5.1 or 5.1 uncompressed

[bdogg]

should I use Dolby Digital 5.1 or Uncompressed 5.1 when watching a DVD? I don't have a receiver that takes HDMI (YET) but my receiver does have 5.1 analog input on the back.

My system includes:
Panasonic th-42pz77u - 42" Plasma
DMP-BD30 - Blu Ray Player
Kenwood VR-305 Receiver

Thanks in advance for any help!!

[rick240]

should I use Dolby Digital 5.1 or Uncompressed 5.1 when watching a DVD? I don't have a receiver that takes HDMI (YET) but my receiver does have 5.1 analog input on the back.

My system includes:
Panasonic th-42pz77u - 42" Plasma
DMP-BD30 - Blu Ray Player
Kenwood VR-305 Receiver

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Dolby Digital 5.1 - lossy, 640kbps audio
Uncompressed 5.1 - lossless original soundtrack

Seems like a no-brainer.

[SoupRKnowva]

well im not completely sure, but i dont believe that any dvd's were made with lossless soundtracks, outputting from the analogs on your dvd player would just mean that the player is decoding the DD and sending it bitstream to your receiver..not totaly sure what your talking about though

[wyattest30]

hould I use Dolby Digital 5.1 or Uncompressed 5.1 when watching a DVD? I don't have a receiver that takes HDMI (YET) but my receiver does have 5.1 analog input on the back.

Well, if you're using analog to listen to Uncompressed/TrueHD audio on BD/HD player then use that but if you're going to watch standard DVD, I'd switch to bitstream, you know let your receiver decode the sound instead of your player.

What kind of BD/HD player do you have?

[mvalleyguy]

When watching Blu Ray discs that have uncompressed 5.1 PCM soundtracks, most of the time I can either not tell the difference between the PCM track and the Dolby Digital track or the DD track sounds much better. Examples of movies are Crimson Tide, The Queen, Black Hawk Down, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I have searched the Internet, called Panasonic's customer service dept. (when I used to have a BD30 player) and asked several persons at my local Best Buy and have not received any answers that have worked. In fact most people either don't know what I'm talking about or have the same problem and don't know how to fix it. I have no trouble making the Dolby True HD and DTS HD-MA tracks to work and show up on my Onkyo receiver as being decoded properly. The PCM tracks display on my Onkyo as "Multchannel PCM," but they sound dull and lifeless compared to the DD track. Here's my set up all connected with HDMI 1.3a certified cables:

Samsung BD-P1400 (all audio is set to Bitstream)
Onkyo TX-SR605 (all audio is set to "direct" mode)
Pioneer 5010-FD Plasma
Monoprice 4X1 Enhanced 1.3b Certified HDMI Switcher.

I've tried connecting the HDMI cables directly from the BD player to my receiver and there is no change. I would appreciate any suggestions!!!

[Neutral101]

When watching Blu Ray discs that have uncompressed 5.1 PCM soundtracks, most of the time I can either not tell the difference between the PCM track and the Dolby Digital track or the DD track sounds much better. Examples of movies are Crimson Tide, The Queen, Black Hawk Down, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I have searched the Internet, called Panasonic's customer service dept. (when I used to have a BD30 player) and asked several persons at my local Best Buy and have not received any answers that have worked. In fact most people either don't know what I'm talking about or have the same problem and don't know how to fix it. I have no trouble making the Dolby True HD and DTS HD-MA tracks to work and show up on my Onkyo receiver as being decoded properly. The PCM tracks display on my Onkyo as "Multchannel PCM," but they sound dull and lifeless compared to the DD track. Here's my set up all connected with HDMI 1.3a certified cables:

Samsung BD-P1400 (all audio is set to Bitstream)
Onkyo TX-SR605 (all audio is set to "direct" mode)
Pioneer 5010-FD Plasma
Monoprice 4X1 Enhanced 1.3b Certified HDMI Switcher.

I've tried connecting the HDMI cables directly from the BD player to my receiver and there is no change. I would appreciate any suggestions!!!

When you choose Uncompressed audio, you have to set the sound output from your player to PCM. Give that a try and see if you can hear the difference.

[mvalleyguy]

I switched my Samsung 1400 from bitstream to PCM and now the uncompressed tracks sound much better, louder, with more range and detail. Thanks for the tip!

[crazzeto]

I switched my Samsung 1400 from bitstream to PCM and now the uncompressed tracks sound much better, louder, with more range and detail. Thanks for the tip!

Huh... I'm kind of mystified as to why this would sound better in any way.. I'm also using a 605 + BD-P1400 and bitstreaming lossless over HDMI to a 605 sounds excellent... And assuming the BD-P1400 doesn't internally decode DTS-HD/MA (which is my current understanding) then you're actually losing out on AQ when it comes to Fox titles since this will be down mixed to lossy.

Have you tried just raising the volume?

[mvalleyguy]

Yeah, I tried raising the volume and at all volume levels the DD tracks sound much better than the uncompressed tracks when I bitstream them from my Sammy player. Since PCM works I'll use that and use bitstream to listen to DTS-HD MA, Dolby True HD, etc. since those tracks sound great when bitstreamed.

[mrspeakers]

First, to refer to the start of the thread, there is no such thing as "Uncompressed 5.1" on any DVD.

Switching to PCM should not make the audio better than bitstream, it ought to be exactly the same. TrueHD decodes to a bitstream that is 100% identical whether it's decoded in the player or the receiver. So if you send TrueHD to the receiver and it decodes it properly, it will be bit-for-bit identical to having the BD1400 decode it and send it over as PCM. I'm glad what you have works for you, though as noted you'll lose out only on DTS HD-MA.

Something sounds wrong here....

[Supermodified]

Anything through bitstream sounds better than PCM. Especailly a BD that does 640kb

[Rishi]

Anything through bitstream sounds better than PCM. Especailly a BD that does 640kb

Not this again...