BluRay question

[jakester]

Was at Sam's club yesterday, there was a movie Transformers playing on a Samsung 52" LCD tv, picture was out of this world, question I have the sound was also superb and they had a Samsung Home theater hooked up to the TV, it had a subwoofer, 2 tall and narrow fronts. center channel and 2 small rears. where did all of the fantastic sound come from, is it the Blu Ray has better sound than my Pioneer DV 525dvd player. I am going to move up to a Large HD TV in the next month or two, in fact the Samsung Home theater system that was on display sold around $375.00 with subwoofwer, I have 3 times that much in my (2) fronts (Jamo 680) and sub, BIC C-10, although I have a Sony 3 pc home theater set approx 18yrs old, the front center channel has (2) 4 inch speakers and the rears have (1) 4 inch speakers. I have a friend that is going to bring up a center channel tomorrow to try, it has (2) 5" speakers and a ribbon tweeter. I am hoping this will be an improvement over my current center channel. any comments there are sounds in the transformers that I never heard on my system, is it the sounds are better with the BluRay or do I need some changes in my HT


Chet

 

[Pyrrho]

There are too many variables to know why the sound seemed better in the store than in your home. You don't seem to be comparing the same soundtrack at home, your room is acoustically different from the store, your system may not be adjusted properly, etc.

The sound on BD (Blu-ray) can theoretically be better than DVD, but the difference is not going to be dramatic, particularly compared with other factors, like speakers, room acoustics, and whether or not the channels are properly balanced.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Blu-ray audio quality can be lossless and comparible to SACD or DVD-A (or beyond) for quality. It helps to have a proper setup and everything balanced properly, but Blu-ray is definitely something that I would recommend people pick up if their budgets allow for it and they own a HD display. Better picture quality plus better audio quality = better overall home theater experience.

The one thing you gotta have to get the best sound from Blu-ray is a receiver with HDMI or a Blu-ray player with analog audio outputs AND a receiver with analog audio inputs. I would recommend the receiver with the HDMI connectivity to keep it simple.

 

[agarwalro]

It is common knowledge in AH circles that TV manufacturers have out of the box settings that look good in a showroom environment. A display's true colors (pun intended ) are seen only after calibration in the environment where it will be used.

I suspect the same applies to the Samsung HTIB. While it may have sounded nice to you at Sam's, I highly suspect that once you bring it home and perform the calibration steps, that it will NOT be able to do justice to the audio track when compared to a similarly calibrated setup using your Jamo's and BIC sub.

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With respect to BD having better sound; to give the Player+TV analogy for PQ, "everyone say", 1080 native is better than 720 native. So, a BD Player and 1080 native TV definitely has potential for better PQ than a DVD Player and 720p native TV. But in the real world, if you are looking at a 50" TV from 25ft away, it will be impossible to tell the difference.

Likewise, the HD tracks on a BD have, theoretically, better sound than DVD tracks. But, these improvements are insignificant when compared to the effect the room, presence or absence of acoustical treatments, speakers and their placement and lastly, calibration have on the overall sound.

 

[j_garcia]

The audio quality is noticeably improved when using uncompressed audio on discs that have it. dts-HD MA tracks and Dolby TrueHD tracks also sound better, but not always night and day better.

Video on the other hand, can be significantly better than SD DVD on a properly setup system when viewing high quality media.

 

[MatthewB.]

j Garcia, you took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[mtrycrafts]

j Garcia, you took the words right out of my mouth.

Maybe he just saw that opening

 

[tman]

There is some debate about why the Lossless audio sound better

Personally I can hear difference between the True HD, DTS and the older lossy Dolby Digital (haven't listened to enough DTS to comment) when I switch between them on my Blu Ray player. There is no reason that True HD or DTS Master should be any better than PCM if they are from the same master. They are all lossless formats. The debate seems to be from some blind test study where people could not distinguish between the two. Based on this, some people believe that the tracks on the new formats are coming from a better master, rather than the improvement being from the lossless transmission.

I personally do think the loss-less medium is making a difference, but regardless you are correct that Blu Ray makes a difference. That said, listening to two completely different stereo systems is not a good way to assess Blu Ray's benefits. If your sound system and listening environment are not well designed and calibrated the difference between the formats may not be as dramatic (or discernable) on your home system.

 

[bluebirdy]

Thanks for the info guys. Does the blue ray and Hd-DVD are almost the same i had watched both of them. In my opinion they have only different storage technology thats it? Correct me if iam wrong?

 

[ZeosPantera]

Thanks for the info guys. Does the blue ray and Hd-DVD are almost the same i had watched both of them. In my opinion they have only different storage technology thats it? Correct me if iam wrong?

Well unless you live in china HD-DVD is dead. Porn and Video games choose blu-ray so that is the format you will find all new movies on.

