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Here at www.xpmediacentre.com.au we often discuss the merits of owning a HTPC vs comparable dedicated home theater equipment. One of the major points that surfaces from these discussions is upgrade paths. The ability to furnish your machine with low cost components that provide high end performance. As technology moves on it becomes apparent why many choose a HTPC over dedicated equipment and now is one of those times. Pioneer Australia has forwarded a review unit of their latest Blu-ray combination player drive, the BDC-S02.
Arkay,
How about to loan a full True-HD pack (amp, etc) and report to us on sound differences comparing with DD5.1 and DTS?
vlad,
What do you classify as true HD audio?
The following formats are available on Blu-ray
Quote:
Linear PCM (LPCM) - up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio. (mandatory)
Dolby Digital (DD) - format used for DVDs, 5.1-channel surround sound. (mandatory)
Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) - extension of Dolby Digital, 7.1-channel surround sound. (optional)
Dolby TrueHD - lossless encoding of up to 8 channels of audio. (optional)
DTS Digital Surround - format used for DVDs, 5.1-channel surround sound. (mandatory)
DTS-HD High Resolution Audio - extension of DTS, 7.1-channel surround sound. (optional)
DTS-HD Master Audio - lossless encoding of up to 8 channels of audio. (optional)
but the studios are free to use whatever they want of the above in Movie releases.
I'd love to hear the DD+ or DTS-HD. How different they are (if at all), from DTS ES or DD EX is unknown. They are both 7.1 formats but with the extra storage space on BD you'd expect a higher resolution soundtrack.
My gut feel is that unless you are a serious audiophile you'd likely not notice the difference. Audio was the best part of moving from Video tape to DVD IMHO. With HD the picture quality is getting it's turn.
Not sure where I'd set all that gear up at my place though!
Audio was the best part of moving from Video tape to DVD IMHO.
Slightly off-topic I know, but I just had to comment on this.
You mean the quantum leap in PQ on DVD over the Very Hazy System wasn't a major thing for you?
I know that HD video is a step forward again, but video quality improvement had to be at least as good a part of the move from tape to DVD as audio. Surely.
Nice review by the way - I'm almost tempted to go Blu-Ray now...
Hi Arkay,
Not trying to hijack this thread, but Blue-ray is also about HD audio, read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_TrueHD
It is optional on Blue-ray
I am just not sure how better it will sound and was wondering is anyone knows.
Slightly off-topic I know, but I just had to comment on this.
You mean the quantum leap in PQ on DVD over the Very Hazy System wasn't a major thing for you?
I know that HD video is a step forward again, but video quality improvement had to be at least as good a part of the move from tape to DVD as audio. Surely.
Nice review by the way - I'm almost tempted to go Blu-Ray now...
Glen,
No. Not saying that DVD wasn't a great step up PQ wise. Just that to me the jump in audio was the greater gain (of the two). In this instance and partially because I haven't sampled HD audio I would imagine that the greater gain will be PQ this time, with gains being made in audio not being as significant as they previously were going from 2.0 channel analog to 5.1 channel digital.
Here at www.xpmediacentre.com.au we often discuss the merits of owning a HTPC vs comparable dedicated home theater equipment. One of the major points that surfaces from these discussions is upgrade paths. The ability to furnish your machine with low cost components that provide high end performance. As technology moves on it becomes apparent why many choose a HTPC over dedicated equipment and now is one of those times.
