stargate125645

Alright, so I got my Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver and everything is hooked up perfectly fine. It took me a while to figure out that the PS3 doesn't output high-end audio streams by default (or at least mine didn't seem to) so I had to go into the Sound Settings menu and tell it that Linear PCM of all frequencies and DTS 5.1 and DD 5.1 were all readable by my receiver. The receiver works just fine with DD5.1 output from the DVR.

I tried setting the audio output to bitstream encoding but the PS3 claimed that some portions of the audio would not be played (I was watching a Blu-Ray version of Stargate at the time), and sure enough the quality was reduced to standard 5.1 as indicated after hitting the "Display" key on the Blu-Ray remote to see the audio encoding format. With Linear PCM output, it listed DTS-HD HR 6.1 at 3.0Mb/s, but with bitstream it listed only 1.5Mb/s and didn't list any HD audio codecs by acronym. (For the record, the SR607 is supposed to be capable of reading bitstream audio data.) Thus, I switched back to Linear PCM over HDMI as the output mode.

Are there some better settings I should use for my movies and games (HD and non-HD)? Why does the LPCM setting output all of the channels at high quality but not bitstream?

I also noticed that the PS3 was only outputting LPCM at 48kHz when my receiver is capable of accepting it up to 192kHz for 5.1 channels (which I am using). Is this because of the movie's audio encoding rather than a PS3 setting? I have all frequencies enabled in Sound Settings, as I mentioned earlier.

Is there anything else I need to know to utilize my PS3 to its fullest capabilities for movies and games, both audio- and video-wise? For example, should I set the video output to "Auto," "RGB," or "Y'CbCr?"

Any tips from those of you with an Onkyo TX-SR607 are also welcome even if not related to the PS3 questions.

Thanks in advance!

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Varjo

The settings you have sound good.

Blueray audio is generaly 16bit 48 KHZ.

Bitstreaming hd didn't work because the PS3 doesn't actually support bitstreaming hd audio.

Leave your color space at auto and you should be all set with the settings you have above.

Enjoy, I have an Onkyo 875 and love it.

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stargate125645

Any idea how I can tell what bit depth the audio is encoded with? I've only ever seen the bitrate and sampling rate for converting the analog audio signal to PCM listed. Out of curiosity, what are the Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 settings for in the Sound Settings menu in the PS3 if the PS3 decides to use Linear PCM when all the encoding types are selected as acceptable for output?

Edit: Is the PS3 capable of outputting x.v.Color and Deep Color? I found an option for setting the color space to "wide," but I'm not sure it's the same thing.

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Varjo

The PS3 can bitstream Dolby Digital and DTS material, it just can't bitstream TrueHD and DTS MasterAudio.

I don't know of an easy way to tell bit depth of encoded audio with the ps3, power dvd 9 has this info... You could google it on a blueray by blueray basis, but almost all are 16 bit.

As for Deep color, the PS3 supports it, but no source material is encoded with it at the moment. Leave it off.

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stargate125645

Since you own an Onkyo system, I'll go ahead and ask you this as well: is the LCD on the receiver (or the GUI for that matter) supposed to display the actual audio encoding format such as "DTS-HD MA" or "DTS-HD HR" or "Dolby TrueHD," or just the maker of said formats such as "DolbyD" or "DTS"? I only see options for "Direct" and "DolbyD" for any Dolby-encoded material, and "Direct" and "DTS" for any DTS-encoded material when looking through the sound input assignment possibilities for each receiver input, and I worry that it is not the HD quality forms even if the PS3 says that is what it is outputting. Furthermore, when I output PCM material to the receiver, I only get "Direct" and "Multichannel" options - neither "DTS" or "DolbyD" show up as options. Am I missing some sort of setting to enable those higher-end codecs? Why are neither DTS or DD available for PCM audio? Do I want to use "Direct" or do I want to use "DTS"/"DolbyD"/"Multichannel" when available?

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Varjo

DolbyDigital and DTS are both lossy compression codecs

TrueHD and DTS Master Audio are their loss less counterparts


LPCM is multichannel uncompressed audio (note that not all LPCM is the same quality, it's simple an uncompressed format).

Since the PS3 can't bitstream TrueHD and DTS master audio, if you tell it to bitstream, it will down convert both to DD or DTS respectively, hence your onkyo will show a DD or DTS stream.

If you select LPCM, you are getting whatever input the PS3 has. (if you make it use LPCM on a dvd, you'll get the uncompressed version of the DD soundtrack, for a blueray, it may be the uncompressed version of a TrueHD soundtrack).

In either case, your receiver won't be able to tell what the LPCM was decoded from, be it trueHD ectra, it just detects a LPCM stream and announces it's receiving uncompressed multi channel audio.

Don't worry, you're still getting the same sound as if the Onkyo were doing the decoding (assuming the player is doing a good job, which PS3s tend to do).

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stargate125645

So that's why "Direct" sounds the same as "Multichannel" when I send the receiver PCM (i.e. the PS3 already decoded it), but both "DolbyD" and "DTS" sound better than "Direct" when non-PCM signals are sent to the receiver (i.e. the receiver still has to decode the audio for these and using "Direct" doesn't apply any decoding). Correct?

Out of curiosity, were I to send the DTS-HD MA/HR or Dolby Digital TrueHD directly to the receiver for it to decode, would my receiver still say simply "DolbyD" and "DTS," or would it actually show the specific audio encoding version? Just for future reference...

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Coma

Just use LPCM. There's absolutely no reason to use the rest. They're only used on media because they save space and bandwidth, but when you're transferring through HDMI... Some BDs and DVDs may have their own LPCM tracks, which are not 5.1, but stereo. You should look out for that.

And like Varjo said, most BDs are only 48 KHz. You'll be able to examine these stats on a computer if the PS3 doesn't allow you to ;E

As for video output mode, I believe that RGB is only ever used when you connect the PS3 to a computer. I doubt most TVs are even RGB, considering all video (minus games, in theory) they display is YV12.

If this is not a case of different channels, and the PS3 is really just decoding the best source and passing it as LPCM to the receiver, then it's placebo. Or it could be a bug or an intentional quality reduction, but I doubt that.

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ricsim78

As a side note, keep your Playstation 3 updated because they are constantly adding features such as sound formats along with a lot of other features.

Varjo

If you have a player that will bitstream TrueHD/MA your onkyo will show TrueHD/MA, there is even a pretty light that turns on to make you feel special


Direct mode will still "Decode" DTS/TrueHD/whatever, the difference is that in direct mode, your EQ (Audessy) as well as speaker distances and level adjustments won't be in effect.

In addition, no "matrixing" will happen, a stereo source will be stereo, 5.1 will be 5.1. If you have a dvd and you put it in direct mode with a 5.1 setup, you won't notice a difference there because no matrixing was taking place anyway, but you will notice the loss of your Audessy EQ.

I generaly have little use for direct mode. A properly set up Audessy EQ will do wonders for a system, leave it active.

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