Question:
Dear Big Picture Big Sound,
In your Article "Why Can't I get Dolby TrueHD to Work on my Sony PS3 and Onkyo Receiver?" you responded to the question in Jan of 2008 with the answer of no, only via PCM.
Has anything changed? Does the new version of the PS3 released in May/June as a MGS4 limited edition, now support these advanced formats? It's very misleading if they do not as the logos are all over the PS3 box.
Thanks,
-Mark B.
Answer:
Hi, Mark,
The PS3 has always supported Dolby TrueHD, since it was first launched. The way it supports Dolby TrueHD is by expanding it to full uncompressed PCM format, and sending that PCM signal to a receiver or processor over the HDMI cable. You can think of Dolby TrueHD as equivalent to a "zip" file on a PC or a "StuffIt" file on a Mac. Dolby TrueHD takes an original multi-channel PCM signal as input, and "zips" it into a smaller file using the TrueHD lossless codec. Just as a zip file does not lose any of the information in the document it compressed, so Dolby TrueHD does not lose any of the sonic information in the original PCM file when it compresses it.
When the PS3 "unzips" the file, it is simply restoring the original multi-channel PCM music file to its original format. The only thing the PS3 doesn't do with TrueHD is allow you to "bitstream" the Dolby TrueHD signal (and light up the "Dolby TrueHD" light on your receiver). Sonically the original PCM file that is extracted from the TrueHD signal by the PS3 should be absolutely identical to the original, so there's really no loss involved in doing it the way the PS3 does it.
But the PS3 initially did NOT fully support the DTS version of lossless multi-channel, known as DTS-HD Master Audio. In its first few firmware revisions, the PS3 could only support the so-called "core" portion of the DTS-HD track (which is not lossless). As of April 2008, this was corrected by firmware revision 2.3 for the PS3. With this firmware upgrade, the PS3 now also supports DTS-HD Master Audio (and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio) the same way it supports Dolby TrueHD - by expanding it to PCM and sending the multi-channel PCM signal over HDMI to a compatible receiver or surround sound processor.
If you prefer a player that can bitstream the DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD formats (although technically there should be no sonic advantage in doing so), then consider the Panasonic DMP-BD30, Panasonic DMP-BD50 or the brand new Sony BDP-S350 that just began shipping this week.
Hope that helps.
-Chris
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