As far as the samsung surround goes my opinion on why the sams demo sounded so good would have to be environment. A huge open floor plan and the speakers all being within 6 feet of each other will warp the sound into a very small area and make it sound very big if your standing in the middle of it (which I assume you were). My only question is what volume was that little setup playing at? In my sams club everything is usually at a whisper.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Well unless you live in china HD-DVD is dead. Porn and Video games choose blu-ray so that is the format you will find all new movies on.

Please don't start that rumor up as the reason for BD success. Consumer electronics manufacturers (from the start) and Hollywood studios (eventually) chose Blu-ray and then Toshiba bowed out. PS3 as a player of movies was a big part of the success, but not due to video games, but the excellent player built into the PS3.

Porn - on the other hand - isn't nearly as much of a factor anymore since this thing called the Internet came along.

 

[lsiberian]

The transformers movie isn't any different on blu-ray than dvd sound quality wise.

But for a TV go plasma(better contrast ratio)

Contrast is king once you've had the tv more than a few months. It's what you will notice.

Sound wise you were probably just full of adrenaline and captured by the big screen. Believe me your setup is way better than the samsung.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The transformers movie isn't any different on blu-ray than dvd sound quality wise.

Yeah, they both SUCK.

I was watching "Watchmen BD" again on my HTPC (ISO file). Every time there was an explosion scene, I definitely FELT it and HEARD it, which I canNOT say for Transformers HDDVD, DVD, & Blu-ray.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Porn...choose blu-ray so that is the format you will find all new movies on.

Wrong.

Porn Chose HD DVD, and HD DVD still got their a$$ kicked.

Porn doesn't determine anything.

Good movies & movie studios do.

 

[chris357]

The one thing you gotta have to get the best sound from Blu-ray is a receiver with HDMI or a Blu-ray player with analog audio outputs AND a receiver with analog audio inputs. I would recommend the receiver with the HDMI connectivity to keep it simple.

ok, I've always been under the impression that using the digital out and using the DAC in my pre/pro was the best way to go? is this only for music and not movies? i'd liek to think that my Krell HTS 7.1 is smarter than my 500 blu ray player??????

 

[j_garcia]

ok, I've always been under the impression that using the digital out and using the DAC in my pre/pro was the best way to go? is this only for music and not movies? i'd liek to think that my Krell HTS 7.1 is smarter than my 500 blu ray player??????

Things are different now, but receivers still have better bass management than the players so yes you are correct. That is, providing your receiver can decode the new formats.

 

[chris357]

Things are different now, but receivers still have better bass management than the players so yes you are correct. That is, providing your receiver can decode the new formats.

I'm using the coax to the pre/pro, and I think it has the newer updates, but the true HD and stuff is not just part of DD and stuff?

 

[lsiberian]

Things are different now, but receivers still have better bass management than the players so yes you are correct. That is, providing your receiver can decode the new formats.

I've not heard this one. I'd love to hear an explanation on this one.

 

[j_garcia]

I have yet to see a player with better bass management than even a mid-range receiver. Receivers generally have more bells & whistles like variable x-over, possibly variable to different speaker types (L&R, C, surrounds, etc), often better level and delay adjustment. Players often have a fixed x-over and not the best level adjustments per channel and I have not seen a player with variable x-over let alone by speaker type.

It is also one setting for all media types. Works fine for multichannel movies and music, but if you play a CD, you may get no sub in the mix because the player doesn't know the difference. It sees 2ch and plays them back through the two front channels which are set to small with the fixed x-over, where a receiver would know it has a CD and uses a more appropriate type of bass management.

Some players have automatic adjustments where if you set the front R speaker to one distance, the L speaker is automatically set to the same distance (which actually makes sense), but what if you needed to adjust them independently for whatever reason?

 

[Pyrrho]

ok, I've always been under the impression that using the digital out and using the DAC in my pre/pro was the best way to go? is this only for music and not movies? i'd liek to think that my Krell HTS 7.1 is smarter than my 500 blu ray player??????

You cannot get the new audio formats on BD (Blu-ray) via the coaxial or optical digital connections. To get the new formats digitally, you must use HDMI, but you can get a BD player that decodes them and sends them converted into multichannel analog. If you use the "old-fashioned" coaxial or optical digital connections, you will be able to get old "lossy" (i.e., non-lossless) versions of DD and dts (like what is on DVD), but not the new higher resolution formats.

So, with your DVD player, using coaxial or optical digital is fine. But not with BD if you want the best formats. So you are behind the times a bit with your ideas about the best connections.

And neither of your pieces of equipment is "smart". They are stupid things that do what they are told (when functioning properly). If your Krell is old (e.g., if it has no HDMI inputs), it simply cannot decode the new formats at all, and your $500 BD player can do things that it cannot do. Expensive and capable are two separate and distinct concepts.

Edited to add:

See:

http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_audio_codecs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital_Plus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_TrueHD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Theater_System#DTS-HD_High_Resolution_Audio