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PS3 Slim audio questions.

C

Crow550

Platinum Member
My friend has his PS3 hooked up to his TV with HDMI then optical audio cable to the TV to his audio system.

So should the HDMI audio in the PS3 be set to LPCM or Bitstream?

I know he needs an audio receiver with HDMI to get HD audio at 5.1. What about regular Dolby Digital tracks & DTS tracks that are on some Blu-Rays? Or when playing DVDs?


Then my setup with my PS3 is HDMI to TV to analog out stereo. The TV has SRS surround HD that can take a 5.1 track and simulate 5.1 which works fine till I get a better audio system. So I doubt Bitstream or LPCM matters? It does work on both.

Thanks.
 
Bitstream means the ps3 won't decode the audio it will just pass whatever the content has (DD, DD 5.1, DTS, DTS MA etc) to the display device/reciever.
 
So the PS3 with LPCM will decode Dolby Digital 5.1 & DTS and pass it as surround to the receiver?

So what about HD audio? Only through HDMI right? So even if it goes to the TV then an audio receiver with optical audio it will still be stereo then?
 
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There's options for each specifically. You can have it decode the lossless formats and then output however you have it set. There's separate options for the non-lossless surround formats (I believe you can have it bitstream, mix, or PCM, but it might only be two of those, I know mix is one of them though). There might even be more options, as I believe you have to tell it if what you're outputting to can handle DTS as well.

But yeah, you can only pass HD audio (either bitstream or decoded) over HDMI. Er, I guess you can have it decoded and downmixed to stereo for optical output.

In your friend's setup, I'd probably run optical directly from the PS3 to the audio setup.

In your setup, it probably doesn't matter but you might check and be sure that it can decode DD and DTS.
 
I know with DVD players you have a choice of PCM or Bitstream. Which PCM is stereo and Bitstream is for 5.1 receivers.

So LPCM is able to output 5.1 LPCM right? The difference is having the PS3 decode and output it or setting it on Bitstream and letting the decoder do it. If it can.

So does this mean you can get cheaper 5.1 systems that can handle 5.1 LPCM?

Or am I missing something?
 
Crow550 said:
I know with DVD players you have a choice of PCM or Bitstream. Which PCM is stereo and Bitstream is for 5.1 receivers.

So LPCM is able to output 5.1 LPCM right? The difference is having the PS3 decode and output it or setting it on Bitstream and letting the decoder do it. If it can.

So does this mean you can get cheaper 5.1 systems that can handle 5.1 LPCM?

Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can have the PS3 decode it and do LPCM (how many channels is dependent on what you set the PS3 to output).

You won't need a receiver that can decode the lossless surround formats, but the only way you'll get lossless surround out of the PS3 is over HDMI (I believe you'll need HDMI 1.2 for the LPCM). So you won't need to limit yourself in that respect and yeah, I'd say put your money towards a higher end receiver versus buying a newer low-end one just so you can fit your budget and have it be able to decode those formats.
 
darkswordsman17 said:
Yeah, you can have the PS3 decode it and do LPCM (how many channels is dependent on what you set the PS3 to output).

You won't need a receiver that can decode the lossless surround formats, but the only way you'll get lossless surround out of the PS3 is over HDMI (I believe you'll need HDMI 1.2 for the LPCM). So you won't need to limit yourself in that respect and yeah, I'd say put your money towards a higher end receiver versus buying a newer low-end one just so you can fit your budget and have it be able to decode those formats.
Click to expand...

If I get a receiver that can decode DTS HD, True HD and such then why would I want the PS3 to do it as LPCM then?

This is kinda confusing. What advantage is there if I can't just get a receiver that can just decode LPCM or whatever? Is there receivers that can do just LPCM?
 
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Emulex said:
so how does ps3 do 3D and LPCM? you need hdmi 1.4 for that to work without compromise?
Click to expand...

I don't think it can, so you're basically going to have to choose 3D or lossless surround.

I would guess Sony will update the HDMI spec on the PS3 at some point though, but obviously you'd need the new hardware.

Crow550 said:
If I get a receiver that can decode DTS HD, True HD and such then why would I want the PS3 to do it as LPCM then?

This is kinda confusing. What advantage is there if I can't just get a receiver that can just decode LPCM or whatever? Is there receivers that can do just LPCM?
Click to expand...

No reason, there shouldn't be a discernible difference either way.

