sorry, i don't really understand how this all works. So if i want to play my movie in Dolby TrueHD, I can't use an AV Receiver? Basically, I wanna know under what circumstances will my movie play in Dolby TrueHD.

I don't know that much about sound, but I guess what this means is the console will/might do the decoding itself, instead of passing the signal through to the AV receiver. The downside of this I think is that the console might not do as good a job at decoding, and for example always downmix to 5.1 while your sound system may support 6.1 or 7.1.

sound is more important for games than in movies. In games you can anticipate on the sound, movies not.

Kirby007: well it depends how do you want to think it. Do you know why Darth Vader and T-1000 are so "great" characters?

Yeah, but how many of us can really ear the difference between all those surround modes, 5.1 and above in particular?

To me it's kind of the same as with graphics, obviously HD is better and all, but it gets to a point where I honestly begin not being able to tell the differece (apart from a lightweightness in the wallet, I mean), and I have to say soundwise I've reached it.

First post..... like the forums here and the way its set up from the front page... anyway..... this is my specialy (that and HDTV gear), this is my post a few days ago from a topic created in the PS3forums from another site.... this article that is linked in the original poster at the top is full of miscnceptions.... here is my topic, please read:

"LOTS OF MISCONCEPTIONS GOING AROUND THIS TOPIC!!!


HDMI 1.3 allows for the passage of BITSTREAM versions of Uncompressed Audio. You do not need HDMI 1.3 to pass LINEAR PCM versionf of Uncompressed Audio (thats when the PS3 decodes the PCM track or TrueHD and sends it to the receiver uncompressed), in fact HDMI 1.1 can do it! But you need the right kind of receiver, so pretty much any 1.1 receiver cannot do it simply because it wasn't made when this existed, but the spec has the capability.

HDMI 1.3 passes it ZIPPED (think zipped like on your computer) in what is called BITSTREAM. You do not need this to get Uncompressed PCM or TrueHD. Current versions of 1.2 and 1.2a receivers (which many of us have! including myself) can easily accept LinearPCM versions of this stuff that the PS3 decodes and sends out, so I have been enjoying TrueHD and Uncompressed PCM off of my PS3 from day 1.

You cannot get it through Optical, Optical is limited to 2.0 PCM and not at full bit rate. So it won't work there.

You need HDMI and you need a HDMI receiver that will actually do it, not all of them will.


Whoever said 1.3 HDMI is the only reason it can output 7.1 PCM.. you are WRONG. 100% incorrect. With HDMI spec 1.2 and 1.2a you can pass 7.1 channels of uncompressed PCM audio via LinearPCM to the receiver. Many units can do this. Including my Yamaha which is HDMI 1.2a.


The PS3 will always have to decode this stuff because of on the fly decoding of menu sounds and in movie options and features. So.... its not going away.

Lots of misconceptions here....


So having said all this:

IF you have the right receiver then you can and could have been using TrueHD and Uncompressed PCM 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 from your PS3 from Day 1 and beyond.
IF you knew what you were doing or trying to do then it would have been simple.
IF you knew the score then youd know that HDMI 1.3 is not needed for any of this in any way.?"

Basically what Im trying to say is, the PS3 decodes all this stuff (except DTS-MA, which by the way cannot be decoded by anything, not beacuse of limiation but functionality - by anything at the moment), the PS3 without a doubt does TrueHD and other forms of Uncompressed PCM up to 7.1!! I have been playing Resistance in true 7.1 Uncompressed Sound since Nov. 17th! And using Uncompressed PCM tracks and TrueHD off of Blu-ray discs since Nov. 17th. I went far out of my way (and my budget! ;)) to make sure I got equipment that could handle all this in its best form.

Anyway, thats my little rant....

edit: as some of you may be confused (as some are by this stuff) you CANNOT use TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM without the CORRECT AV/Receiver unit.... and there are not that many, NOT ANY UNIT will do either. A lot of people believe that HDMI recievers can do it just because they use HDMI, THIS IS FALSE. Even 80% of HDMI units cannot use any form of HD-Sound such as TrueHD or LinearPCM (uncompressed sound). It must be made specially to do so.

And some people think that HDMI 1.3 is needed to get TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM, THIS IS WRONG, like it says above. The reason the Elite 360 doesn't do TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM in anything more than STEREO (2.0) sound is because they did not incorperate the specs to allow the unit to decode anything beyond that. So it has regular DVD versions of surround sound like DTS or Dolby, it DOES NOT have TrueHD ability, and not because of the version of HDMI it uses, but because of specs in side the machine. If you read above you will understand why. 

Sony has 1 or 2 units coming out or out already that do this, Yamaha and Denon and Onkyo units (some of the best, I myself have a yamaha) have units that can do this as well. Again, not just any old HDMI receiver will do.