years old and counting). At this point I think that there is a lot of variation in the way that some discs present uncompressed audio and I have some titles where the difference is not as striking as what I heard in Haunted Mansion (BR title). I only have V for Vendetta in SD so I can't comment directly on that title in HD with the additional audio codecs. And there sometimes is a slight difference in the audio output (volume) between different codecs, although not as great as what I was experiencing with my XA-1 when I had set the "Dialog Enhancement" to "ON" as pointed out by Crawdaddy.

As far as codecs go, uncompressed audio offer a far greater potential for improved audio clarity and most of the time it lives up to the hype when done right. Another variable might be the equipment that is being used to listen to uncompressed audio. There are far too many variables here to get into specifics and I'm not trying to denigrate anyone's audio setup. It's just another data point to consider.

 

[Karim Nogas]

Thanks for replying, Jim. That's what I figured and worked backwards by first ordering my first few BR discs. My Samsung should be here towards the end of next week.

 

[Edwin-S]

No offense taken. I don't consider my equipment to be bottom feeder, but it is not top of the line either. The equipment I'm using is as follows:

Yamaha RX-V1 receiver
Mirage M5-Si Bi-Polars for L/R fronts
Mirage MC-2 Center Speaker
Mirage OM-2s for L/R rears
Mirage BPSS-210 Subwoofer running through an LFX 3 crossover for the LFE channel.
Toshiba HD-A1

As you can see it is mostly older equipment, especially the speakers; however, it has given me good service and I still like the sound of my M5s. They produce a nice wide soundstage. Room dynamics probably play a big part in any perceived improvement from lossless soundtracks. Unfortunately, I am not set up under ideal sonic conditions. I have my gear set up in my living room which opens into a dining room on one side. it is not very easy to control the sonic characteristics of the space where I'm set up, so I'm sure that has to have an effect on sound quality from both lossless and lossy tracks.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Edwin, I run mine with SPDIF set to PCM.

 

[Edwin-S]

Thanks. I'll set the SPDIF to PCM and give a listen to a couple of tracks.

 

[Dave H]

SD DVD will be fine for the analog outputs. However, there have been some reports that the audio is a little low on the XA2 analog outputs.

I too am waiting for a 1.3 HDMI receiver. I had actually ordered a current HDMI receiver, but had the will power to send it back before even opening it - decided to wait. Receivers are not something I want to upgrade every year or two (unlike video players).

 

[John Stone]

I've also read that, but this past weekend I played around with the 5.1 analog out and did not experience the same thing. Bass was also where it should be (verified all with an analog SLM).

After a lot of testing, I ultimately switched back to a digital connection. I really enjoy the added dimension of my 2 rear surrounds, and having them silent (PLIIx won't work on an analog source) was not worth the trade-off to me.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

So Edwin how did this work out for you?