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Just watch Batman Begins and i can't make my mind up what to watch it in True HD or Dolby Digital EX, I feel i should be watching in True HD but you get no sound from the back surrounds as you do with Dolby Digital EX, does anyone else have the same dilemma.

True HD is the best option on a blu-Ray Disc at the moment , You should be getting 5.1 / 7.1 sound , Your Receiver should be saying one of these , Multi Channel or True HD . if it doesn't you must have set something up wrong.



Dolby Digital EX takes the Dolby Digital 5.1-channel setup one step further with an additional center surround channel (reproduced through one or two speakers) for extra dimensional detail and an enveloping surround sound effect



Benefits of Dolby TrueHD
Delivers a studio-quality “you are there” surround-sound experience that unlocks the true high-definition entertainment experience on Blu-ray discs
Offers more discrete channels than ever before for impeccable surround sound
Dialogue normalization maintains the same volume level when you change to other Dolby Digital and Dolby TrueHD programming
Dynamic range control (Night mode) enables you to customize audio playback to reduce peak volume levels (no loud surprises) while experiencing all the details in the soundtrack, enabling late-night viewing of high-energy surround sound without disturbing others
Provides the same mix as the producer hears for any channel configuration from 2.0 to 7.1


I think this answers your question , If you need more info , Google both the Surround Types.


Also your not ment to have sound coming from the rears non stop , only when say a Bullet flys past or a car coming from the side should you be getting sound , or say Action Music .

If you've a decent AV receiver, it'll have an 'EX' mode to force 5.1 Dolby True HD into 7.1 mode - OK, it's faked (and IMO the surround steering is better if you leave alone and stick to 5.1), but if you really want that enveloping effect it'll provide it.

I leave my Yamaha 3800 in PLIIx mode permanently so that the back surrounds are used, even when the source is 5.1 - which is most of the time!  It works pretty well IMHO, but I might test your theory re steering at some stage, Clare.

My amp is the onkyo 606, so when i put on a film with True HD the 606 displays True HD in big on the display, so when i get Dolby Digital EX in big on the display does this mean i am still getting True HD as True HD is still on the display but in small red print at the top left of display.

Rather then start a new thread as this thread is on the same lines. I will on thursday have my Pannasonic BD30 blu ray player which is the best way to connect to my Dennon 1907 (no hdmi) to get the best sound available. Should I go Blue ray to plasma hdmi then opitical from amp to blue ray

Well i have a Yamaha RX-V363 which isnt the best amp i know, dont know it supports DDX all i know is it has DTS and Dolby Digital.

hilly10:

Rather then start a new thread as this thread is on the same lines. I will on thursday have my Pannasonic BD30 blu ray player which is the best way to connect to my Dennon 1907 (no hdmi) to get the best sound available. Should I go Blue ray to plasma hdmi then opitical from amp to blue ray

There's definitely an argument for having both analogue multi-channel outputs and an optical connection in this instance. According to the Panasonic spec sheet, the BD30 does have 5.1 channel outputs and the Denon 1907 has 5.1 channel inputs. Now, neither can convert Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio onboard, meaning for any Blu-Ray discs with these soundtracks, your best bet is to use the optical connection and bitstream the 'core' Dolby Digital / DTS soundtrack to your amplifier to decode. However, there are quite a few Blu-Ray discs which offer an uncompressed PCM soundtrack. Since no decoding is involved for these, you can actually send the complete uncompressed PCM soundtrack to your amp via the multi-channel outputs and enjoy the high definition soundtrack for these discs.

In both instances, the HDMI connection should go direct to the TV for the video obviously.

All as I thought thanks for confirming

Professor when I decide to change my Amp am I right in thinking if I buy one that will have HDMI connection and will also decode Dolby True and DTS I will then get the full monty from the Blu-ray player. Would the connections then be HDMI Blu-ray to Amp    HDMI  Amp to Plasma. HDMI Sky hd box to plasma with opitical from sky box to Amp as I have now

Yup, that all looks good to me!

Good excuse to upgrade the amp as well then will have to see the in house accountant as along with the Blu-ray there is a Panny  50" coming on Thursday to

Can i ask a silly question?

What is the best surround audio? All this stuff is confusing me. When i play a blu-ray on my panny bd35 my Yamaha amp displays True Hd. When i play DVD, it shows dolby pliix or something. Am i getting the best possible sound i can?

It sounds kick ass, but should it be better?

 

Note, connected my blue- disc player via hdmi to amp and then amp to tv via hdmi.

Sounds like everything is okay if the amp is displaying Dolby TrueHD, but to clear it all up, it depends what soundtrack is used on the disc. Basically, on DVD, there were really only a few formats used ranging from Dolby Digital 2.0 to 5.1 and DTS. These are compression formats which allow the studios to compress the soundtrack of the movie to fit on the DVD. So in the case of the Dolby PLiix on the amp - this means the DVD is using Dolby Pro Logic standard and the amp is receiving this and decoding it.

On Blu-Rays, because of the extra space available, a whole load of new encoding formats were designed including Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. These are basically new standards which still compress the soundtrack, but do it losslessly, meaning you get a much better quality soundtrack on the disc than the old formats (much like an Apple Lossless or FLAC version of a song (or any other lossless compression you care to mention) sounds much better than an MP3 of that song which is compressed down to 128 Kbps for example).

So have a look at the back of the box of your Blu-Rays and see which soundtrack is included. If you have Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio, or better still uncompressed PCM (i.e. no compression is used at all), make sure you select this soundtrack on the disc. The Yamaha should then tell you what it's receiving and you know you're getting the best sound possible.

Many thanks, that was very useful.

Out of all this High Def stuff, its the audio that has totally blown me away. Its sounds awesome!

Am lovin it.