New to Blu-Ray; Just got Panasonic BD30 & have a question...

[Lord Darth Vader]

Well, after being someone who has some pretty top notch HD stuff, I finally broke down and got rid of my last SD device, my DVD player, and got the Panasonic BD30 that just came out. Even upgraded to the latest firmware that also just came out a few days ago.

So, as someone new to Blu-Ray, I've got a question: is there anything I need to do in order to maximize my PQ and audio quality? Now, I know I'll have to make sure I select DD and all, but I'm wondering if this thing is essentially plug & play.

I here all this stuff about Mastering the audio and all, so I wondering what that's all about.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tnsprin]

Well, after being someone who has some pretty top notch HD stuff, I finally broke down and got rid of my last SD device, my DVD player, and got the Panasonic BD30 that just came out. Even upgraded to the latest firmware that also just came out a few days ago.

So, as someone new to Blu-Ray, I've got a question: is there anything I need to do in order to maximize my PQ and audio quality? Now, I know I'll have to make sure I select DD and all, but I'm wondering if this thing is essentially plug & play.

I here all this stuff about Mastering the audio and all, so I wondering what that's all about.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

For audio quality you need to go beyond just DD. Normally select one of the lossless formats, linear PCM, DTS HD MA, or Dolby Digital TRUHD. Which one you select depends on what your player and audio equipment handle. In many cases HDMI or multi channel analog will be needed for the best your player can handle. Optical connections may be restricted in what they can do. Linear PCM is normally supported by all players. However in some cases you will not only be able to send 2 channel PCM to your receiver if not using HDMI. For DTS-hd and DD TRUHD some of the players can decode them and send them out as Linear PCM, and some cannot decode them but will send the full bitstream to your receiver. Only some of the latest receivers can decode this. And this confussion is where what player and audio equipment really matters.

All players I know of can do at least Core DTS form DTS-hd MA, which is good but not as good as full lossless DTS-HD MA. Some of the players can decode Dolby Digital truhd, but some will drop to Dolby digital instead.

How plug and play your combo is depends on too many variables. Make sure that your equipment, hopefully connected with HDMI (but in my case my Video is component, and my audio is hdmi), is selecting the highest quality your's can reproduce. For video usually 1080P is best then 1080i and last 720p. However for some cases, if your TV is 720p, it is best to have your player go direct to 720p.

 

[teachsac]

You've got an 805(?) so you're good to go on the audio side. I take it you ran the audysey setup when you set up your receiver? Just select one of the advanced codecs when you play your movie as stated above.

For picture, have you had your set calibrated? If not it is recommended. You can also get the DVE disc. A BD version is coming out sometime in March.

S~

 

[Lord Darth Vader]

Teach, yes, the TV itself, a Samsung 6189S, is all set as well. It's been calibrated fine. FWIW, I've also got connected an HR20-700 and HR10-250 (DirecTV receivers), so all I had to do was connect the BD30 via an HDMI cable.

I have noticed that on some movies, Italian Job, for example, the Onkyo 805 showed "Dolby Digital" and not "True Dolby HD," which it showed on other movies, and nothing I could do to the 805 was able to change that. Is that some kind of defect in the Italian Job disc?

 

[HD#1]

Is there a major difference in True Dolby HD and Dolby Digital? Just curious I have not heard True HD content yet since AV is not capable of that, but I think the sound on both Blu Ray and HDDVD is excelent with my AV reciever. Just want to know if it is clearer sound or louder?

 

[CochiseGuy]

I have noticed that on some movies, Italian Job, for example, the Onkyo 805 showed "Dolby Digital" and not "True Dolby HD," which it showed on other movies, and nothing I could do to the 805 was able to change that. Is that some kind of defect in the Italian Job disc?

The Italian Job blu-ray only has a DD 5.1 audio track. The HD DVD version has DD Plus. Warner and Paramount (back when they were releasing on BD) often used DD+ or TrueHD on the HD DVD release but only DD 5.1 on the BD, giving as a reason that it was because DD+ & TrueHD decoding is optional for BD, and most early BD players couldn't decode them.

Just be sure to check the Audio options of each disc. For example, Disney BDs usually default to the DD 5.1 audio and you have to go into options and select the uncompressed PCM.

Is there a major difference in True Dolby HD and Dolby Digital? Just curious I have not heard True HD content yet since AV is not capable of that, but I think the sound on both Blu Ray and HDDVD is excelent with my AV reciever. Just want to know if it is clearer sound or louder?

Yes, there is a huge difference - TrueHD is the compressed lossless version of the original studio recording. DD was designed for DVD, attempting to provide the best possible lossy reproduction on the limited space and bandwidth available with DVD. DD maximum bitrate is 640kbps, where TrueHD is usually around 3.6mbps.

 

[Lord Darth Vader]

The Italian Job blu-ray only has a DD 5.1 audio track. The HD DVD version has DD Plus. Warner and Paramount (back when they were releasing on BD) often used DD+ or TrueHD on the HD DVD release but only DD 5.1 on the BD, giving as a reason that it was because DD+ & TrueHD decoding is optional for BD, and most early BD players couldn't decode them.

Just be sure to check the Audio options of each disc. For example, Disney BDs usually default to the DD 5.1 audio and you have to go into options and select the uncompressed PCM.

Are you referring to such options on the disc itself or the BD30 player? I thought I set up uncompressed PCM as default on the player, but I obviously could be mistaken.

 

[CochiseGuy]

Are you referring to such options on the disc itself or the BD30 player? I thought I set up uncompressed PCM as default on the player, but I obviously could be mistaken.

On the disc itself.

When you put in a Disney BD and just press "Play", they normally default to the DD track included on the disc. You have to go into the discs Setup Options, Audio, and select the PCM option.

That you're seeing your Onkyo receiver display "Dolby Digital" or "Dolby TrueHD" indicates you have your BD-30 correctly set to bitstream those audio codecs for decoding.

When uncompressed PCM audio is included on a disc - Disney & Sony almost always do - you often need to go into the disc Setup menu to select the superior PCM audio. The reason they do that is because folks who don't have an HDMI receiver have to use digital optical, which is the only other choice on a PS3 (no analogs out). And the bandwidth of optical is limited to a max of 1.5mbps, so uncompressed PCM audio on a disc is downmixed to only 2 channel stereo. For this reason, they always include a DD audio track and usually make it the default when PCM is also included on a disk.

Again, Warner & Paramount dual format releases usually only have DD (Warner's "300" BD has both PCM and TrueHD, a rarity). Fox & MGM releases all use DTS MA. Lionsgate is a mixed bag; they used DTS MA early on, but use PCM on most newer releases.

 

[Lord Darth Vader]

Thanks. I'll keep this in mind. So far, I haven't run into this option on the few BD discs I've watched. They've only had the typical "Dolby Digital 5.1" and "Dolby English" options, or something like that.