[Wayde]

Why Blu-ray?

You want Hi-def video for your HDTV so you should also get a player with hi-def audio. The hi-def audio is the controversial part that is difficult because very few BD players on the market today are decoding or bitstreaming the high res audio formats.

Hi-res audio

Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, DTS-HD, DTS-HD Master Audio.
These are the new so-called lossless formats, they’re all either sampled at higher bit-rates than a CD, making them the equivalent to DVD-Audio in fidelity, or compressed in a lossless codec, meaning there is no loss of fidelity due to the software used to compress for storage on disc.

PCM 5.1. Is a completely lossless (same as CD audio quality) audio format. What was cool about Blu-ray is the extra space so it could add a PCM audio track.

PCM = Pulse Code Modulation. It’s a method of digitizing a sine wave that was invented around the time of radar in the 1930s.

All the player can decode PCM and send it via analog (RCA 5.1) to your receiver.

The trouble with most Blu-ray players:

Most Blu-ray player don’t decode or bitstream the new lossless audio codecs! And that sucks!

If a player were capable of decoding the new lossless audio codecs it should have analog 5.1 outputs in the back and any receiver with analog 5.1 inputs could receive the audio as decoded by the player.

This is the way to not have to spend a LOT of extra money buying a new receiver. Although looking for one that can decode is a tall order today. The only one I know of is the upcoming Panasonic DMP-BD50 and the Sony Blu-ray players that have been announced that will be out this summer.

On the other hand…

A player capable of bitstreaming the lossless audio codecs can only send it digitally via HDMI 1.3a (or better) to an A/V receiver with an HDMI 1.3a (or better) input that can decode the lossless audio codecs. There are several receivers on the market today that fit that bill but they’re all very new. The most cost effective today are the new receivers by Onkyo. You could get one that does the job for around $500.

That means at the time of writing this there are very few combinations of A/V products capable of giving its customers access to the new lossless codecs on a Blu-ray disc.

The only option you have are a few Blu-ray players (at the time of writing this) that can bitstream – your options are limited to:

Denon DVD-2500BTCI $999
Panasonic DMP-BD30 $499
Pioneer Elite BDP95FD $999
Samsung BD-P1400 $499

My own opinion for what it’s worth…

When bitstreaming, I personally don’t see any step up when spending the extra money on the $999 models. The unit isn’t decoding so its DACs are irrelevant. It’s just sending bits to your receiver for so I really don’t care if it’s a radio shack breadboard with a few ICs dangling from it. I’m of the bits-is-bits school. But then, I’m really not a dedicated audiophile.

I hope this helps. I gotta get up so I can’t spend time proof-reading right now. Feel free to ask any questions here and I’ll get on it.