How much difference with Dolby TrueHD??

[cruzmisl]

Hi All,

In an effort to get the best sound/picture possible I took back my Toshiba A20 and exchanged it for an XA2. My rationale for this was the A20's video decoding isn't as good as the XA2's and the A20 did not have 5.1 analog outputs. This is important since my Emotiva MMC-1 doesn't have 1.3 HDMI.

My plan is to use the XA2 to decode the Dolby TrueHD and pipe it in the MMC-1's direct input.

Anyway, on to my question. Is there a big difference in sound between TrueHD and standard Dolby soundtracks? I am hoping the extra $150 will be worth it both in terms of sound and picture quality.

Thanks,
Joe

[bobgpsr]

A subtle difference to me. Only during low audio level portions in Phantom of the Opera, etc IME. YMMV. But you will be using a lossless audio connection from the player to your Pre-Pro which should also give you the full benefit of other advanced audio codecs like Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) especially with the high 1509 kbps bitrates that Universal and Paramount use.

[bob1029]

I honestly cannot tell the difference in quality with the current movies, but I would imagine that as the audio engineers adapt to the higher bitrates, that the sound will be more open/dynamic.

[gsmollin]

I found it subtle as well. I have some movies with both style soundtracks, and the TrueHD has better dynamics, and a clearer sound. But it is a small improvement. I think the resolution and color gamut improvements of the video signal are much more important. Still, it is better, and it should improve more with 7.1 soundtracks.