Dolby TrueHD / DTS HD question... so confused!

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Empress Ci Xi

Guest
Hello all, am new to the forum so do excuse my impending dense questions!

About to buy a whole load of kit, and have been trolling these boards for a while for some advice. Whilst most of the questions I had in mind have been aptly answered by past threads (the best source for AV advice hands down), this whole HD audio lark is proving to be a sticking point in my decision of which AV receiver to eventually buy.

My conundrum is this; Do I buy an Onkyo605 now so that I will have Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD ready for when I'll eventually need it; or buy an Onkyo505 and bypass the whole HD audio affair for the moment (thus being able to afford better speakers). Now am I right in thinking that if I do end up getting a 505, that I can simply get a BD/HDDVD player in the future that can decode these formats internally? Or is this crazy talk.

The thing is, I'm getting this set up for games primarily so HD audio is not too high a priority. If I can just get a BD player that can take care of that down the line, the 505 will do me just fine for now. Any advice?

Thanks in advance!
 
Speakers will make the biggest difference to the overall sound so dont compromise that. I would wait a bit longer and save for the 605 as it has Audessy room correction which is a useful feature to have IMHO.

http://www.audyssey.com/multEQ_products.html

That said I think the 505 will accept LPCM over HDMI so you would get the uncompressed audio track anyway. Someone more familiar with the 505 would need to confirm that however.
 
Thanks for the info, upon digging a little deeper myself I have gradually familiarised myself with these new HD standards. Not quite as straight forward as their visual counterparts are they?

Guess part of the joy of AV is getting to grips with all the convoluted standards!!! :rotfl:
 
The HD audio formats can only be decoded within the player and it would seem that this is likely to remain for the forseeable future.

As long as the amp you are buying can deal with PCM via HDMI you will get the full benefit of the HD audio soundtracks if your using a PS3. If you buy a standalone HD /BD that has got multi channel analogue outputs you can also use this method to get the best from the HD audio soundtracks as long as your amp has 5.1 analogue inputs.

If I were you I wouldnt bother with the new HD amps yet , buy a cheaper out going model and a 5 channel power amp instead , It will offer much more than one of the new intergrated HD amps sonically with both the old formats and the new.
 
I dont believe the 505 can handle audio over HDMI - I am sure I read on one seller's website you also need spdif connection , so it woiuldnt be suitable for HD audio (also pricerunner doesnt mention this having any hd audio compatability either only the "standard" DD/DTS variaties)

I would save up for a 605 myself
 
If your reciever has 5.1 inputs and your player has 5.1 outputs that should be all you need for the new formats.

bill
 
If the HD audio formats are all decoded by the HD video player itself then what is the purpose of amps with integrated decoders? Are they merely a backup solution for players without decoders?

I've also heard from others here that it is part of the Bluray mandate to include internal decoding. So presumably it is not possible to buy a BD player without that capability. So are HD-ready AV amps purely for HDDVD?

Still a little confused... but getting there!!! :rotfl::rotfl:
 
There's a variety of threads but as far as I'm aware the PS3 will not send DTS-HD (will send DTS core @ 1.5mps) to an AMP at this point in time (as will no other Blu Ray players). The impression I get that it is purely down to licensing rather than decoding / coding.

It would seem that the PS3 does have an advantage of having firmware updates i.e. 1080p/24fps was a recent addition. I'm sure some others do as well.
 
After playing with a lot of systems over the past few years, i believe the speakers are 90% of the sound and so are worth spending the extra cash.

However a word of warning if your speakers are a lot better than your amp you will end up with terrible audio.

The difference a decent pair of speakers makes in my opinion far outweighs the advantages of the hd audio formats.

However Audessy is certainly something worth checking out (see the avforums review of the stand-alone product).
 
Will probably go for a 605 for the extra features (audio through HDMI, Audessy, HD capabilities), thank you all for the advice.

Now if only I can settle on the speakers... Where will it all end?!?!? :D
 
If the HD audio formats are all decoded by the HD video player itself then what is the purpose of amps with integrated decoders? Are they merely a backup solution for players without decoders?

The only purpose I can think of is to sell people new HD amplifiers they dont need.

I cant see the film studios and industry making a U turn on the way discs are authored to prevent them from being decoded externally, given how hot they are these days with piracy etc etc.

There isnt really any advantage to decoding in either the amp or the player anyway so I wouldnt get to hung up on it at the moment.
 
At present i'd wager there is very little to choose between the quality of audio decoder in the amp or the player... however in the future this is likely to change and the amps will offer superior decoding than players (the same pattern occurred with DVD when it first came out)

The 605 is a better amp no doubt, but that doesn't make the 505 lousy...
 
If things stay as they are which is most likely then the HD/BD player manufacturers will start to incorporate better and better decoding within the players themselves rather than in external receivers and processors as there is very little point in even having these exernal processors let alone bothering to improve them.

Things may change but it doesnt seem like this time the implimentation of the technolgy is fully in the electronic manufacturers hands.
 

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