YARGH!!! A1 Audio Output Aggravation...Please Help! (1 Viewer)

[Gregory Suarez]

Okay, so I got a new Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver with HDMI 1.3 inputs. I realize that the Toshiba A1 CANNOT pass 5.1 Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Digital-Plus audio as raw bitrates from its HDMI 1.1 output. That's fine, the player can do the audio decoding.

Now, here's the problem: I was under the impression that 5.1 DTHD/DD+ audio could be decoded in the player and passed to the receiver via HDMI as a PCM signal instead of having to use the six analog RCA cables. I have my A1 set up to pass audio from the HDMI output as PCM, yet when I play HD-DVDs with DTHD audio the player's on-screen display reads that the audio is being output as "Bitrate" instead of PCM. However, when I play standard DVDs the on-screen display correctly reads "PCM." What I'm afraid is happening is that the DTHD tracks are being downsampled before being output to HDMI.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? If I upgrade to the XA2 (with HDMI 1.3) will I have the same problem?

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I have a Pioneer receiver that will display the incoming audio format and the active channels being sent to it. With my player the Pioneer will display the incoming format as PCM and the incoming active channels as 5.1 when playing Dolby TruHD tracks even when the player's display indicates Bitstream output. It's just a quirk in the player's display.

I would bet that your Onkyo is also capable of indicating when the incoming signal is PCM, maybe check your owner's manual.

 

[Gregory Suarez]

Yes, my receiver does indicate a multichannel PCM track coming in. The fact that the player's display says bitstream is what was throwing me.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

It threw me the first time I noticed it, too.

To try to verify what was going on I put in Troy and toggled between TruHD and DD+ in the disc's pop-up menu. I noticed a significantly better audio quality on TruHD and surmised that all was well in spite of the player's display screen indication. If it's any consolation I've occasionally noticed apparent discrepancies of the same type when using the PS3's onscreen status display.