Video Asylum

I expect to pay a pretty penny for an HD source player with "audiophile-grade" DACs. nt.

192.31.106.35

oscar

In Reply to: RE: I wouldn't worry about it posted by 4season on September 19, 2007 at 13:51:01

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Follow Ups:

But do they deliberately limit analog audio output quality? - 4season 15:17:57 09/19/07 (10)
Figure that most upscaling DVD players won't output anything better than 480P through the analog outputs, and HD players typically top out at 1080i, and if you want 1080p, you are forced to use an HDMI connection instead--I wonder if they similarly limit analog audio output quality?
- I guess it depends on your definition of "deliberately" - racerguy 16:54:28 09/19/07 (9)
  The built-in processing/decoding capabilities of mass-market players are rarely, if ever, as good as what you can get from a pre/pro, or even a good-quality HT receiver. This isn't so much a matter of the manufacturers "deliberately" trying to make things bad - it's more a function of the cost to engineer and implement. See my comments below regarding the TrueHD decoding capabilities of the Panasonic BluRay players as an example.
  - I mean it in an objective, not subjective, sense - 4season 06:01:27 09/20/07 (1)
    What I actually want to know is whether you get "full resolution" from the analog audio outputs, up to 24 bits? Because it's not generally the case with the video outputs which are deliberately limited, and not out of cheapness, but as a form of copy protection.
    - I wasn't talking subjectively - racerguy 06:45:31 09/20/07 (0)
      As to analog "resolution," there have been a number of low-end DVD-Audio, SACD, and universal players that don't output better "resolution" via the analog ports for DVD-Audio or SACD than they do for Redbook CD. Again, it's not deliberate, it's because of cheap/low-quality engineering and implementation.
      
      Since those low-end players come from some of the manufacturers building hi-rez video players, it's reasonable to expect similar limitations - again, not "deliberate" in the sense that you mean, but because of cheapness.
  - You expect a Receiver to handle TrueHD any better at this point in time ? - oscar 20:05:41 09/19/07 (6)
    The audio bitrate just went up significantly over DVD; how much R&D has gone into audio processing algorithms to handle 5.1/7.1 TrueHD or DTS HD MA or uncompressed LPCM ? And have the processor heavy hitters (e.g. Meridian, Lexicon, Levinson, Theta, Halcro, Classe et al) even started on this given the format war uncertainties ?
    - You bet I do - 4season 11:14:52 09/20/07 (3)
      Neither my Toshiba HD-A20 nor Sony PS/3 even offers 5.1 channel analog audio, so an HDMI 1.3x-connected receiver or processor really is my best bet for surround audio!
      
      Meridian should be intimately familiar with the TrueHD spec because they helped to develop it. But at the moment, they don't seem to offer a product that will actually process it.
      
      I think I will not be shoveling many thousands of dollars into this particular hobby, because I'm not convinced that I need to in order to have a lot of fun. In the 2-channel world, I've already owned my share of Levinsons, ARCs, c-js, etc, etc, etc, so a lot of that whole "pride of ownership" business is mostly out of my system. And I got no problems with doing minor circuit mods to a Denon or Onkyo receiver if it'll get me to where I want to go.
      - Better to wait before you buy ANYTHING - racerguy 11:19:05 09/20/07 (2)
        
        In Reply to: RE: You bet I do posted by 4season on September 20, 2007 at 11:14:52
        
        from a Sept 2007 review of an Onkyo receiver on ultimateavmag.com:
        
        "In addition to the usual multichannel Dolby Digital and DTS modes, the Onkyo provides decoding for those high resolution, lossless audio modes mentioned earlier if it receives them in raw bitstream mode. But none of the HD DVD or Blu-ray players available to me are apparently capable of sending Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio bitstreams to this AVR. We are still investigating why this is so at press time, but there is no indication that the reason for this failure originates in the receiver."
        
        RE: Better to wait before you buy ANYTHING - tburgan@sprich.com 09:04:07 09/26/07 (1)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Better to wait before you buy ANYTHING posted by racerguy on September 20, 2007 at 11:19:05
        
        Onkyo told me they tested the Samsung BDP-1400 and it was successful.
        
        RE: Better to wait before you buy ANYTHING - racerguy 09:35:22 09/26/07 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Better to wait before you buy ANYTHING posted by tburgan@sprich.com on September 26, 2007 at 09:04:07
        
        > > Onkyo told me they tested the Samsung BDP-1400 and it was successful. < <
        
        Maybe you should buy a Samsung then.
    - My Concern Has Been With The Audio All Along - Robertc88 07:10:32 09/20/07 (0)
      While there should be a significant difference with these new audio tracks, I do really think I was getting my hopes up too high at this juncture of the game regarding their quality given the first and second gen players and what processors are available (as I stated in an earlier thread).
    - No, I don't - racerguy 06:53:45 09/20/07 (0)
      I expect the audio portion of the new hi-rez video products, and the codec capabilities of receivers and pre/pros, to lag behind the video portion for a long, long time.
      
      Edits: 09/20/07

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