Trouble with True HD.

[thc12]

I recently bought a Sony Blue-Ray player (bdp-s350) and a Yamaha receiver (rx-v863). The Sony sends out the True-HD bitstream and the Yamaha decodes it. I have the units connected via HDMI. The trouble I'm having is when I play a movie with True-HD audio all I get is Dolby Digital. That sounds great but the indicator light for True-HD audio is not on. I have called Sony to make sure the Blue-Ray was set to deliver True-HD, and it was. Everything is correct on the Blue-Ray player. So the next thing was to check the settings for the receiver and I did everything in the book for Dolby Digital and True-HD. I have sent Yamaha an e-mail two days ago and have not heard from them. So I'm looking for any advice from you guys. Thanks.

[kexodusc]

Do you have your BluRay player's audio output set to Bitstream or PCM?

[thc12]

The option for the BD audio is "Mix" or "Direct". There are also options for DTS (Downmix 2ch PCM or DTS), and Dolby Digital (Downmix 2ch PCM or Dolby Digital). So when I called Sony the guy told me to set the BD audio to "Direct", which is what it says in the book for HD audio.

[Rich-n-Texas]

The Sony PS3 sends TrueHD out as LPCM, not bitstream, so I have every reason to believe the BDP-S350 does the same thing. The TreuHD indicator light on the receiver will not light up, but that doesn't mean it's not receiving the audio as TrueHD and outputing it as such. As far as I know, the only real way to tell whether or not you're hearing TrueHD is to do an A/B comparison with a non-lossless format.

[L.J.]

The Sony PS3 sends TrueHD out as LPCM, not bitstream, so I have every reason to believe the BDP-S350 does the same thing. The TreuHD indicator light on the receiver will not light up, but that doesn't mean it's not receiving the audio as TrueHD and outputing it as such. As far as I know, the only real way to tell whether or not you're hearing TrueHD is to do an A/B comparison with a non-lossless format.

Nope, the 350 can bitstream. His AVR should be displaying TrueHD. He could use the internal decoding though and still output as PCM over HDMI, but he would loose DTSMA since that player can't decode it.

THC, are you able to bitstream DTSMA?

[Rich-n-Texas]

(Puts on dunce cap and retreats to the corner of the classroom)

[kexodusc]

I was just stalling earlier for you two to come by and help the dude out...but yeah, my first thought was that the 350 should be sending the bitstream to his receiver and the flag tripping the display for TrueHD

[thc12]

Sorry about the delay. Turns out that since I don't have an HDTV the BluRay was connected with an s-video cable and HDMI. Both are going to the Yamaha and then s-video to the T.V. I didn't know that was the case. So, when I was paging through the BluRay manual, I found a little paragraph that says "When outputting 480i/480p video signals from the HDMI out jack, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio are output as LPCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS bitstream signals even if "BD Audio Setting" is set to "Direct" in the "Audio Settings" setup." Since I don't have a HDTV, and can't get one for a while, do you guys know of a way to "cheat" and get the BluRay to output True HD. Maybe put an HDMI out on the Yamaha for the monitor out and have it somehow connect to s-video on the T.V. Does that make sense? Is that even possible? Am I out of luck until I get an HDTV?

[musicman1999]

Sorry about the delay. Turns out that since I don't have an HDTV the BluRay was connected with an s-video cable and HDMI. Both are going to the Yamaha and then s-video to the T.V. I didn't know that was the case. So, when I was paging through the BluRay manual, I found a little paragraph that says "When outputting 480i/480p video signals from the HDMI out jack, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio are output as LPCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS bitstream signals even if "BD Audio Setting" is set to "Direct" in the "Audio Settings" setup." Since I don't have a HDTV, and can't get one for a while, do you guys know of a way to "cheat" and get the BluRay to output True HD. Maybe put an HDMI out on the Yamaha for the monitor out and have it somehow connect to s-video on the T.V. Does that make sense? Is that even possible? Am I out of luck until I get an HDTV?

Try sending your video directly to your tv, also if your tv has component input you should use that instead of s video.

bill