Potentially, there could be different things that might make you choose the receiver (some use high grade DSPs, although I believe Cell is used on the PS3 so it should be plenty strong). Some receivers have other processing and so it might be best to let it handle everything, although I'd be skeptical that you'd notice. The only other thing I could think of is if there's some specific Dolby or DTS processing that you'd want. For instance, I'd guess that starting with a Dolby encoded source material might be best for use with say Dolby Headphone or Pro Logic, but again, doubtful it'd be an issue.

Yeah, lots of receivers can do LPCM. I'd recommend checking with the specific models you look at (AVSForum is a great source for this), but basically if it accepts HDMI audio, it should support LPCM. Checking Wikipedia, looks like you'll need at least HDMI 1.1 (or anything later) for Dolby and DTS lossless surround LPCM streaming.

In short, there shouldn't be any quality difference, so your receiver decoding lossless surround formats shouldn't be a necessity. Just make sure that it handles HDMI audio and is HDMI 1.1 spec or higher.
 
Hmmm....I know with DVD you'd have to use Bitstream to decode Dolby or DTS or PCM that is just stereo.

I guess HD 5.1 is a little different. I can't seem to find a lot of HD audio decoders in common B&M stores. Odd that you can have LPCM or True HD, DTS HD which is the same thing....
 
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Crow550 said:
Hmmm....I know with DVD you'd have to use Bitstream to decode Dolby or DTS or PCM that is just stereo.

I guess HD 5.1 is a little different. I can't seem to find a lot of HD audio decoders in common B&M stores. Odd that you can have LPCM or True HD, DTS HD which is the same thing....
Click to expand...

That's only true over SPDIF/optical as they don't have the bandwidth to do non-compressed multi-channel audio (well anything beyond stereo that is). If you are connected with HDMI you can have the player decode regular the compressed formats and then send it as PCM. Likewise, you have to have your player decode it if you do analog output.

What stores are you looking at? For about the last couple of years, even lowend receivers have been able to decode the lossless formats.
 
im gonna hijack this with my own question

Can the PS3 output sound over HDMI and Optical (toslink) at the same time?
 
darkswordsman17 said:
That's only true over SPDIF/optical as they don't have the bandwidth to do non-compressed multi-channel audio (well anything beyond stereo that is). If you are connected with HDMI you can have the player decode regular the compressed formats and then send it as PCM. Likewise, you have to have your player decode it if you do analog output.

What stores are you looking at? For about the last couple of years, even lowend receivers have been able to decode the lossless formats.
Click to expand...

So if you have an upconverting DVD player with HDMI. Hmmm....Cool.

I have seen audio systems that accept HDMI but they don't have much information on the box is what I mean.
 
Anubis said:
im gonna hijack this with my own question

Can the PS3 output sound over HDMI and Optical (toslink) at the same time?
Click to expand...

Yes. It's in the options.

I believe you can set both to LPCM but if you do that for optical it will be stereo right because of bandwidth? So optical should be on bitstream.
 
Crow550 said:
Yes. It's in the options.

I believe you can set both to LPCM but if you do that for optical it will be stereo right because of bandwidth? So optical should be on bitstream.
Click to expand...

The option says that if you enable it that whatever the secondary connector is will be downmixed to stereo. So if you have optical or the regular analog out set as the primary, even HDMI will be downmixed to stereo.

Crow550 said:
So if you have an upconverting DVD player with HDMI. Hmmm....Cool.

I have seen audio systems that accept HDMI but they don't have much information on the box is what I mean.
Click to expand...

Yeah it can do the decoding and stream PCM.

Hmm, usually they'd tout features like that. It has gotten really common now though, so the whole mess is even more of a moot point. It might be worth checking if there's a noticeable difference, but I doubt, and there shouldn't be a discernible one assuming you're playing it over the same DAC/amp/speakers.

It is worth noting though that if your player has the analog outputs you might try using your player's DAC, as it might sound better to you. I wouldn't on the PS3 (both because it's only two channel and I doubt the PS3's analog section is very good).
 
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I plan to get a 5.1 system sometime soon. Till then surprisingly my TVs SRS TruSurround HD doesn't sound half bad. Also works with my analog stereo hooked up to the TV.
 
Good lord hope this works. I plan on using the HDMI and optical run at the same time. Watch HDMI when I dont feel like turning on the surround, surround when I do.

I cant wait to play with the setup once the tv gets here, Thursday cant come fast enough.

for now I am using a PS3 on 'composite'.. ugh! But hey it works!
 
Snag an HDMI cable at Monoprice.com and an Optical cable if you need one of those too.

There is a setting in the PS3 to output both at the same time.

Enjoy your PS3!
 
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