Bitstream or Uncompressed?

Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
For my Xbox One s. I've searched multiple times and whether it's me just not comprehending, or its conflicting info, I can't seem to find anything definitive as to which is best to use for blu ray discs.

I can choose *.1 uncompressed or bitstream out.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
For my Xbox One s. I've searched multiple times and whether it's me just not comprehending, or its conflicting info, I can't seem to find anything definitive as to which is best to use for blu ray discs.

I can choose *.1 uncompressed or bitstream out.
Bitstream lets your avr handle the codec unpacking, uncompressed would have your player unpack the codec and send pcm to your avr (and some players only do two ch pcm now...don't know what yours does).
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Bitstream lets your avr handle the codec unpacking, uncompressed would have your player unpack the codec and send pcm to your avr (and some players only do two ch pcm now...don't know what yours does).
So I'm assuming letting my avr handle the unpacking would probably be the best way to go since it has all the modern codecs and most likely a better dac?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
So I'm assuming letting my avr handle the unpacking would probably be the best way to go since it has all the modern codecs and most likely a better dac?
Don't know what's in the xbox1, my ps3 does well either way. I get more dsp options with bitstream, tho. Some like to see on the avr panel what the codec was....
 
B

bommai

Audioholic Intern
DAC does not come into the picture here since we are talking about everything in the digital domain. No Digital to Analog conversion is happening in the player either way. I would say you can do which ever you want. If you have an atmos receiver, it is better to leave it bitstream. If you have secondary audio enabled, it is better to convert to PCM in the player.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
DAC does not come into the picture here since we are talking about everything in the digital domain. No Digital to Analog conversion is happening in the player either way. I would say you can do which ever you want. If you have an atmos receiver, it is better to leave it bitstream. If you have secondary audio enabled, it is better to convert to PCM in the player.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Good clarification, I was thinking of some that export the audio from their players via analog (which wouldn't be pcm any more)...
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
I don't know the definitive answer, but I can tell you what I do. I have a PS4, and previous to that a PS3.
I like to listen to/watch concert Blu-Rays/DVD's from time to time. I usually can only choose, based on the Blu-ray or DVD, DTS 5.1 or PCM audio on the PS4/Blu-Ray menu.

I like 2 channel for my concerts so I usually choose the PCM option. Either way, as lovinthehd said, it wounds pretty terrific. When I get the itch to watch a concert video, the sound out of the PS4 is pretty awesome. I realize that's not a technical term but there's no falloff from the digital library on my computer.

Like bommal said, there's no analog for a DAC to work with. Just pure goodness.

I would probably use it a lot more except Blu-rays are slow to load and you have to do all the menus.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
It's my understanding that some game titles have additional information that is proprietary to the title that can be used unless you send pcm out of the console, that's the way I have my Playstation setup.
 
B

bommai

Audioholic Intern
Most games are pcm because the audio is dynamically generated on the fly in software. That is my understanding anyway. So you wouldn't want the player encoding into dolby or dts at that time. It will take horsepower/lag/ and they may not even have the license to encode only decode. Hdmi supports pcm 7.1 at various bid depths and sampling rate. I have a chris Botti and friends concert bluray that has a 5.1 24 bit 96khz PCM track. That is amazing. I also have some concerts that are in Dolby true HD 7.1. I normally play what ever the best format that my system could support. Remember, the player has the ability to output various formats. My Sony x800 will automatically convert DSD (SACDs use this) to 176.4khz PCM. It will bitstream Dolby true hd and dts hd ma. This is because I have setup the options that way in the setup. Also my receiver tells the player what all it supports.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Lots of good answers and my answer - it's depends.
bit-stream out = it will send audio data to avr AS IS, letting AVR handle it unmolested.
uncompressed = it will decode the DTS/DD...etc audio and convert to very simple uncompressed multi-channel PCM stream. It's basically same thing as WAV file, but could have more channels.

Both contain exactly same audio, but with PCM many receivers are limited applying many/most of audio dsp processing to pcm streams. Which may include auto-room correction and possibly others.

For these reasons, I always prefer bit-stream then possible
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Then there's the settings for my avr. Depending on what I have my Xbox set (uncompressed or bitstream), I have different dsp choices on my avr.

When I have the Xbox set to "HDMI Audio: 5.1 uncompressed" (where I usually have it) I can choose these from my avr
Multi Ch In
Multi In + Dolby Surround
Multi In + Neural X
And a couple others that I do understand. When I select Bitstream Out it makes me pick a codec. Either DTS Digital, Dolby Digital or Dolby Atmos. Does this mean I have to go in the menu and change the setting every time a blu ray uses a different codec? Like I said, I've been using uncompressed and it works fine.

I'm not looking for a better setting or anything (though if there is, I would use it. I can't detect any differences). It just has me curious. It still feels like Dolby Pro Logic wasn't that long ago, but so much has changed.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Most games are pcm because the audio is dynamically generated on the fly in software. That is my understanding anyway. So you wouldn't want the player encoding into dolby or dts at that time. It will take horsepower/lag/ and they may not even have the license to encode only decode. Hdmi supports pcm 7.1 at various bid depths and sampling rate. I have a chris Botti and friends concert bluray that has a 5.1 24 bit 96khz PCM track. That is amazing. I also have some concerts that are in Dolby true HD 7.1. I normally play what ever the best format that my system could support. Remember, the player has the ability to output various formats. My Sony x800 will automatically convert DSD (SACDs use this) to 176.4khz PCM. It will bitstream Dolby true hd and dts hd ma. This is because I have setup the options that way in the setup. Also my receiver tells the player what all it supports.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I don't see a PCM in the audio output menu.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
I don't see a PCM in the audio output menu.
when I fire up a Blu-ray, usually in the settings menu of the blu-ray, I will see PCM or another option listed there. But, I have a PS4 so it may present itself differently.

I too would choose another option if one sounded better than the other. Right now, all the options sound really good. Hard to tell one from another
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
Try 7.1 and see if your avr reads pcm.
No. Just off, different choices for uncompressed (stereo, 5.1 and 7.1) or bitstream out.

Really, I just want to understand it all.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
The difference in lpcm and pcm out is stereo vs multi channel. Your avr may only display it as pcm
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I don't see PCM anything anywhere. I don't have an atmos setup, but there's an app for it. I'm gonna install it and see what that does too.

*I'm using the quick select on the bottom of my SR6011 controller to bring up the menu and scroll through the dsp options. Is there another menu I should be looking for?

**App didn't change anything. I thought maybe there would be an update with it or something.
 
Last edited:
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
My avr doesn't literally display pcm/lpcm on the panel or in the general sound mode menu, just identifies that generally as "multi ch in"; if I dig into the setup menus via audio information then I can see it identified as pcm.

My avr will also, when bitstreaming, automatically change to the required codec (or remember the one I modify it to for that input/source). On top of a codec like DD my avr will still offer some dsp choices on top of that, e.g., starting with DD still have further dsp choices like DDEx, DDPLIIx and/or DSX modes or Neo:X; the choices aren't quite the same with "multi ch in", but the avr will remember to use whatever I last used for that particular codec the next time I use that same source/input....
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
I don't see PCM anything anywhere. I don't have an atmos setup, but there's an app for it. I'm gonna install it and see what that does too.

*I'm using the quick select on the bottom of my SR6011 controller to bring up the menu and scroll through the dsp options. Is there another menu I should be looking for?

**App didn't change anything. I thought maybe there would be an update with it or something.
What I'm asking is if you set the Xbox to 7.1 or 5.1 does pcm display on your avr
 
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