DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

If your player can decode and send the DTS-MA signal via HDMI, you only need a pass-through receiver. If your player cannot decode the DTS-MA signal, but can send the raw signal via HDMI, you will need a receiver with DTS-MA decoding ability.

So to answer your question, if your BD-35 can internally decode DTS-MA and stream it via HDMI, you can save money by not buying an upper tier receiver with a DTS-MA decoder.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

What do you mean by "pass-through"? Do you mean the receiver won't even do a DA conversion for the audio via HDMI (and will strictly pass the HDMI signal w/out DAC)?

If that's what you mean, then that's not what you want to go w/ the Panny BD35. You want a receiver that will at least be able to do the DAC from multichannel PCM (coming from your player's HDMI output after decoding), eg. the old Yamaha 661. Otherwise, you won't be able to enjoy the lossless codec audio.

_Man_

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

I have another question on DTS HD MA. My receiver (Yamaha RX V2700) is a couple years old and has HDMI 1.2. I noticed when I played a movie with DTS HD MA 7.1 audio using a Sony S550 the reciever indicated PCM mode with 5.1 audio. Is HDMI 1.3 required to pass the decoded DTS HD MA 7.1??

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Well I guess I will answer my own question on HDMI 1.2a vs HDMI 1.3. HDMI 1.3 is required for the newest HD lossless audio as stated in the following excerpt from the HDMI Website.

HDMI 1.3:

Higher speed: HDMI 1.3 increases its single-link bandwidth to 340 MHz (10.2 Gbps) to support the demands of future HD display devices, such as higher resolutions, Deep Color and high frame rates. In addition, built into the HDMI 1.3 specification is the technical foundation that will let future versions of HDMI reach significantly higher speeds.
Deep Color: HDMI 1.3 supports 10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths, up from the 8-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification, for stunning rendering of over one billion colors in unprecedented detail.
Broader color space: HDMI 1.3 adds support for “x.v.Color™” (which is the consumer name describing the IEC 61966-2-4 xvYCC color standard), which removes current color space limitations and enables the display of any color viewable by the human eye.
New mini connector: With small portable devices such as HD camcorders and still cameras demanding seamless connectivity to HDTVs, HDMI 1.3 offers a new, smaller form factor connector option.
Lip Sync: Because consumer electronics devices are using increasingly complex digital signal processing to enhance the clarity and detail of the content, synchronization of video and audio in user devices has become a greater challenge and could potentially require complex end-user adjustments. HDMI 1.3 incorporates automatic audio synching capabilities that allows devices to perform this synchronization automatically with total accuracy.
New HD lossless audio formats: In addition to HDMI’s current ability to support high-bandwidth uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby® Digital and DTS®), HDMI 1.3 adds additional support for new lossless compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio™.

Oh Well! At least the timing is right. Come on Yamaha get that RX V3900 on sale for Black Friday!!!

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

The Sony S550 decodes the DTS-HD Master Audio internally. It sends it to the AVR as PCM over the HDMI connection. If you are seeing PCM 5.1, then you are getting the full DTS HD sound. HDMI 1.3a is not necessary.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Just to add to what David has already stated and to avoid some confusion that could arise. HDMI 1.3 is required, but only if you want to pass the raw 'DTS-HD Master Audio' bitstream to the receiver. That is incase your receiver has a 'DTS-HD Master Audio' decoder and you wish to use that to decode the raw bitstream, rather than the, presumably inferior, decoder built into the player.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Sanjay and David,

Thanks for the clarification on the decoded vs. raw data. Your answers not only make good sense but also made my day! Now I just need to figure out why my reciever indicated 5.1 (by the speaker ican symbol) instead of 7.1 I was watching Pan's Labyrinth which should have been DTS HD MA in 7.1 format. I had auto setup the reciever when I added the extra speakers for 7.1 using the micorphone and it found all 7 speaker and sent them test tones etc but maybe I need to make some other adjustment in the reciever or in the Sony player.. Thanks again!!!!

