Toshiba A2 audio ?

[mikeb]

Hi, I just recieved my A2 today, got everything setup using component for video ( no hdmi on projector) and optical to reciever for audio set to bitstream on the A2. Everything works great but my Yamaha reciever shows DTS on both of the HD DVD's that I have even though they are Dolby Digital only. Any help would be greatly apreciated as I can't seem to figure the reason out.

Thanks
Mike

[bobgpsr]

For HD DVD the player must decode any audio codec used on an Advanced Content HD DVD title (most all HD DVD's are authored as Advanced). The player then mixes the audio with button sounds and with PiP (HDi) commentary audio. The HD-A2 then re-encodes the resulting audio as legacy 1509 kbps dts to send out the S/PDIF (coax or optical Toslink) interface which is what an AVR will show (dts).

[mikeb]

Thanks Bob, just wanted to make sure this is what it was supposed to be doing. :holycow:

[Anthony]

Interesting. Mine's on its way now. My receiver (Marantz SR-18) can do DTS and DD, but I can't apply the THX re-eq on DTS. Is their any way to downmix it to Dolby instead?

If not, I'm not too concerned. The days of the SR-18 in the theater are numbered. As soon as I can convince the wife to spend a mortgage payment on a new preamp that will do TrueHD

[bobgpsr]

Do thorough research before buying a "TrueHD" decoder capable preamp. What will be your Dolby TrueHD bitstream source? It will require HDMI 1.3 which only the HD-XA2 has at the moment (for HD DVD players). Also even the HD-XA2 will not output TrueHD bitstream right now -- rumours are that a Fall firmware update may allow it as an audiophile option.

[Anthony]

So the only way the HD-A2 sends out its TrueHD et al. is by recoding it in DTS or DD over the Toslink?

[Anthony]

Okay, I just read the manual online.

Basically it sends everything DTS over the SPDIF/optical cable. If you have an HDMI audio enabled receiver, it will send up to the 5.1 TrueHD,etc over the HDMI. It just won't send the whole bitstream.

Not to worry, I only have four speakers and subwoofer anyway

[bobgpsr]

Anthony wrote:

If you have an HDMI audio enabled receiver, it will send up to the 5.1 TrueHD,etc over the HDMI. It just won't send the whole bitstream.)

For Dolby TrueHD there is nothing wrong with having the player do the decode and then use lossless multichannel linear PCM (not bitstream) via HDMI to get the sound to the receiver.

[Anthony]

I thought I read in the manual that it could only encode 5.1 channels of whatever it was fed to send over HDMI. Something about core DTS (my eyes had glazed over by then).

It sounds like it will be fine. Even like this over the Toslink cable, it will be a monumental improvement over my current setup.

Thanks for the info.

[mikeb]

Very informative discussion, thanks!

[MatrixDweller]

If you play a standard DVD the audio is passed in whatever format you choose and does not only display as DTS.

[thxgoon]

So MikeB, now that you've had this player for a while what do you think of it? How does it look via component? Does the audio via DTS sound as good as traditional DTS dvd's?