As some of our forum members pointed out, the 5.1 analog audio output on the Toshiba HD DVD player sounds great! In fact, it sounds better than the digital (S/PDIF) output! I've spent some time doing a back-to-back comparison of various audio modes (using The Phantom of The Opera HD DVD as a source) and I came to the same conclusion. It's not really easy to compare different outputs, especially due to different subwoofer balance, but to me, the analog output offers more natural, clear and rich sound, than digital output (either coax or optical).
Doesn't make any sense! How can analog output sound better than digital? Based on our experience with traditional DVD players we would normally expect to get better sound from digital connections. After all, good A/V receivers normally have better DD decoders and Digital-to-Analog Converters than those inside DVD players. Well, this is not the case with HD DVD. And here is why.
Instead of traditional Dolby Digital encoding, HD DVD implements a more advanced Dolby Digital Plus format which uses a much higher bit rate (3 Mbps on HD DVD, 1.7 Mbps on Blu-ray Disc) and results in superior sound quality. The problem is that present digital connections (S/PDIF and even HDMI) do not support this format and even if they did, there are presently no A/V receivers capable of decoding Dolby Digital Plus.
Does it mean that you cannot take advantage of this new Dolby Digital Plus format? Does it mean you have to wait for the next generation of players and receivers? Not at all! You can enjoy the better sound, even with your current equipment! Toshiba offers three options for you:
Option One: HDMI. Even in its current generation (Ver. 1.1) HDMI interface is capable of delivering multi-channel uncompressed PCM. And Toshiba players are capable of converting DD+ stream to multi-channel PCM. So, if you have one of those latest A/V receivers that can extract multi-channel PCM from HDMI interface - this is your best option! Let the Toshiba player do DD+ decoding and use DACs in your A/V receiver.
Option Two: 5.1 Analog Output. Most of us do not have receivers capable of extracting multi-channel PCM from HDMI, but we do have 5.1 direct analog inputs, that were intended for DVD-Audio and SACD. Conveniently, Toshiba players include 24-bit 192 KHz digital-to-analog converters and can decode 5.1 channels of DD+. This is the best choice for most of us!
Option Three: S/PDIF or TOSLINK. For backward compatibility with DD equipment, Toshiba players re-encode the 5.1 audio signal in a form of standard (core) DTS stream and pass it via digital outputs (coaxial S/PDIF or optical TOSLINK). (It is interesting that Toshiba decided to re-encode the audio as DTS, rather than DD. Although DTS has higher bit rate and arguably better sound quality, not all DD A/V receivers support it.)
The HD DVD specification supports even better audio formats (with lossless compression): Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. But you can forget about them for now. First of all, not many HD DVDs will have them (currently there are no DTS-HD discs and only one disc with Dolby TrueHD), and second, because the first-generation players cannot fully decode these formats (for example, Toshiba only supports 2-channel decoding of Dolby TrueHD and only core DTS decoding for DTS-HD). But even the 5.1 DD+, standard on all HD DVDs, is a huge step forward, compared to traditional DD.
Update 08/25/06: With the latest 2.0 firmware update all Toshiba players are now able to decode 5.1 channels of Dolby TrueHD. So, the above discussion about DD+ now equaly applies to Dolby TrueHD!
Doesn't make any sense! How can analog output sound better than digital? Based on our experience with traditional DVD players we would normally expect to get better sound from digital connections. After all, good A/V receivers normally have better DD decoders and Digital-to-Analog Converters than those inside DVD players. Well, this is not the case with HD DVD. And here is why.
Instead of traditional Dolby Digital encoding, HD DVD implements a more advanced Dolby Digital Plus format which uses a much higher bit rate (3 Mbps on HD DVD, 1.7 Mbps on Blu-ray Disc) and results in superior sound quality. The problem is that present digital connections (S/PDIF and even HDMI) do not support this format and even if they did, there are presently no A/V receivers capable of decoding Dolby Digital Plus.
Does it mean that you cannot take advantage of this new Dolby Digital Plus format? Does it mean you have to wait for the next generation of players and receivers? Not at all! You can enjoy the better sound, even with your current equipment! Toshiba offers three options for you:
Option One: HDMI. Even in its current generation (Ver. 1.1) HDMI interface is capable of delivering multi-channel uncompressed PCM. And Toshiba players are capable of converting DD+ stream to multi-channel PCM. So, if you have one of those latest A/V receivers that can extract multi-channel PCM from HDMI interface - this is your best option! Let the Toshiba player do DD+ decoding and use DACs in your A/V receiver.
Option Two: 5.1 Analog Output. Most of us do not have receivers capable of extracting multi-channel PCM from HDMI, but we do have 5.1 direct analog inputs, that were intended for DVD-Audio and SACD. Conveniently, Toshiba players include 24-bit 192 KHz digital-to-analog converters and can decode 5.1 channels of DD+. This is the best choice for most of us!
Option Three: S/PDIF or TOSLINK. For backward compatibility with DD equipment, Toshiba players re-encode the 5.1 audio signal in a form of standard (core) DTS stream and pass it via digital outputs (coaxial S/PDIF or optical TOSLINK). (It is interesting that Toshiba decided to re-encode the audio as DTS, rather than DD. Although DTS has higher bit rate and arguably better sound quality, not all DD A/V receivers support it.)
The HD DVD specification supports even better audio formats (with lossless compression): Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. But you can forget about them for now. First of all, not many HD DVDs will have them (currently there are no DTS-HD discs and only one disc with Dolby TrueHD), and second, because the first-generation players cannot fully decode these formats (for example, Toshiba only supports 2-channel decoding of Dolby TrueHD and only core DTS decoding for DTS-HD). But even the 5.1 DD+, standard on all HD DVDs, is a huge step forward, compared to traditional DD.
Update 08/25/06: With the latest 2.0 firmware update all Toshiba players are now able to decode 5.1 channels of Dolby TrueHD. So, the above discussion about DD+ now equaly applies to Dolby TrueHD!
