Upgrade to HD Audio?

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Knucklehead
Knucklehead Posts: 3,602
edited March 2009 in Electronics
Just wondering what everyones thoughts are on HD Audio. Im considering the Onkyo 606 but not sure if I would see the benefits of the upgrade with my current system. Thanks in adavance.

Mains: R50's
Center: Cerwin Vega
Rears: R150's
Sub: 2 PSW10's
Maganavox Blu Ray
Polk Audio Surround Bar 360
Mirage PS-12
LG BDP-550
Motorola HD FIOS DVR
Panasonic 42" Plasma
XBOX 360[/SIZE]

Office stuff

Allied 395 receiver
Pioneer CDP PD-M430
RT8t's & Wharfedale Diamond II's[/SIZE]

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Post edited by Knucklehead on
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  • Murray1
    Murray1 Posts: 193
    edited March 2009
    Make sure your BP processes Dolby True HD and/or DTS-HD. It would be great if it processes both since movies come out in both formats. If your BP does not process HD audio, then hopefully it can transfer PCM ??(non-processed)data that passes thru the BP allowing the receiver to process. These are questions to be answered by Magnavox. I have not heard back from anyone re: which HD audio is more popular for movies and for that matter, music too. Good luck.

    Fred
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  • cheddar
    cheddar Posts: 2,390
    edited March 2009
    Murray1 wrote: »
    I have not heard back from anyone re: which HD audio is more popular for movies and for that matter, music too. Good luck.

    Fred

    I thought I answered you in post 12 of this thread you started:

    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80222

    But basically all three (TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, and uncompressed PCM) exist and vary in availability by studio licensing agreements. They are technically equivalent to each other as long as the player/AVR chain can process each format. Dolby and DTS just get to make money by making everyone think they need their special compression codecs even when there's room on the disk for the uncompressed PCM track (what TrueHD and DTS-HD MA turn into when decoded (uncompressed)).

    Music disks are only beginning to come out on blu-ray using the same lossless audio options. There are a lot of concert disks. But I'm talking about rare blu-ray music disks that are actually mastered and produced without video, concentrating on only the audio quality, maxing out the spec'd potential. These disks sell out pretty fast on amazon, but I wouldn't say most people even know they exist. So I wouldn't call them or the lossless formats they use for music 'popular' right now.
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  • Murray1
    Murray1 Posts: 193
    edited March 2009
    Cheddar,

    Probably my bad but I was wondering if one of the three formats had surfaced as the norm for movies and magic. Since I am stuck with Dolby True HD only on my Sony S-300, I am hoping Dolby True HD wins the battle. I still have not purchased an audio system yet but noticed Australia movie offered DTS-HD on last nites blue ray movie. Thanks for all your help mate.

    Fred
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  • cheddar
    cheddar Posts: 2,390
    edited March 2009
    I'm not sure there is a lossless codec battle in the sense that blu-ray and hd-dvd had a battle. My guess is that as player prices come down, you'll want to replace your old player if listening to lossless on all your movies is important to you. It's very possible that TrueHD and DTS-HD MA will continue to coexist for as long as blu-ray does.

    For instance, Fox uses DTS-HD MA and did so at blu-ray's launch even when there was ZERO hardware that could actually play it. So to watch Fox movies in lossless (except maybe when Dolby supporter Lucas releases Star Wars, of course), you need to have DTS-HD MA, and it will become increasingly inconvenient for you if you want to hear tracks from Fox, MGM, Universal, etc. that release DTS-HD MA tracks without a TrueHD option. The same is true for studios who release primarily TrueHD tracks. And even older players can play the lossy core DTS track or basic Dolby track included on all blu-rays even if they don't support full lossless DTS-HD MA or even TrueHD. So there just isn't the same incentive for studios to choose one or the other as a 'winner' because as blu-ray mainstreams, most people will buy equipment that now support all the lossless audio options, and even people with older equipment will still watch DTS-HD MA or TrueHD movies because they can listen to the downgraded audio just fine.

    Knucklehead, to answer your original question, I look for disk audio reviews on blu-ray.com or highdefdigest.com before making purchasing decisions. I really enjoy the lossless audio formats. But as with blu-ray video, the quality of the original master is only amplified by the HD formats. If a studio takes the time to properly remaster the sound in 5.1 or 7.1, then the results can be stellar. But just compressing the audio with TrueHD or DTS-HD MA so it will fit on the disk will not make an originally poor recording any better, and it may not sound much different than regular DD or DTS. Nor should it, if you think about it, since the purpose of TrueHD or DTS-HD MA is just to shrink a large digital file and losslessly uncompress it. It's the original master that either sounds really good or not.
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