state of play with BR audio?

[richard plumb]

i'm racking my brains working out the best way to renovate my setup when our lounge gets done. Great opportunity to chase in cables etc.

Currently I have component cables to both my TV and projector, but I'm considering HDMI. However I feel fairly safe in not bothering with HDMI for video just now (ICT seems a way off) so its just really down to the audio.

For Bluray I use a PS3, so I'm either limited to optical out DD5.1, or HDMI for multichannel goodness. So all I need is a HDMI-audio processing receiver, right? Well, maybe.

There are lots of discs with uncompressed LPCM. There are others with a variety of codecs used. I'm having difficulty understanding the bluray position with regards to where things are decoded. If they eventually plan to move to a HDDVD like approach where everything is decoded in the player, then output as LPCM/analogue then I'm happy to pick up a HDMI receiver now. However, if they plan to stick to the idea that the receiver will do some of that decoding, then I guess I'll need to wait. I don't want to upgrade to find myself still unable to play 50% of the soundtracks properly.

So, any reading between the lines on where players will go? Not necessarily just PS3 but generally? Is a standard HDMI processing receiver going to be fine for the next 3-5 years?

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

There are lots of discs with uncompressed LPCM. There are others with a variety of codecs used. I'm having difficulty understanding the bluray position with regards to where things are decoded. If they eventually plan to move to a HDDVD like approach where everything is decoded in the player, then output as LPCM/analogue then I'm happy to pick up a HDMI receiver now. However, if they plan to stick to the idea that the receiver will do some of that decoding, then I guess I'll need to wait. I don't want to upgrade to find myself still unable to play 50% of the soundtracks properly.

I sort of assume it will remain a mix of the two, i.e. on highend units you'll get internal decoding offered as part of the players features, for low end units it will merely offer bitstream output via HDMI.

I wouldn't be rushing to upgrade my receiver at present though: it's not just the (lack) of support for TrueHD/DTS-HD MA - it's also the rarity of 1080p switching, poorly supported LPCM audio via HDMI etc, lack of HDMI 1.3 connections etc. I'd hold on the upgrade for a few months and see what CES and the consumer shows bring.