High-def media doesn't end with a better picture
The higher quality picture of Blu-ray and HD DVD isn't the only benefit of the formats. Oh no, interactive features, upgradable players, and support for high-quality audio formats are just as important. Many home theater enthusiasts will tell you that while a high-quality picture is nice, it's the audio that completes the theater experience and support for lossless audio tracks is just what the audiophile order. There are some limitations that the two completing video formats employs however. The standard bit rate of Dolby Digital is 384-448kbps while the new and improved Dolby Digital TrueHD's maximum bit-rat is 18Mbps, HD DVD cuts that to 6Mbps and Blu-ray undercuts it even more to 3Mbps. The other new 'high-def' audio, DTS-HD Master Audio format comes from DTS and this guy sports an impressive 24.5Mbps bit-rate. Thankfully, Blu-ray doesn't lower this and HD DVD only drops it to 18Mbps. These better quality formats are possible because of the large storage that Blu-ray and HD DVD offers along with advances in audio equipment, but don't think you current equipment will work. Well, some of it might as long as you have 5.1 analog inputs since optical/digital coax jacks just don't have the bandwidth required for these formats. Most A/V receivers are equipped with HDMI inputs but you need HDMI 1.2 in order to receive Dolby Digital TrueHD and one of DTS's new formats: DTS-HD. HDMI 1.3 is required to get the DTS's other format and currently there isn't a receiver that has this yet. All this means that you should get sound that will rival a true cinema experience with deep, rich lows and crisp, full highs.
Filed under: Industry
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ken H. @ Sep 21st 2006 5:35PM
I don't think that that last paragraph is correct.
See the HDMI site for details on the levels:
http://www.hdmi.org/about/faq.asp#hdmi_specification
Essentially:
* 1.0 - Gave DD, DTS, and PCM 5.1 audio and video
* 1.1 - Gave DVD-Audio in addition to 1.0
* 1.2 - Gave DSD (SACD) in addition to 1.1
* 1.3 - WILL give native support for new codecs (TrueHD and DTS-HD) in addition to 1.2
-KLH
Xyzzy @ Sep 21st 2006 10:15PM
#1 - At least with the HD-DVD player, the decoder is in the player itself and it sends the decoded bitstream to the receiver to simply play. Therefore, it doesn't need HDMI 1.3 because the stream is already decoded.
You only need 1.3 if the stream is to be decoded in the receiver - and no receiver currently supports them yet.
#2 - I have the Pioneer Elite 74 (last year's model - the 84 is this year's model). It works great and the price is about $1,500.
Greene @ Sep 22nd 2006 8:00PM
My Favorite HD-show is any ESPN Sports Event(Football Preferrably) and My favorite Blue-Ray Movie is Terminator 2 Judgement Day
Juan @ Sep 23rd 2006 10:36PM
"Most A/V receivers are equipped with HDMI inputs"
I don't think this is correct, or at least you should probably qualify it, ie "Most A/V receivers over a certain price point." All of the receivers that I've seen that have even 1 HDMI input are around $1000 US.
Most A/V receivers "don't" have HDMI is probably more accurate.
Brian @ Sep 26th 2006 11:25AM
I've been looking into getting my first surround sound. I have looked a little bit into receivers, but now that I found this news out, I don't know what to get. I'm looking for something that will offer premium sound quality. I'm planning on playing HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. What receiver would everyone recommend?