360 HD - was poor audio, now good audio ;-)

[MrG99]

I know a few people have commented on this, I only have KK at the moment and played it after a sesh on gears of war. I ddn't alter the volume on the amp but immediately you could tell the sound was quieter and less dynamic sounding.

What is the issue and will there be a fix? I think I read that if a disc has True HD audio as an option on the discs setup menu, then you can select this and the HD drive will decode and output this via the optical connection to the amp?

I'm really not happy with this as it spoils the experience and I don't want to be limited in the future to buying specific discs that have this extra audio option - they should all sound great - what is going on?

[Dazza]

There a fixes in the pipeline for the way the 360 decodes the HD soundtracks to DD5.1 & apparently DTS will be added. However currently the 360/HD Drive has no physical capability to offer the new HD sound formats.

These are not available through the optical output and unless MS release a HDMI cable they won't be.

[Johnny Utah]

Originally Posted by MrG99

What is the issue and will there be a fix? I think I read that if a disc has True HD audio as an option on the discs setup menu, then you can select this and the HD drive will decode and output this via the optical connection to the amp?

As Dazza said above, the HD-DVD player will never output True HD audio or Dolby Digital + due to the fact that the optical out connection does not have the required bandwidth.

As it stands your HD-DVD's are decoded from their native format and then re-encoded to Dolby Digital 5.1 and sent to your receiver. Therefore no matter what format the particular DVD has, whether it be True HD or Dolby +, you will only have 5.1 sound when played with the xbox player. This could be seen as a step back in terms of audio due to the lack of hdmi connection.

I noticed that when watching king kong, the left and right rear speakers were barely getting sent any sound, i had to place my ear right next to each to make sure they were working at all. The same applied to the Sub, the deep bass sounds during some of the action scenes were not present as you'd expect with 5.1 Dolby (A relatively old format by today's standards). I also noticed like you that the sound was 'flat' and i had to increase the volume substantially before it was at a comfortable level.

I don't yet have any other HD-DVD's to compare with but after reading a few reviews it seems that the HD-DVD player software is not doing a great job of recoding the audio.

Originally Posted by Dazza

There a fixes in the pipeline for the way the 360 decodes the HD soundtracks to DD5.1 & apparently DTS will be added.

Hopefully this future update can resolve this issue (possibly software?) and therefore provide better quality audio!

[T800]

The 360 is adding dynamic compression to the audio tracks which is like "Midnight Mode" that some amps have that make all the sound the same level, an explosion is only as loud as a conversation.

The 360 can decode TrueHD and in theory will sound better than DD+ even through optical. You will only get proper TrueHD if MS release a HDMI cable or a Component/VGA cable with 5.1 analogue outs.

[Johnny Utah]

Originally Posted by T800

The 360 is adding dynamic compression to the audio tracks which is like "Midnight Mode" that some amps have that make all the sound the same level, an explosion is only as loud as a conversation.

Not sure i like the 'sound' of this. There seems no seperation in the channels, almost like 5 channel stereo.

Pointless imho.

[T800]

Originally Posted by strett

Not sure i like the 'sound' of this. There seems no seperation in the channels, almost like 5 channel stereo.

Pointless imho.

Dynamic compression is only used for the "Midnight Modes" so people can listen to a 5.1 track at night or just quietly, the 360 is apparently gonna be updated to operate properly.
Imo the seperation is fine, are you sure your amp is set up correctly, I've read lots of problems with the audio but non about seperation.

[Digicon]

I noticed the sound was flat also on KK although only marginally better was the Superman returns True HD track.

Looks like i am investing in a proper HD-DVD Player unless microsoft pulls its finger out.

[Johnny Utah]

Originally Posted by Digicon

I noticed the sound was flat also on KK although only marginally better was the Superman returns True HD track.

Looks like i am investing in a proper HD-DVD Player unless microsoft pulls its finger out.

Yeah i bought Superman as well just to try it out and it's exactly the same. The sound is flat and the seperation really poor.

I played a SD DVD in my standard player just to make sure that it wasn't the amp.....it wasn't.

The way i understand it (and correct me if i'm wrong) the 360 player uses software to decode the soundtracks rather than a dedicated chip like other generic HD-DVD players. Therefore i guess it would be possible to improve this software.

It's in desperate need of an update!

[Digicon]

Originally Posted by strett

Yeah i bought Superman as well just to try it out and it's exactly the same. The sound is flat and the seperation really poor.

I played a SD DVD in my standard player just to make sure that it wasn't the amp.....it wasn't.

The way i understand it (and correct me if i'm wrong) the 360 player uses software to decode the soundtracks rather than a dedicated chip like other generic HD-DVD players. Therefore i guess it would be possible to improve this software.

It's in desperate need of an update!

Well after many hours of reading on here and various other forums i have decided to Get rid of the 360 drive and buy a dedicated HD-E1 player and new HDMI amp just so i can at least get the Improvement of the Tru HD sound and DD+

Just really dissapointed not picture wise but the sound really makes a difference in a film.

Gonna Keep my 360 for streaming my .TS HD files LOL only thing its good for including playing Games :-)

[T800]

Originally Posted by Digicon

Well after many hours of reading on here and various other forums i have decided to Get rid of the 360 drive and buy a dedicated HD-E1 player and new HDMI amp just so i can at least get the Improvement of the Tru HD sound and DD+

Just really dissapointed not picture wise but the sound really makes a difference in a film.

Gonna Keep my 360 for streaming my .TS HD files LOL only thing its good for including playing Games :-)

The add-on for me was just a stop gap until the XE1 is released, unfortunatly it's not even a good stop gap with the audio issue's.

[jonathanTVTV]

Originally Posted by T800

The add-on for me was just a stop gap until the XE1 is released, unfortunatly it's not even a good stop gap with the audio issue's.

I'm doing the same... the 360 hd dvd drive will tide me over until a proper 1080p player with an hdmi connection becomes affordable. I have to say I'm fairly happy with the 360 drive for the moment. If Microsoft can fix the audio issues I'll probably hang onto it for a bit longer.

[HCK]

Originally Posted by Sanborn
Amir I hate to bother you with this question you probably can't answer - but I must.

When is the 360 addon going to have DTS ?


I realize there is a lot of interest in this. All I can say is that the core development work is finished but we need to roll this up in a console update and that takes a bit of time. So I appreciate your patience on this.

The above was taken from the avsforum.....they have been working on this for over a month now....so hopefully we should get the audio fix jan/feb.

[MacReady]

I have noticed just how flat the sound is and how little the rears seem to be worked when watching MI:III

As others have said, the add on is simply a stop gap for me until I buy a dedicated HD-DVD player and new amp with HDMI v1.3 (when they finally start to appear !) and I am more than happy with the picture it provides....just a bit dissapointed with the sound

[T800]

Originally Posted by HCK

Originally Posted by Sanborn
Amir I hate to bother you with this question you probably can't answer - but I must.

When is the 360 addon going to have DTS ?


I realize there is a lot of interest in this. All I can say is that the core development work is finished but we need to roll this up in a console update and that takes a bit of time. So I appreciate your patience on this.

The above was taken from the avsforum.....they have been working on this for over a month now....so hopefully we should get the audio fix jan/feb.

Quite a few people don't think a DTS update is gonna sort out the problem.

[HCK]

MS are aware of the problem, Amirm who is part of the HD DVD dev team has said that the fix will be in the DTS update.