Panasonic BD30 - Spiderman3 over optical?

[west2004]

I'm about to purchase the Panasonic BD30, but I noticed Spiderman3 does not appear to have a dolby digital 5.1 track in english (just PCM and TrueHD). If I'm connected to my receiver (onkyo 604) over optical, what will I get for a sound track on this player since it cannot decode TrueHD? or Is it capable of decoding truehd to standard dolby digital?

I thought the blu-ray spec requires disks to provide a dolby digital track too.

[Josh Z]

Discs with TrueHD also have a 'hidden' Dolby Digital 5.1 track. You can't specifically choose it from the menus, but if your hardware is not compatible with TrueHD the player will automatically default to DD 5.1.

[Cochise]

Why don't you connect the BD-30 to your Onkyo 604 via HDMI or at least 5.1 analog cables?

At least that way you'll get the PCM audio, which will be vastly superior to the DD 5.1.

[west2004]

"Why don't you connect the BD-30 to your Onkyo 604 via HDMI or at least 5.1 analog cables?"

Based on my understanding with this player and it's decoding ability, the only advantage to doing that, would be if the disk has the PCM soundtrack. If the PCM sound track is absent, I believe I would be stuck with standard Dolby Digital or DTS quality either way. Do all Blu-ray disks include the PCM soundtrack?

[Cochise]

Based on my understanding with this player and it's decoding ability, the only advantage to doing that, would be if the disk has the PCM soundtrack.

Correct.

If the PCM sound track is absent, I believe I would be stuck with standard Dolby Digital or DTS quality either way.

Correct.

Do all Blu-ray disks include the PCM soundtrack?

No. But most Disney & Lionsgate titles have PCM. And the title you cited - Spiderman 3 - has both, so by running an HDMI or 5.1 analog cables to your Onkyo 604 you'll enjoy the vastly superior PCM over the shadow or "hidden" Dolby Digital audio. With connecting an optical cable only, all you'll ever get is standard DVD quality Dolby Digital or, even worse, down mixed 2.1 channel audio if you select a PCM audio track.

[AmishFury]

I thought the blu-ray spec requires disks to provide a dolby digital track too.

unless fox gets around it by saying "well the other languages are in DD" then no because all but one of my fox BD titles is DTS-HD MA only for english audio track

[Josh Z]

The Blu-ray spec requires one copy of the primary language soundtrack to be in either Dolby Digital, DTS, or PCM.