Im confused...what reciever do I need for uncompressed PCM? (1 Viewer)

[Phil Garcia]

I got a PS3, and Im looking to have uncompressed PCM going through my reciever, but it only does two channel with optical. Ive read about some recievers but they all say passthrough and such, and Im confused as to which one I need to get full 5.1 PCM uncompressed audio.

It would be very helpful for a sub-600 price...Im new at this sort of thing. Thanks!

 

[Nick:G]

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish?

TOSlink (optical) doesn't have enough bandwidth to pass uncompressed PCM over 5.1 channels. HDMI is technically capable of doing that, but there are no formats for it yet. The PS3 will pass bitstream over optical so you can at least play Dolby Digital and dts format software. Dolby TruHD and dts-hd will require either an HDMI 1.3 connection (which no AVR or surround pre/pro has yet) or an onboard decoder on the source device (such as a dedicated Blu-ray player) that will output over multi-channel analog.

The PS3 won't output anything multichannel over analog, so you'd be stuck with using the optical out until HDMI 1.3 capable AVRs and pre/pros become available.

 

[BrianShort]

I believe the PS3 can convert the HD audio formats to uncompressed PCM which it then sends to the receiver via HDMI, so no need for HDMI 1.3. Unless I'm confused, which I very well may be?...

 

[Phil Garcia]

Oh ok. I was wondering if there were any recievers that allowed more than two channel PCM uncompressed for Blu-Ray, and so there arent any on the market yet?

 

[John Garcia]

No, there are none yet.

 

[FeisalK]

there's a long thread of discussion about this specifically on AVS forum.

the Panasonic XR57 and XR700 can amplify multichannel PCM coming in on the HDMI connection. Other current Denons, Marantz Yamahas and Pioneer Elites also allow it I think. What some of them cannot do at this point is apply bass management and time alignment or more extensive PLIIx processing (to get a 7.1 output)

but certainly receivers that can accept and amplify 5.1 uncompressed PCM over HDMI exist today. (you only need HDMI1.1 to carry this, anyway)