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sptrout · 03-03-2008, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camper

I'm am getting very close to buying a Blu ray player and have another audio hook-up question.

First, I have a very nice older Denon receiver that has a 7.1 audio input, but no Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD MA built in.

I'm going to buy the first Blu ray player that has 7.1 analog out and internal decoders for the new sound formats.

3 questions:

1. I gather that a soundtrack with 5.1 sound will produce no sound from my rear surround speakers via 'analog out.' Correct?

2. I'm guessing that a 6.1 soundtrack with produce identical sound from both my rear surround speakers.

3. I don't understand PCM at all since HD DVD didn't have any movies with that sound format (that I know of)
So will the PCM soundtracks be available from the analog outputs of the new players?

Thanks again to any folks who can help me with these questions!!

I have a Denon 3300 and it only has one 5.1 analog input so I cannot help with your 6.1 & 7.1 questions other than than to ask if you know if there is a Blu-ray player with anything more than 5.1 analog out? I have a Samsung P1400 and it only has 5.1.

As for PCM - - - Pulse Code Modulation (also called Linear PCM) tracks on Blu-ray disks are decoded and passed to the analog outputs like other digital formats (Dolby's True HD, DTS HD, DD, & DTS). Most Blu-ray players will not decode DTS HD-MA (only bit stream them via HDMI), so you and me are out-of-luck with that format except the player will decode the "core" track, which is very good. (Check the DTS web page for explanations of their HD formats.)

All digital audio formats start out as PCM, so many believe that the PCM tracks will give you the best audio of all. But, this many vary some due to the different sampling rates used by PCM, Dolby, & DTS. Unless I know for sure, I always pick the PCM track, but it is highly likely that I would never be able to tell the difference between any one of the HD formats.

The most difficult part of using analog out of a Blu-ray player (or even a DVD player for that matter) is getting the audio levels set correctly. I assume your Denon is like mine in that the analog input by-passes all surround processing including the Base Management System. This causes problems with setting the proper LFE channel level, and you cannot set speaker distances (not a big deal IMO). I also had a problem even getting the analog inputs to match the optical inputs (all 5.1 channels were exactly 4dB lower). Anyway, be prepared for level setting fun. I sometimes think it would be worth it to replace my 8-year old 3300 with a new AVR that has HDMI inputs, and all the new audio decoders. Maybe someday.....