What is 24 bit

[shokhead]

My Don Henley DTS Disc says its 24 bit/5.1 channel So what does the 24 bit mean and does it have to say it to have it and what does my receiver or player need to to?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

My Don Henley DTS Disc says its 24 bit/5.1 channel So what does the 24 bit mean and does it have to say it to have it and what does my receiver or player need to to?

Shok,
24bits is what the disc has been encoded in. 24bit represent a signal to noise ratio of 144db, probably the best we need to do in audio. To understand what this means you have to look at how many levels of sound it can portray. With 16 bit audio you can resolve 65,536 different levels of amplitude. With 24bit audio it is 16,777,216, which is considerably more amplitude variations.

[shokhead]

So you always want 24bit if you can get it? Will my 2805 decode/play it?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

So you always want 24bit if you can get it? Will my 2805 decode/play it?

This is correct, and I believe the 2805 can pass 24bit signals.

[shokhead]

I thought so to but i've never seen it come up in the window,it should,right?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I thought so to but i've never seen it come up in the window,it should,right?

It should say it if you own a DVD player that can properly output a 24bit signal. However, only if the signal has a different sample rate(i.e 96khz or higher) does the player note a difference in bitrate. Otherwise a 24/48khz signal will not be read out by the receiver. This is at least how my Onkyo/Sony combination works. Only when the reciever detects a 24/96khz or higher signal will it read "24/96khz stereo". If the signal is 24/48khz, it just shows 48khz PCM.

[Geoffcin]

My Don Henley DTS Disc says its 24 bit/5.1 channel So what does the 24 bit mean and does it have to say it to have it and what does my receiver or player need to to?

Although the signal has been encoded with a 24bit word debth, there's NO dac on the market now that can convert it perfectly. The very best dac's have about 20 bit quality from their analog output. This is still an enormous S/N ratio, and is about as close to perfect as we're ever going to hear.

I have a couple dozen DVD-Audio disks, and in 192/24 rez you can hear right down to the backround hiss on the master tapes. Next best thing to having a large format reel-to-reel!