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

I can't say for sure, but my guess would be that you need to specify in the player that you have a 7.1 speaker setup rather than just a 5.1 setup.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Thanks again. After searching menus on both player and amp my initial conclusion is that the movie is maybe mismarked for 7.1 and that it is really 5.1 with a 2.0 audio comentary track. Since this is the only movie I have that indicates 7.1 I think I will just have to got out and purchase Hellboy 2 and see how it reacts. Any other recomendations for movies with 7.1 audio?? Again I really appreciate your suggestions!!!

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

I have the same issue in my setup but I have been too busy to sit down and figure it out. My receiver does not decode dtsHD MLA internally but my player, the Panasonic dmp-bd50 can decode internally or it can bitstream so in my setup, I let the panny decode the dtsHD and send it out as a bitstream to my receiver, the Yamaha rxv-2600.

Everything shows up on the receiver as pcm5.1. I have not heard sound coming out of my rear centre speaker and I do have many 7.1 blu-ray disks. I believe I have tried all of the possible combinations in the audio setup of the panny. I send DD,DD+,DTHD out as pcm, I send dts,dtsHD out as pcm and I have secondary audio turned off.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

I have also tried every combination of setting on both the S550 and the Yamaha Rx V2700. To set the speakers on the S550 you must have selected the analog outputs rather than HDMI and I guess that is an option although I'd hate to have to add all the extra cabling (its already a jungle of wire back there!!! ) Well if anyone has a breakthrough on this please post. I just added a couple of new AV Amps to my wish list on Amazon but I'd rather not just throw new hardware at the problem to find out I missed some setting on the S550!!

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Morning Neil, Were you able to figure out what to do to pass the 7.1 DTS MA to your Yamaha RX V2600? I've sent two inquires to Yamaha Customer Support but have not received a reply...

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

You might want to check the audio setup menu of the BD Disk itself.. Some of the disks default to DTS and Not the DTS-HD MA 7.1 tracks.. You might have to select that in a menu of the Pans Labyrinth disk.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Thanks Brian. Actually there is only one choice in the setup menu for audio on the disk. DTS-HD MA 7.1 in Spanish. Actually that doesn't seem right does it? I think I need to buy a couple of other disks that offer 7.1 Audio to make sure this isn't just a problem with this one title.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

I made sure I selected 7.1 in the disk menu. I actually have several 7.1 brd's and none of them produce 7.1 on my setup.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Thanks for the note Neil!

I contacted Yamaha customer service and got this response:

My message:

Model: RX V2700
When sending DTS HD MA to receiver via MPCM using HDMI from Sony S550 the reciever only shows Icon for 5.1 audio. Is it possible to send decoded HD 7,1 to this reciever via HDMI? Can you help with necessary settings?

Yamaha's response:
Richard,
Yes, the RX-V2700 will accept a 7.1 signal via Linear PCM and the setting for that would be in the source.

Not much help! This is that ole problem when you have multiple components interacting in a system and can't figure out how to isolate the problem to a single device. But I guess that just adds to the fun? :-)

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Ha ha well I may be talking to myself at this point but I may have figured out why I could not seem to get DTS 7.1 while playing Pan's Labyrinth. I experimented with X-Men The Last Stand which has DTS 6.1 and found that I needed to change the Audio Setting to Direct rather than Mix. This has to do with mixing commentary??? I found that it had to be set to Direct to get 6.1 otherwise my receiver indicated 5.1. I went back to Pan's L and tried it both set to mix and direct and found that the receiver indicated 5.1 in both settings. While playing the movie I selected Audio on the remote and it indicated 3/2.1 audio when I had the setting to Mix and 5/2.1 when I had the setting set to Direct. I'm not sure what the 5/2.1 is telling me but I suspect that it has something to do with the commentary and that maybe the actual movie audio is only 5.1 channels? Anyway I will need to buy a couple of other 7.1 movies to be completely sure I have it working but will wait for price of Hell Boy 2 or the new Narnia movie to go on sale somewhere (below $20) :-) I hope this may help anyone else with this issue. I would like to hear from someone who could explain the 5/2.1 vs. 7.1 and what this is really telling us.

Re: DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO

Yes, the Sonys downmix to lossy DTS if you have this setting at "Mix". Setting it to "Direct" will allow you to decode as lossless.