Re: Panasonic intros fourth generation Blu-ray players

Not to take sides but I agree with Henning on this one. I know for a fact the not all DVD players, Bluray players, CD players, etc decode audio the same. Otherwise it wouldn't matter which product you use to output the audio, they would all sound the same which is not the case.

Heck the Yamaha 6180 I was looking at has Burr Brown audio DAC's that it promotes as a selling point. If they all decoded audio the same then why would that matter?

Just like video, not all audio DAC's are created equally. Just ask someone that uses high end equipment or go to any electronics stores that deals with high end equipment and they will tell you.

Personally, I can't wait for Henning's comparison review of the audio between the PS3 and the Panasonic. I've always wondered if you get better sound (as I'm sure you do even if it's a minor difference) with other bluray players and I'm curious about the video as well.

I have seen the older version of the Panasonic BD35 (the BD30) on sale a few times for under $200 so I may end up snatching one of those, unless the BD35 goes down to a nice price on Boxing Day.

For all the things I like about the PS3 I really dislike not being able to use a universal remote on it.

---

[Post edited by Falcon01 on Nov 18, 2008 - CST 3:23 PM]

Quote:
So your saying that a $30 CD player has just as good sound as a $300 player? All Blu-ray players has the same picture quality? They are just decoding VC-1 or H264?

Pssst Henning, a CD player plays CDs that already have decoded tracks on them (uncompressed PCM). I hope you're kidding and realize that the quality difference between a $30 CD player and a $300 CD player has nothing to do with decoding of compressed digital to uncompressed digital and everything to do with digital to audio conversion (DAC chipset and implementation).

And I'm certain you also know the difference between lossless compressed audio and lossy video. But really, in both cases the fun happens after decoding. It's what we pay for! (Deinterlacing, motion detection, color control, equalization, noise suppression/removal, etc. etc. etc.)

Since digital to audio conversion is where the hard stuff happens, people should also realize that quality may be lower if the blu-ray player they use the analog outs for has lower quality DACs than the receiver they have it attached to.

Quote:
Heck the Yamaha 6180 I was looking at has Burr Brown audio DAC's that it promotes as a selling point. If they all decoded audio the same then why would that matter?

Falcon, the discussion was about the differences between where a compressed lossless audio stream would be decoded into an uncompressed lossless audio stream - a Blu-ray player or the receiver). It has nothing to do with all the hard and interesting stuff (including DAC) that happens after the decoding is accomplished, since that's going to happen on the receiver regardless, unless of course you're using the multi-channel analog outs on a Blu-ray player.

It really comes down to if the PS3 (or any other player) touches the sound before sending it as PCM over HDMI. As you said it can mix two sources into one (when in Picture-in-Picture mode) so in that case it clearly modifies the sound.

I have also read in some reviews that better bass management is expected when you use bitstream compared to letting the player decode it. Not sure why. However, this was what I experienced when testing the Onkyo 805. When the Onkyo did the decoding the the sound appeared slightly more clear and precise while the PCM from the PS3 was slightly more muddy. Now, it was a subtle difference - again the PS3 was not bad at all but there was a difference.