Is it just me or my HD-DVD???

Early B.

I've had a Tosh HD-DVD for several months. I've only played a handful of HD-DVD discs, and although the video quality of HD-DVDs is an obvious improvement over standard DVD players, I cannot say that the sound quality is an improvement. I assume Blu-ray would be no different.

Sure, HD-DVDs sound different, but not necessarily better, IMO. It reminds of the numerous "which is better -- DD or DTS?" debates we've had on this forum a couple of years ago. Most people felt DTS was better, but there was a small contingent of us who felt DTS was too bright and over the top. Will the lossless formats force me to change my mind? I dunno yet.

Well, I like my standard DVDs for now and I can assign my eventual move to Blu-ray as a low priority.

Am I alone on this issue?

kingtut

Agree w/you 100%. Pix quality is definitely better, but the sound is on par w/regular dvd -- not better.

danger boy

how do you have your player hooked up for audio? I have mine with a optical audio cable. and yeah. it sounds nearly the same as any standard DVD, but just the slightest amount better.. i mean. no where near day and night better by any means.

kingtut

I also hook my up with an optical cable. I can't tell that it's any better than regular dvd.

SolidSqual

The Blu-Ray sound through HDMI 1.3 is lossless. I bet that would be an improvement in a multi-channel setup. Downmixing to 2 channel would probably suffer. I haven't heard any news that they plan to release 2 channel blue ray any time soon.

fireshoes

If you are using optical, you aren't getting the lossless sound formats. You have to use HDMI or the 5/7.1 analog outputs. If you are using the the 5/7.1 analog outputs, the player needs to be able to do the decoding (most don't do DTS HD Master Audio).

Ethancf

Yup...I use analog 5.1 and my Toshiba HD-XA2 decodes the lossless format depending on what the disc has in the setup (Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus)...it's cleaner than the older Dolby Digital or DTS through my Parasound gear.

Regarding Bluray, the up and coming Sony S550 is said to have internal decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS HDMA. If that's the case, that's probably when I'll switch to Blu...as much as I hate to.

Ron-P

The PS3 can also decode all HD audio formats, a patch came out about a couple of months ago for DTSMA-HD.

If you are using optical, you aren't getting the lossless sound formats.

Exactly. Wire everything up via HDMI and then tell me about the sound quality difference, these lossless tracks are a huge improvement.

Ethancf

Keiko wrote: »

Any thoughts or predictions about the future of standard def DVD now that BD is here?

Who knows... I still think std dvd will be around for the masses and because of the cheap prices on upconverting players...not everyone's like us.

Plus, if the broadband pipes open up more within the next few years, methinks downloadable HD content will be BD's next competitor. Personally, I like ownership of a tangible disc that I can display in a library instead of a file downloaded onto a hard drive, but that's just me.

Ron-P

Ethancf wrote: »

Who knows... I still think std dvd will be around for the masses and because of the cheap prices on upconverting players...not everyone's like us.

Plus, if the broadband pipes open up more within the next few years, methinks downloadable HD content will be BD's next competitor. Personally, I like ownership of a tangible disc that I can display in a library instead of a file downloaded onto a hard drive, but that's just me.

I'd agree, DVD will be here for a very long time, it's not going anywhere anytime soon. As for downloading HD content being a competitor to Blu, hightly doubtful. At least not for a very long time.

jakelm

You are all crazzzyyyyy....:eek::p

TrueHD and DD+ sound 10x's better than SD DD/DTS.... The DD+ and TrueHD have a much broader dynamic range. TruHD is lossless, DD+ is slightly compressed. DD and DTS use a much higher compression. Like the difference between 128kbs and lossless. DD+ and TrueHD is night and day compared to DD/DTS.

Must have something not right in your system.

Early B.

jakelm wrote: »

You are all crazzzyyyyy....:eek::p

TrueHD and DD+ sound 10x's better than SD DD/DTS.... The DD+ and TrueHD have a much broader dynamic range. TruHD is lossless, DD+ is slightly compressed. DD and DTS use a much higher compression. Like the difference between 128kbs and lossless. DD+ and TrueHD is night and day compared to DD/DTS.

Must have something not right in your system.

Many of us haven't heard any of the lossless formats yet. But it's good to know there's a substantial improvement.

Like lots of other folks, I'm waiting on the new Cirrus chip to be introduced.

jakelm

Early B. wrote: »

Many of us haven't heard any of the lossless formats yet. But it's good to know there's a substantial improvement.

Like lots of other folks, I'm waiting on the new Cirrus chip to be introduced.

Early, you dont find even the downconverted DTS that is used through coax/optical, when the player is decoding DD+ and/or TrueHD, sounds better than standard DD/DTS? It is a much higher bitrate DTS than the standard DTS over SD DVD

Early B.

jakelm wrote: »

Early, you dont find even the downconverted DTS that is used through coax/optical, when the player is decoding DD+ and/or TrueHD, sounds better than standard DD/DTS? It is a much higher bitrate DTS than the standard DTS over SD DVD

It's different, not better, IMO.

I watched Transformers in SD and HD, and HD didn't sound better, just different.

jakelm

Early B. wrote: »

It's different, not better, IMO.

I watched Transformers in SD and HD, and HD didn't sound better, just different.

The helicopter scene at the begining is probably the most noticable difference between DD and DD+. I found that scene, has much deeper bass and clearer "helicopter engine (rotor)" sound.

Also Beowolf, has a much better dynamic range in HD.

I'm using Tosh XA1 5.1 analog out to HK635.

Ron-P

Early B. wrote: »

It's different, not better, IMO.

I watched Transformers in SD and HD, and HD didn't sound better, just different.

Well, the HD-DVD only had a DD+ track, not much better then DD.

The big difference in these lossless tracks is that fact there is no missing information, so you hear a lot more detail in the tracks over dd/dts. Also, like Jake states, the dynamic range is greatly improved.

jakelm

Ron-P wrote: »

Well, the HD-DVD only had a DD+ track, not much better then DD.

DD+ has a higher bitrate than DTS (which is higher than DD), So DD+ is actually 2 steps above DD.

The big difference in these lossless tracks is that fact there is no missing information, so you hear a lot more detail in the tracks over dd/dts. .

+1

ViperZ

It's amazing how many people actually don't know that you need to hook up your source to the receiver via HDMI or 5.1/7.1 analogs to get DTS-HD and DD+. At least you asked!

I only wish that my XA1 could decode 5.1 DTS-MA format properly. I have Queen concert on HD-DVD and it sounds amazing in 2.0 DTS-MA.