so i purchased a blu-ray player today (samsung bdp-1200) and i had a question when it comes to the different types of "HD-audio" pretty much every single blu-ray disc I looked at the store said that it has DTS-HD lossless audio on the disc...now when i was looking through the manual of the player it doesnt show DTS-HD as a supported audio decoder. It does support DTS audio, my audio receiver (cheapie panasonic thing that will be my next HT upgrade) does support DTS decoding. would the player downsample the DTS-HD track to DD 5.1 or dts so i can at least hear the surround sound audio? Granted it will not be as vivid/rich as true dts-hd but i just want to make sure that i can at least be able to hear the blu ray discs i buy. i picked up a handful of movies to look at and the only one that didnt show 'dts-hd' as the audio was stargate. anyone else who has a standalone player help a bbs'er out?
I think you're referring to DTS HD-MA. It's a lossless audio codec currently found on all Fox Blu-ray releases and all the Studio Canal HD-DVD imports. No HD-DVD or Blu-ray player currently decodes DTS HD-MA. All they can do is extract the 1.5 Mbps DTS core. This still sounds pretty sweet, but you're not getting the full uncompressed track. There are receivers coming out in the next few months that will have HDMI 1.3 and the ability to decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD-MA. In fact, I have the Onkyo 605 preordered. It's due out within the next month. The downside to these receivers is that you have to have a HDMI 1.3 HD-DVD or Blu-ray player connected in order to pass along the DTS HD-MA track for decoding. I could be wrong about this, but everything I've read seems to indicate that's how it works. Your Samsung player I believe has only HDMI 1.2. So unless they offer a firmware upgrade to decode the DTS HD-MA track in the player, you'll still only be able to extract the core DTS track. Of course even having a HDMI 1.3 player doesn't guarantee anything. I use the PS3 which has HDMI 1.3, but I've been told it won't be able to pass along the DTS HD-MA track to the receiver until Sony offers a firmware upgrade to allow this. My Toshiba XA2 HD-DVD player on the other hand has HDMI 1.3 and should work fine, but of course DTS HD-MA is almost non-existent on that format. Thankfully Sony and Disney are offering either PCM or Dolby TrueHD tracks on all their Blu-ray releases. So for now you're only screwed with Fox/MGM titles. And since Fox recently cancelled every title they had scheduled, it's almost a non-issue at this point. If you see DTS-HD listed on the back of a Blu-ray or HD-DVD title, that's NOT lossless audio. It's just a high bitrate DTS track. A lot of the Lion's Gate Blu-ray discs offer DTS-HD(Reservoir Dogs and American Psycho are two that I own).
wait for the new Onkyo's they will be an huge upgrade for anyone check out this AVS thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=831063 you can ask the guys over there anything about electronics
I just read your post, congrats man, I will wait for the 875, hopefully the price drops by the end of this year
The MSRP for the 875 is $1699. Even if the price drops a little, that's still gonna be an expensive receiver. And I thought I shelled out a bundle for the Pioneer Elite 81 which cost me just under 700 bucks including warranty.
I'm missing the .1 (woofer) in my system so I have to turn up the lower frequencies in my other speakers to compensate so I am having a harder time understanding the dialog. Is there a guide people use in setting the low,mid, and high frequency levels?
thanks for all the info i went over to avs and spent like 2 hours over there last night reading up on stuff. they had a 20+ page thread on the player I bought really good stuff. yeah my player is actually hdmi 1.3 which is why i wasnt too overly concerned with it not being able to decode dolby TrueHD audio because i plan to get a nice hdmi a/v receiver next year that is hdmi 1.3 one thing i am looking forward to tonight when i get pirates dead mans chest is the 1080p 24fps setting the player has which is supposed to make the picture even more crazy amazing. also i have a samsung tv and there is a nice anynet? or something feature when hooked up to a samsung tv. yeah i read about how the various dts streamed are packed, man i felt so much smarter after reading some of those threads on avs great great stuff.
Yeah i may rent it through netflix, i have seen the movie and didnt find it too great, better than the newer bond movies...i am getting the two pirate bds today in the mail i keep reading how dead mans chest is the best looking hd (regardless of format) out there...previously i think it was the hulk and/or king kong both on hd-dvd and both of which are absolutely stunning...hulk still was a bad movie though. looking forward to tonight when i get to test the baby out.
I also own Black Hawk down on Blu-ray and it is a fairly awesome looking disk, heard Ultraviolet looks pretty sweet but that movie blows!
I bought both Pirates Blu-ray discs yesterday at Circuit Sh-tty thanks to a glitch in their system that had them giving out a free $15 gift card with each movie. I only had a chance to sample a few minutes of the first Pirates flick, but it looks terrific. Puts the SD-DVD to shame. Until I get the Onkyo receiver, I won't be able to test out the PCM track in my living room. I have a Pioneer Elite receiver in my bedroom, but that's hooked up to crappier speakers. Other discs you might wanna check out aside from the aforementioned Casino Royale and Black Hawk Down are Tears of the Sun, The Prestige, Kingdom of Heaven, Identity, and Layer Cake. All excellent transfers with sweet lossless audio tracks. Plus they're all really good movies which Blu-ray unfortunately doesn't have many of compared to HD-DVD.
well, I'm really hoping the price drops... as soon as few online resellers get the receiver its going to go for 200-300 under the MSRP, and then I will just keep my fingers crossed I really like the HQV processor, hopefully it upgrades my SD picture on my LCD as I am not all satisfied with it right now btw, is the CC glitch still possible?
According to people on the AVSForum, they're still getting the 2 free gift cards today. I got mine yesterday at the Galleria area Circuit Sh-tty and someone on that forum got his at the one at First Colony in Sugarland, so either of those places is worth a shot.
yeah i have not gone and splurged yet for any bd discs i may for pirates i will be getting them through netflix today i want to see the quality difference (i am sure it will be great) i have the sd-dvds for both of these movies, i am always a bit cautious on double diping for movies that i dont "love" i dont have a good receiver yet i plan to upgrade that next year when i hope model variety in models and prices are available... any there any sites people would recommend for buying blu-ray at a good cost? i was thinking of picking up KOH yesterday but it was 35 bucks at circuit. got some hd-dvds from frys a bit cheap though
Do NOT pick up Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs at CC or Worst Buy unless they have a really nice promotion(or glitch in their system). Fry's occasionally has some good deals. They recently had a "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" deal on some Sony Blu-ray titles. I was able to pick up Layer Cake, Big Fish, and Identity for 43 bucks and change. And they had a bunch of WB HD-DVDs for $13.99 this past week. The best route to go is online. Amazon has some pretty good prices, especially if you have the 10% discount. DeepDiscountDVD should be having their famous 20% off sale either next month or in July, so that'll be a great chance to load up on some titles.
cool i dont have the 10% amazon but i think i can find the coupon code via fatwallet or slickdeals unless you have it handy. i will let people know my thoughts on the player after i do the firmware updates and test it out tongiht when i get home
Yes it is nationwide. Circuit Sh-tty has not had a good week with pricing glitches. The Complete Matrix Trilogy on HD-DVD showed up on their website Sunday night for $19.99. And The O.C. Season 4 on DVD showed up for $9.99. Amazingly enough, they're honoring these prices, but are limiting it to one item of each per customer.
Wow, may have to swing by one around here, can't remember the last time I actually went to one to be honest
