Question about PS3 audio output...

[redfirebird2008]

OK, so I have my PS3 outputting through Toslink to a receiver that only does DTS and Dolby Digital. So here's my question. When you set up the PS3's audio output and tell it to output as DTS and Dolby Digital (depending on what's available), will it convert uncompressed PCM to DTS? I was trying to do this with Ratatouille on Blu-ray set to PCM output and my receiver was only showing it as running the Dolby emulated surround sound. I switched the audio track to Dolby Digital and it output it just fine as DD 5.1 surround. DTS on DVD's outputs just fine as DTS 5.1 surround. Also, do movies with DTS-MA come with a standard DTS track to select from? If so, that would be great! Either way though, 640 kbps DD sounds much better than 448 kbps DD like on standard DVD's, so it is an upgrade regardless. The Blu-ray Dolby Digital is almost as good as the DVD's standard DTS, and in many cases I am sure it's almost unnoticeable. So no matter what I am in good shape. But I am curious to see if I can pull off a DTS output at 1.5 Mbps from the PCM source. Thanks for any help.

[ni9ht_5ta1k3r]

Nope. If your sound setup doesn't support PCM 5.1 then it'll only play in stereo (that's the case for me).

DTS-HD will be down sampled to DTS. TrueHD will be down sampled to DD. Both still sound great on current setups.

[holsty101]

DTS HDMA includes a 1.5 Mbps "core" track for when users cant playback the full hd audio. Josh Z's article on hd audio covers it all really well.

[Merlins]

Originally Posted by holsty101

DTS HDMA includes a 1.5 Mbps "core" track for when users cant playback the full hd audio. Josh Z's article on hd audio covers it all really well.

Yes, you will get the core track out of the DTS HD MA through the toslink but you will not get a DTS track out of a PCM-source. It will continue to be PCM and because toslink can't transmit more than PCM 2.0 you will only get stereo from a PCM-sound track then using a toslink cable.

[SLARITY]

Im pretty sure my BDs that have uncompressed do not go to stereo...I will check tonight.

[holsty101]

Originally Posted by Merlins

Yes, you will get the core track out of the DTS HD MA through the toslink but you will not get a DTS track out of a PCM-source. It will continue to be PCM and because toslink can't transmit more than PCM 2.0 you will only get stereo from a PCM-sound track then using a toslink cable.

Yeah, I know dude. But seeing as that's basically what Night Stalker (can't be bothered to do the leet speak shit ) said I didn't see the point in repeating it. I was just trying to add some clarification re redfirebirds dts ma question mid paragraph & chuck in the link to article Josh wrote (which I thought would've cleared up an confusion he had over dts/pcm/blahblahblah).

Originally Posted by SLARITY

Im pretty sure my BDs that have uncompressed do not go to stereo...I will check tonight.

I've not looked up what modes your receiver has, maybe it's doing a pro logic/2 number on the stereo signal?

Originally Posted by Josh Z's HD audio article

PCM -
Toslink or Coaxial SPDIF - SPDIF does not have enough bandwidth to carry a full 5.1 PCM signal, so the audio track will be downgraded to 2 channels only.

[redfirebird2008]

Thanks a lot for the explanation y'all! Much appreciated.

So, DTS-MA = DTS @ 1.5 Mbps
PCM = 2 channel audio only over optical
Dolby TrueHD = DD5.1 @ 640 kbps

Sounds cool to me. I am looking forward to watching some Fox titles with DTS-MA. I wish every Blu-ray came with DTS-MA just like I wish every DVD came with DTS.

[ni9ht_5ta1k3r]

Originally Posted by redfirebird2008

Thanks a lot for the explanation y'all! Much appreciated.

So, DTS-MA = DTS @ 1.5 Mbps
PCM = 2 channel audio only over optical
Dolby TrueHD = DD5.1 @ 640 kbps

Sounds cool to me. I am looking forward to watching some Fox titles with DTS-MA. I wish every Blu-ray came with DTS-MA just like I wish every DVD came with DTS.

Pretty much. Optical can't transport PCM 5.1 fully since it doesn't have the bandwidth to do so. That's why HDMI was invented and newer sound systems should have that capability.

[redfirebird2008]

Originally Posted by ni9ht_5ta1k3r

Pretty much. Optical can't transport PCM 5.1 fully since it doesn't have the bandwidth to do so. That's why HDMI was invented and newer sound systems should have that capability.

I wasn't expecting or wishing for it to transport it fully. I was hoping that it would convert it to DTS and then transport that instead of the PCM. Oh well though, even regular Dolby Digital sounds better on Blu-ray than it did on DVD.

[ni9ht_5ta1k3r]

I too, when Casino Royale came out, that Sony would release a FW update for the PS3 that would convert PCM 5.1 to DTS 5.1 on the fly. But DTS-HD core track does a better job I think and my solution is just to turn up the volume.

[redfirebird2008]

Well now I have a new problem. My surround sound only accepts digital coax, so I bought a converter for Toslink to digital coax and I'm getting half-second audio dropouts like every 5-10 minutes while using my PS3 and HD DVD player. Does it matter how the Toslink cables are hooked up or something?

[ni9ht_5ta1k3r]

Originally Posted by redfirebird2008

Well now I have a new problem. My surround sound only accepts digital coax, so I bought a converter for Toslink to digital coax and I'm getting half-second audio dropouts like every 5-10 minutes while using my PS3 and HD DVD player. Does it matter how the Toslink cables are hooked up or something?

So your setup never supported TOSLINK or it does but the port for it is some how busted?

[redfirebird2008]

Originally Posted by ni9ht_5ta1k3r

So your setup never supported TOSLINK or it does but the port for it is some how busted?

Doesn't support Toslink.

[holsty101]

Have tried putting a dvd/cd player toslink output through the converter box to see if you still get dropouts?

The only thing I can suggest is go to a more technical forum like AVS & see if anyone there knows more about optical-coax boxes. (maybe send Aurora a pm see if she knows anything about em too)

[redfirebird2008]

It's not really even a converter "box" per se. It's very small. The power adapter for it is actually bigger than the converter itself. Anyway, for now I'm just going to use my TV speakers. I watched National Treasure tonight on Blu-ray running through the TV speakers and there's nothing really wrong with it. I didn't have my surround sound hooked up to a subwoofer (have it in a closet) because I don't want to bother my neighbors since I'm in an apartment. Eventually I'll get a surround sound system with direct HDMI or Toslink hookups hopefully. The good news is that the HDMI cable I got from Monoprice at the same time that I got at the same time as all the Toslink audio stuff works great with my HD DVD player. Looks better than it did running through component. My favorite thing that I've found so far with Blu-ray and HD DVD is that I can zoom the 2:35:1 movies to fill my entire 46 inch LCD and it still looks great whereas DVD looks like crap when you do that, even upconverted DVD. I rented Ratatouille on BD this past week from Netflix and when I had it zoomed it looked pretty much the same as it did running at its default aspect ratio.