Mobile Audio Systems & GPS

[u_hsen]

i bought a new harman kardon receiever, supposely it says it'll support dolby digtal HD and DTS HD and all that new hd audio stuff. right now im connecting my PS3 to it. using an optical cable (suggested by Magnolia Home Theater people, claiming hdmi can not pass HD audio for PS3, i actually find that true, hdmi can only pass stereo sound for ps3... yah kinda weird)

so anyways when i watch movie, i go in to the audio selection and selected DTS-HD. But when the movie start playing, on the screen it only says "DTS". soo................ how do i know if it's really producing DTS-HD sound?

oh yah the one i have is AVR-254. (<---- model just incase one of the mod or admin ask me for the model)

[John-BBY Community Connector]

Hello u_hsen,

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve run into a bit of an issue with your new equipment.  Hopefully I can help get you pointed in the right direction for a solution.

I read the owner’s manual for your Harman Kardon receiver and discovered that it should dynamically identify the type of input signal.  You can, of course, manually change these settings as you determine necessary.  If you don’t have a copy of the manual, I found it for download at the manufacturer’s website.

On looking at the Playstation website, I went to the support section to see what troubleshooting tips there are for Blu-ray audio.  According the site, you should select Linear PCM (under BD/DVD settings) as the audio output for Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio.  I’d recommend visiting the site for full details.

I hope this helps,

[u_hsen]

i haven't try it yet. did it mention either i should use hdmi for audio or optical?

[John-BBY Community Connector]

Howdy u_hsen,

As I recall, it did recommend the optical cable.  Once again, to get the best information firsthand, I'd recommend a visit to the Playstation website.

Thanks for writing!

[u_hsen]

yah i just tried it optical don't support linear pcm output, only hdmi. the magnolia associates told me it can do dd-hd or dts-hd through optical only. but in the booklet it says it can support both through hdmi and optical

[Tinker]

One other good thing to note, not all blu-rays have DTS HD or Dolby True HD

[u_hsen]

i tried with bluray movies with dts hd. nothing at all. what is this "multichannel pcm" when ever i follow the instructions from sony ps3 website, my receiver will show up taht message.

this sux.

[u_hsen]

ok i know this is gonna be a stupid question. currently i have the harmon kardon 254 receiver running with 5.1 surround sound.

does dts-hd/dolby digital-hd actually require 7.1? everytime i read about "dts-hd/DD-HD" it always mention with a 7.1, not 5.1

[DCI105]

You can also download the new firmware update. We offer it as a service at the store I work at, and one of the features that the update fixes is the dolby DTS support, and the TrueHD sound support. Making it one of the best blu-ray players out there in my opinion. I'm not saying this will fix it, but it could solve the problem.

[Gohanto]

The person you were talking to didn't know what they were doing if they thought an optical cable could carry uncompressed audio.

Digital coax and optical both carry Dolby Digital and DTS. Neither carries DD TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio (the lossless formats)

HDMI is the only way to carry the signal digitally (the other method is if your BluRay player has a built-in decoder and you send the signal through 8 analog outputs on the Bluray player into a multichannel input on the receiver, but this isn't advised if your receiver accepts HDMI and can decode TrueHD and DTS-MA, which yours can).

However, I can say that the difference is minor, so don't expect night and day differences. I've listened on two setups, and the differences are slightly more pronounced on mid-priced speakers and not as much for entry level equipment (to my ears anyway, others claim it's night and day on $100 speakers, but I don't buy it).

Multichannel PCM is the same concept as TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Uncompressed 7.1 audio. This format needs to go through the HDMI as well. Although, 2 channel PCM can be sent through the optical or digital coax cable.

And although the new formats are 7.1 capable, the most channels used in any film mix to date is 6.1 and that's still rare. The large majority of films are still mixed for 5.1

Message Edited by Gohanto on 01-21-2009 11:36 PM