New to Blu? Buy a PS3: the most featured BD hardware available... - Page 19

DaViD Boulet · 08-14-2008, 09:51 PM

The debate about toslink optical versus coaxical (both carry identical SPDIF protocal digital audio data as Paul explains) has to do with "jitter". Most folks don't realize, but digital audio is only 50% digital. The vertical resolution of the waveform is a digital measurement which represents the amplitude of the original digitized waveform at a given point in time. In the case of CD, each 44.1 thousandth of a second.

However, the horizontal resolution of the waveform... meaning the distance between each audio sample... is purely an analog issue given the way that the d/a conversion process and digital tranfer protocol between devices was set up back in the 1980s... the transport literally sends an analog time-clock signal to the outboard d/a converter or processor, and that device then slaves to the incoming clock to govern d/a conversion at the same average rate in order to keep the incoming signal and converted signal in sync. Those "bits" are run through the d/a converter in real-time during d/a conversion. Use a clean clock with evenly spaced sample points results in an accurate wave. If that clock gets a little variation in it, your sample points move a bit relative to each other, and the waveform isn't true to the original. How audible is this? It all depends, and folks can argue about it all day long. The bottom line is that these micro-errors don't show up as "distortion" in the world of sonic measurements created to measure old-fashioned analog devices. But what happens is by losing the natural sine-like purity of the waveforms, they just sound a tad more artificial to your ear. When you hear LP-loving audiophiles say things like "strings just don't sound right on CD" they're probably talking about jittery CD playback and not even realizing it. With gear that properly reclocks data and *decorelates* the DAC clock from the incoming clock signal (not as easy to do as it sounds, and you can't do it perfectly if you're trying to sync to a video signal), digital audio can sound surpringly natural.

Quote:

Optical or coaxial will give you "DVD quality" after conversion.

True, but let me add that even when "downconverted" for standard SPDIF digital output, the lossy streams of Blu-ray usually outperform DVD because they use a higher bitrate: Dolby Digital usually runs at 640 kbps on DVD (compared to 448 on DVD) and DTS runs at the full rate, while most DVDs use DTS at the half-bit rate.

chuckg · 08-15-2008, 11:35 AM

It isn't that optical/coax is "bad" compared to analog. The thing is that the equipment is limited in bandwidth - that means how fast the digital information comes across. The HDMI can handle much higher bandwidth, which means much more accurate sound than the DVD-level quality of optical and coax.

Analog connections can easily beat HDMI, if they are of high quality and have high quality components at each end. However, it is highly doubtful that anyone would notice a difference...

Purely from a physics standpoint, optical connections and coax are exactly the same. They carry the same data with the same potential for error, and I can't imagine there being any perceivable difference.

Jari K · 08-17-2008, 03:36 PM

Btw. "Criterion" knows quality...

Criterion Collection's reference Blu-ray player is a PS3 | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET

oscar_merkx · 08-18-2008, 11:17 AM

that's really positive news indeed

Sanjay Gupta · 08-18-2008, 06:33 PM

Just found out today that Planet Earth was shot in HD video and thus the BD is encoded in 1080 30p. For some reason the PS3 has been incorrectly playing the disc in 24p which means that the Auto function for 24p encoded BDs does not quite work correctly on the PS3. This finally helps explain the mystery regarding my viewing of Planet Earth on a Panasonic AE-2000U projector, via the PS3. I had been wondering about the jitter that I kept seeing whenever there is a pan shot and I could not understand why there should be so much jitter, which is normally linked to the 3:2 pull down issues of film based material, considering the PS3 is outputing 24p and the projector is displaying in 24p. Ofcourse since the original source and the BD are 30p the PS3 is what has been adding the jitter by outputing the signal in 24p.

UPDATE:
As per an official communication from BBC, posted by someone on another forum, the Planet Earth BD is encoded in 1080 30i and the 1080p is just a misprint on the cover. Also it seems that the BD is incorrectly flagged for 24p and thus it is not the fault of the PS3 that it is outputing 24p in the Auto mode. Aparently one has to switch off the 24p option in the PS3 to correctly watch Planet Earth. Unfortunately this too does not resolve the judder issue,for that seems to be a problem that is inherent in the BD itself. This is due to how the film has been mastered and transfered onto HD media. BBC made these choices due to the inability of all HD-DVD players to output 1080p and BBC's desire to conform to all HD players at the time, including HD-DVD & Blu-Ray.

DavidJ · 08-19-2008, 01:00 AM

Thanks for the info Sanjay. I still haven't cracked open my set (got it not long after it came out on HD DVD, never watched it, and exchanged it for the Blu after the "war"), but that is a bummer. I don't like having to manually change settings. It is easy to forget them and until you spend the first half of a disc thinking "something is just not right."

Jari K · 08-21-2008, 02:19 AM

160gb (yes, 160gb - not 60..) PS3 released at least in Europe (thanks for the tip Morgan!)...

160GB PS3, wireless keypad unveiled News - Page 1 // PS3 /// Eurogamer - Games Reviews, News and More

"Sony plans to release a 160GB PlayStation 3 on 31st October.

The 80GB model is due out on 22nd August in Europe, European boss David Reeves confirmed during Sony's Games Convention conference this afternoon, but those of you after more space might want to hang on.

The 160GB PS3 will cost EUR 449, and boasts the same feature-set as the 80GB model, but also comes with EUR 70 of additional downloadable content "to be announced closer to the release date"."

GC 2008: PSP-3000, 160GB PS3, PS3 keypad unveiled - News at GameSpot

Note: At this point, I guess only in Europe?

Ernie Estrella · 08-21-2008, 10:51 AM

Got my PS3 80GB and I'm all set. No problem with fan noise and just starting to scrape the surface of what this thing can do... Got my HDMI doing the video and the audio going through Optical, since my receiver has no HDMI capabilities...

Question about the BD/DVD Audio Output formats

for both HDMI and Optical is it better to have it set on Linear PCM or Bitstream? Is there are big difference?

Jari K · 08-21-2008, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie Estrella

..for both HDMI and Optical is it better to have it set on Linear PCM or Bitstream? Is there are big difference?

Since you´re using "optical", choose "bitstream". Do note that via "optical", you "only" get the "core" from DTS-HD MA (it´s still 1.5 mbps) and Dolby TrueHD ("core" is 640 kbps, I believe?).

Sam Posten · 08-21-2008, 12:35 PM

The new 160 bundle does NOT have backwards compatability from what I have read. It's the same hardware as the current 40s with a bigger disk drive.