HDMI and Digital Coaxial DTS HD Master Audio

[Bob Leonard]

Question, when playing a Blu-Ray disk using a legacy none HDMI processor. With a DTS HD Master audio source, the incoming signal is down mixed to stereo. However when playing a Blu-ray disk with Dolby TrueHD the incoming signal is Dolby Digital This happens only when I pass the audio out the Blu-Ray player thru the HDMI cable to the TV, and pass the audio out of the TV to my processor via a digital coaxial cable. However, if I use the digital coaxial out directly from the Blu-Ray set to bitstream the DTS HD Master audio signal will play as DTS and the Dolby TrueHD with play Dolby digital.

Why can’t I get DTS HD Master audio encoded Blu-ray disks using the HDMI out of my Blu-ray player to output DTS the same way Dolby TrueHD is?

 

[TLS Guy]

Question, when playing a Blu-Ray disk using a legacy none HDMI processor. With a DTS HD Master audio source, the incoming signal is down mixed to stereo. However when playing a Blu-ray disk with Dolby TrueHD the incoming signal is Dolby Digital This happens only when I pass the audio out the Blu-Ray player thru the HDMI cable to the TV, and pass the audio out of the TV to my processor via a digital coaxial cable. However, if I use the digital coaxial out directly from the Blu-Ray set to bitstream the DTS HD Master audio signal will play as DTS and the Dolby TrueHD with play Dolby digital.

Why can’t I get DTS HD Master audio encoded Blu-ray disks using the HDMI out of my Blu-ray player to output DTS the same way Dolby TrueHD is?

As you know coax can not pass the lossless codecs.

Now Dolby and DTS are figured very differently. Dolby Digital and Dolby True HD have separate tracks on the disc.

DTS on the other hand uses one track. The lossy DTS is the central core and the DTS HD built round the central lossy core. This is very elegant and saves a lot of disc space.

Now your player should be able to find the central DTS core. It is up to the player to determine the mix down. I understand that if you player is set to output LPCM then you often get just two channel.

If you set your player to output bit stream you should get standard DTS. If not you need a new player or preferably a new processor or receiver. It really is now past time to be using non HDMI equipped devices.

 

[Dan Madden]

With BD discs encoded as such, I can get 24 bit audio via my PS3 into my legacy Rotel AVR via optical cable connected directly to the AVR. I'm not sure how I set it up, but I know it's 2ch stereo only and I make my Rotel matrix it into 5ch stereo.

Even though it's not DTS or Dolby Digital surround, it sounds vastly better than if I play it in those standard def surround formats.

 

[Bob Leonard]

I have my Blu-ray player, a Denon DVD-3800bdci setup so when playing a Blu-ray disk encoded with DTS HD Master audio it will pass along DTS instead of a two channel down-mix. The only way this can happen is to use the digital coaxial out of my Denon setting it to bitstream out.

I was hoping it would work with the HDMI out on my Denon the same with Dolby, because I only would have to select the input on my TV. With the digital coaxial setup, I must change the video, and audio inputs separately. I was hoping to simplify the source selection process. Would I get better results with letting the processor decode the stereo down-mix?

 

[j_garcia]

I was hoping it would work with the HDMI out on my Denon the same with Dolby, because I only would have to select the input on my TV. With the digital coaxial setup, I must change the video, and audio inputs separately. I was hoping to simplify the source selection process. Would I get better results with letting the processor decode the stereo down-mix?

I do think I'd try the receiver downmix first, but sounds like the ultimate solution would be a new processor.

With BD discs encoded as such, I can get 24 bit audio via my PS3 into my legacy Rotel AVR via optical cable connected directly to the AVR. I'm not sure how I set it up, but I know it's 2ch stereo only and I make my Rotel matrix it into 5ch stereo.

Even though it's not DTS or Dolby Digital surround, it sounds vastly better than if I play it in those standard def surround formats.

If I recall correctly, the PS3 can internally decode and send these formats as PCM over optical. That would be an improvement over matrix decoding IMO.

 

[Dan Madden]

I do think I'd try the receiver downmix first, but sounds like the ultimate solution would be a new processor.



If I recall correctly, the PS3 can internally decode and send these formats as PCM over optical. That would be an improvement over matrix decoding IMO.

I believe you are correct. I think I fiddled with the PS3 output and when I switched it to PCM out and sent that signal directly to my Rotel via optical, the sound was high def but 2ch only. I then switched the Rotel into 5 ch stereo mode and it sounded wonderful. "Chris Botti - Live in Boston" was the one that shined.