Quote:
Originally Posted by Oakleyspatz  I must admit, although I do refer to uncompressed multi-channel PCM as LPCM and not MPCM, I do try to also include the words 'multi-channel' or '8 channels' before the 'LPCM' if that is what I am referring to.
But 'MPCM' does remove the chance of mis-interpretation as Chris points out. |
Multi-channel LPCM is fine, accurate and unambiguous - it's the term the standards use to differentiate from 2-channel LPCM. Incidentally in the HDMI spec, 2-channel LPCM is mandatory for any HDMI source/sink that supports HDMI audio transmission/reception; whereas multi-channel LPCM is only optional.
I'm personally not a fan of the term MPCM - it has no real history or acceptance within the industry - either at the technical level or at the marketing level.
On the flip-side, I agree that there is a lot of confusion out there regarding the capabilities of AVRs that simply switch HDMI, and those that sink HDMI audio and amplify it. However imho this confusion is more to do with whether an AVR amplifies HDMI audio
at all rather than being about whether the HDMI audio is multi-channel LPCM or 2-channel LPCM.
I suspect over time, as more and more reference HDMI designs are created, the consumer will not have to be so clued up about the potential pitfalls of being an early adopter. By the time it all shakes out, imho, the term that will be most adopted will simply be LPCM.
Big smiles,
Andy.