Is the A30 worth getting

[Viking61]

Originally Posted by CochiseGuy

DTS Core only, decoded and sent out as PCM. It can decode DD+ & TrueHD and output as PCM. The only thing it can bitsteam is DVD audio.

Actually, the A30 can be made to bitstream most of the HD codecs. If you flash it with A35 firmware, it will bitstream via HDMI everything except the lossless codecs (Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS-HD MA).

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by Viking61

Actually, the A30 can be made to bitstream most of the HD codecs. If you flash it with A35 firmware, it will bitstream via HDMI everything except the lossless codecs (Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS-HD MA).

Most?

There are only 4 "HD codecs":

Dolby Digital Plus & TrueHD
DTS-HD High Resolution & Master Audio

I assume you're saying that flashed with A35 firmware, and A30 can bitstream DD Plus? That's one fourth of 'em. Are you saying it can bitstream DTS-HD High Resolution? That would get us to half of 'em.

The bitstreaming of Dolby Digital Plus might be useful for some, since it was used on so many HD DVDs. Any particular A35 FW version you recommend? And does the A35 FW add the "Direct Digital Audio Mode" choice in the Setup menu?

[Viking61]

I'm not an audio guy, just been reading this on another forum:

I can confirm that the following codecs are working via bistream using HDMI:

Dolby Digital EX - Working - Dolby D EX displayed
DTS-ES Discrete - Working - ES Discrete displayed
Dolby Digital Plus - Working - Dolby Digital Plus and EX displayed
DTS-HD Hi-Res - Working - DTS-HD HI RES displayed

7.1 audio is working but has only been tested on on T2 German version that has a 7.1 DTS-HD Hi-Res track. I do not have any HD-DVDs with 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus tracks. .

The following codecs are not working on the this modified HD-DVD player using bistream via HDMI:

Dolby Digital TrueHD - Not Working - Stereo displayed but no audio
DTS-HD MA - Not Working - Stereo displayed but no audio

It is a bit disappointing that the uncompressed audio codecs do not work but I suppose we should not have expected a lower specified model to perform like it's bigger brother. This therefore confirms that the internal circuitry is different in the A30. The compressed codecs do work though and still sound fantastic.

I have also tested the player with normal multichannel PCM audio through HDMI and the following work:

Dolby Digital EX - Working - Dolby D EX displayed
DTS-ES Discrete - Working - ES Discrete displayed
Dolby Digital Plus - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only
DTS-HD Hi-Res - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only
Dolby Digital TrueHD - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only
DTS-HD MA - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only


Both DTS-HD tracks were tested with 7.1 audio tracks but as expected only 5.1 audio is being sent. I believe the A35 will also only do 5.1 through PCM but I have never tested it seeing as my amp can do the HD decoding.

In my ignorance I thought all mentioned were HD codecs.

[Viking61]

Originally Posted by CochiseGuy

The bitstreaming of Dolby Digital Plus might be useful for some, since it was used on so many HD DVDs. Any particular A35 FW version you recommend? And does the A35 FW add the "Direct Digital Audio Mode" choice in the Setup menu?

You will actually fool the A30 into believing it's an A35. The menus will be the A35 menus. Due to hardware limitations, it will not be able to bitstream the lossless HD codecs. It also of course has no 5.1 analog output hardware.

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by Viking61

I'm not an audio guy, just been reading this on another forum:

In my ignorance I thought all mentioned were HD codecs.

Well, sorry if I came off as a bit harsh. Actually, you're a better 'audio guy' the the one who you quoted - you correctly called them lossless codecs.

The following codecs are not working on the this modified HD-DVD player using bistream via HDMI:

Dolby Digital TrueHD - Not Working - Stereo displayed but no audio
DTS-HD MA - Not Working - Stereo displayed but no audio

It is a bit disappointing that the uncompressed audio codecs do not work but I suppose we should not have expected a lower specified model to perform like it's bigger brother. This therefore confirms that the internal circuitry is different in the A30. The compressed codecs do work though and still sound fantastic.

All Dolby Digital & DTS codecs are compressed, only LPCM is uncompressed. It's just when uncompressed, TrueHD & Master AUdio are lossless to the master.

