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With HDMI Does player's sound matter?

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Posted on October 25, 2016 at 15:56:59
fstein
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 When you connect a bluray player to your receiver, does the bluray player's internal dac/sound circuitry get bypassed?
Does the HDMI mean that your are actually only haring your receiver?

 

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RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 26, 2016 at 20:53:19
Alex F.
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 When you connect a Blu-ray player to an AV receiver with an HDMI cable, you are utilizing the DAC (digital-to-analog converter) contained in the receiver. The player is thus functioning as a disc transport.

Everything in the audio chain matters. How much so depends on the sonic capability of your system, your ears, and the level of audio quality you seek.

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 27, 2016 at 22:19:11
fstein
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 When I am playing an sacd, should I be using the analogue out of the player?

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 11:16:30
Alex F.
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Location: Florida
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 Copy-protection requirements eliminated analog audio outputs from most Blu-ray players several years ago. Oppo still offers such outputs, but with some limitations to audio resolution.

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 14:41:48
fstein
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Joined: May 18, 2006
 Thanks for the help

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 14:46:02
pbarach
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 "Copy-protection requirements eliminated analog audio outputs from Blu-ray players about five years ago."

The copy protection requirements have nothing to do with analog audio.

Oppo players currently being sold have 7.1 analog outputs. I bet there are other players that have them as well.

As the first response to your post indicates, using HDMI outputs means the player is functioning as a transport. I have had three different BluRay players, including my current Oppo 103, and the HDMI audio outputs were identical; all three had analog audio outputs as well, and the Oppo easily beats the analog output from the other two players (inexpensive Samsung and some other brand I can't recall).

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 15:22:16
Alex F.
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Posts: 877
Location: Florida
Joined: February 29, 2004
 You are welcome.

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 16:47:28
Alex F.
Audiophile

Posts: 877
Location: Florida
Joined: February 29, 2004
 Thank you for reminding me about Oppo's players. Oppo is one of the few Blu-ray player brands that still offers analog audio outputs in its latest players. But there are limitations to what is output via the RCA jacks. From the Oppo BDP-103 online manual (page 62):

"Due to copyright restrictions...high resolution audio on...Blu-ray discs...will be sent out at reduced resolution."

Below is a link to the copy protection I referred to earlier.

I edited my previous post for accuracy.

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 16:49:54
pbarach
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Posts: 3307
Location: Ohio
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 Alex F, it's not true, as you originally wrote, that "Copy-protection requirements eliminated analog audio outputs from Blu-ray players about five years ago." They did no such thing. Many newer players dropped their analog outputs because most TVs and AVRs now have HDMI inputs, which wasn't true when BluRay discs first came out. Oppo and some other high-end players have retained them.

And you've misread that Oppo manual. The full sentence that you quoted refers to digital output from high-rez sources, not analog output:

"Due to copyright restrictions and bandwidth limitations, SACD audio cannot be sent through the coaxial/optical audio output, and the high resolution audio on DVD-Audio and Blu-ray discs will be sent out at reduced resolution."

The Oppo player converts the full high-rez digital audio track from a BluRay or SACD to analog, and that is what it outputs through its 7.1 RCA analog outputs. Look at the chart on p.64 of the Oppo manual. The copyright/copy restrictions on audio are spelled out in more detail on p. 17, and it's clear that they apply only to the various digital outputs.

The Cinavia copy protection doesn't prevent a video player like Oppo from converting a high-rez audio track and outputting it as analog, nor does it prevent an AVR (or DAC) that gets a high-rez audio track from a player via HDMI from converting the audio to analog and sending it through analog outputs.

 

RE: With HDMI Does player's sound matter?, posted on October 28, 2016 at 21:57:48
Alex F.
Audiophile

Posts: 877
Location: Florida
Joined: February 29, 2004
 My understanding from reading an article in an AV magazine a few years ago was that a "sunset" requirement was adopted and was to go into effect for analog video and audio outputs on Blu-ray players. The audio sunset was to occur about two years after the video sunset. If that is not the case I stand corrected. My error.

 

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