Why opt for a high-end BluRay player?

[sbryan]

Why opt for a high-end BluRay player if the receiver is doing the decoding from the HDMI connection? I have all Marantz equipment and recently purchased a BD8002 player to use the 7.1 analog outputs to my SR9300 A/V receiver. This older SR9300 does not have HDMI connections so the decoding is being handled by the BD8002. But I got to wondering what would happen if I upgrade to an HDMI capable receiver like the SR8002 and used the HDMI connections? Doesn't the receiver then do all of the decoding? If the player is simply passing 1s and 0s (digital output) then wouldn't any BluRay player provide the same quality source?

Bryan

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Why opt for a high-end BluRay player if the receiver is doing the decoding from the HDMI connection? I have all Marantz equipment and recently purchased a BD8002 player to use the 7.1 analog outputs to my SR9300 A/V receiver. This older SR9300 does not have HDMI connections so the decoding is being handled by the BD8002.

First, on Blu-ray there is no advantage to either the player or receiver doing the decoding via HDMI. The decoding chips in both are exactly the same, chips certified by both Dts and Dolby. Secondly when using the players analog outputs, the players D/A conversion becomes very crucial, and so does the length of the cables you use to transport the audio. If the cable lengths between the player and the receiver are quite long, you could introduce jitter in the PCM signal. Not a certainty, but a distinct possibility. The other thing that has to be taken into consideration is the quality of the bass management in the player. If you use the analog outputs, your player must have very good bass management capabilities, or the audio will have to take another trip to digital via the A/D converters for bass management to take place. These trips back and forth from analog to digital, and back again degrades the overall signal. Not good. Via HDMI, and you don't have that worry, it's all digital.


But I got to wondering what would happen if I upgrade to an HDMI capable receiver like the SR8002 and used the HDMI connections? Doesn't the receiver then do all of the decoding? If the player is simply passing 1s and 0s (digital output) then wouldn't any BluRay player provide the same quality source?

Bryan

You have a choice of the player doing the decoding (if the player has internal decoders) or bitstreaming to the receiver. One does not have an advantage of the other. However, if you bitstream your audio via HDMI to the receiver (receiver doing the decoding), you lose the audio from the extra content. The audio on the extra content is PCM based, and passes through a multi-plexer, and is mixed in the PCM signal (the player doing the decoding). If you bitstream, the audio remains a Dts or Dolby bitstream, and the PCM audio cannot be mixed in, as it is incompatible with those bitstreams. You have a choice, bitstream so you can see the little Dts or DTHD light go on and lose your extra's audio, or let the player do it via HDMI and you lose nothing but keep the extra contents audio intact.

A higher end Blu-ray player is not all about audio. Most of them have video processing curcuits, and the ability to turn off these curcuits in the presence of all audio sources, such as CD and SACD/DVD-A. They often use state of the art upscaling chips such as the Reon, VXP by Sigma, or processing by Anchor Bay. These processors create cleaner more detailed images (very subtle but noticeable) than a standard off the shelf SOC.