I do like playing around with this stuff - I loaded Sharp firmware from the Sharp UK site on my US Sharp HP20U blu-ray player to turn it into Region B BD & Region 2 DVD, and unlock support for PAL video. But I'm going to have to check this out more before trying it on my A30. And that he's saying he got DTS-HD High Resolution to display on his receiver is interesting. It's mostly German HD DVDs that used DTS-HD HR for the English audio while using DTS-HD Master Audio for the German, and my previous A35 and XA2 players usually reported bitstreaming standard DTS because they often only used 1.5mbps for DTS HR, and the players & receivers confuse it for standard DTS which can go up to that bitrate.

[Viking61]

If you like to play around with your A30, you can also flash it with regionfree EP35 firmware. Then you will get the audio capabilities we have talked about, and in addition it will be regionfree and both NTSC and PAL capable.

[JAC35]

Getting DD+ to stream is kind of interesting.... too bad about the other two. I would try the firmware if I had a CD with the hacked version and the factory that I could reload at will.

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by JAC35

Getting DD+ to stream is kind of interesting.... too bad about the other two. I would try the firmware if I had a CD with the hacked version and the factory that I could reload at will.

When you say the "factory firmware", do you mean the Toshiba A30 FW, to turn you player back to an A30 from a "quasi" A35?

If so, good question. Viking, has anyone successfully reloaded A30 FW to turn the player back to a "normal" A30?

[Splicer]

Seeing as how this is the first I have read of anyone loading A35 FW into an A30 WITHOUT the A30 bricking...I will wait for more reports to surface...

[crazzeto]

I keep being tempted by this... But then I keep looking at the HD DVD count in my signature.

[bruceames]

I have also tested the player with normal multichannel PCM audio through HDMI and the following work:

Dolby Digital EX - Working - Dolby D EX displayed
DTS-ES Discrete - Working - ES Discrete displayed
Dolby Digital Plus - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only
DTS-HD Hi-Res - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only
Dolby Digital TrueHD - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only
DTS-HD MA - Working - MultiCh displayed – 5.1 audio only


Both DTS-HD tracks were tested with 7.1 audio tracks but as expected only 5.1 audio is being sent. I believe the A35 will also only do 5.1 through PCM but I have never tested it seeing as my amp can do the HD decoding.

This is incorrect. No HD DVD player will decode (output) DTS-HD MA. It will only send out the core (DTS-HD).

[Viking61]

Originally Posted by CochiseGuy

When you say the "factory firmware", do you mean the Toshiba A30 FW, to turn you player back to an A30 from a "quasi" A35?

If so, good question. Viking, has anyone successfully reloaded A30 FW to turn the player back to a "normal" A30?

It's possible to revert the player back to A30.

I'm not allowed to post links until I have 10 posts. But if there is any interest in trying this, I will post the link to the firmware files when I have reached 10 posts in this forum.

The hacked firmware will turn your player into a (quasi) A35 on firmware version 1.3, so it's adviced to install A35 firmware version 4.0 afterwards. If you revert to A30, you will also be on firmware version 1.3. Then apply the A30 firmware version 4.0.

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by bruceames

This is incorrect. No HD DVD player will decode (output) DTS-HD MA. It will only send out the core (DTS-HD).

The core isn't DTS-HD, it's DTS... DTS-HD is a new lossy codec which allows for higher bitrates than DTS and presumbily uses a more efficient compression technique. Though I'm not in a position to confirm the second statement is true, however:

DTS-HD goes to at least 3Mbps
DTS goes to 1.5 Mbps, the max allowable on TOS-LINK

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

The core isn't DTS-HD, it's DTS... DTS-HD is a new lossy codec which allows for higher bitrates than DTS and presumbily uses a more efficient compression technique. Though I'm not in a position to confirm the second statement is true, however:

DTS-HD goes to at least 3Mbps
DTS goes to 1.5 Mbps, the max allowable on TOS-LINK

DTS-HD above 1.5 Mbps is just DTS at a higher bitrate, but the vast majority of DTS-HD tracks on HD DVDs are 1.5 Mbps anyway. So basically DTS and DTS-HD are the same thing at that bitrate (just that one has a higher capacity).

But as I said, no HD DVD player will output DTS-HD MA, as was implied in the post I quoted. That's the message I wanted to convey.

[crazzeto]

That's incorrect, and would be in HD DVD land (I'm familiar with HD DVD, take a look at my sig). They're different codecs, it's DTS that gets sent to the AVR.