The first film to feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack on Blu-ray disc will be Transformers: Age of Extinction, due out on September 30th in the US. The UK launch is scheduled for November 17th. In America both the Blu-ray combo pack and and the Blu-ray 3D combo pack will have a Dolby Atmos soundtrack encoded in Dolby TrueHD, but this has still to be confirmed for the UK release.Paramount Pictures says it will release additional titles on BD and via online streaming in the run-up to Christmas.' If you've experienced Transformers: Age of Extinction in Dolby Atmos in the cinema, you will understand the power of sound to transport you right into the middle of the action,' says Edward Hoxsie, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Production and Fulfillment, Paramount Pictures.MORE:Warner Bros has also confirmed its commitment to bringing out Dolby Atmos films. 'By leveraging new technologies such as Dolby Atmos, we can deliver a more enriching and and realistic experience that taps into the power and location of the audio, to draw fans deeper into the action unfolding on the screen,' says Jim Wuthrich, President of the Americas, Warner Bros Home Entertainment.In recent weeks multiple manufacturers have unveiled Dolby Atmos-compatible home cinema amplifiers, including,. Blu-ray discs with Dolby Atmos soundtracks will play on existing Blu-ray players and send the Dolby Atmos soundtrack to a compatible AV amplifier or receiver for decoding. To get the full benefit of the Dolby Atmos soundtrack, users will also need to add additional speakers to their surround sound set-up, such as.MORE.
For digital to analog conversion I own a Benchmark DAC-1, a Bryston BDA1 AND a Lucid 24/96 all of which have both Toslink and RCA SPDIF.A couple of my source devices output ONLY in Toslink and just for a hoot I bought a half dozen of those el-cheapo Toslink to RCA SPDIF $10 adapters to see if my convertors cared what version they were fed.THEY CARED.Even AFTER a cheap $10 digital 'step' of adaption my DACs (all THREE of them!) MUCH preferred RCA SPDIF to Toslink.More BODY. More WOOD to wood instruments. More 'horsehair' on violin strokes.I don't KNOW why!!!Perhaps the SPDIF inputs were buffered better than Toslink?
Feb 12, 2013 AC3/DTS and PCM2.0 48k/16bit are all effectively SPDIF - and carried over effectively a PCM2.0 connection on HDMI. 5.1 PCM over HDMI is a different kettle of fish. Dec 26, 2016 Linger63 Forum Resident. It is similar to the Oppo at a lower price point ($298 from Amazon). When playing hi-res audo discs you are limited to 24/48kHz resolution through the coax and optical S/PDIF outputs, however, the HDMI output will go up to 24/192. This is all moot, since I'm sending the audio to my NAD M51 DAC.
I don't KNOW and I don't CARE.At my age I am all ways looking for more 'wood.' Please ignore my prev msg. Thx.My attention is piqued by #2 (and I am not going to ask for advice about anything illegal) because I am currently struggling with whether to replace the admittedly el-cheapo Philips DVD (not Blu-Ray) player in my bedroom setup (no AVR) with a Blu-Ray player. Click to expand.I think most people here who have used HDMI de-embedders have used them to convert HDMI to S/PDIF so they have stayed in the digital realm. I haven't used one to convert HDMI to an analogue output but the two things I would say about it are:1. The de-embedders I'm familiar with have one input and three outputs.
One of the outputs is an HDMI pass-through, which would pass through your HDMI video signal. A second output sends out digital PCM audio via S/PDIF. A third output sends out analogue sound, which has been converted from digital by the tiny DAC inside the de-embedder. I don't see any problem at all with using one, two or three of these outputs simultaneously but.2. For your analogue sound, you would be relying on the tiny internal DAC of the cheap de-embedder and I don't think you could expect miracles in this price range, in terms of quality. So with the Maverick DAC D2 (with both the tube and op amp upgrades) I bought and using my Marantz CD6004 as a transport, the RCA SPDIF connection sounds much smoother and less 'spikey' and 'zingy' than the Toslink.
I do not like the sound of the Toslink. It is not subtle either!My DVD-As sound fine through the Pioneer DV-79AVi's analog out. I have only Classical SACDs at the moment (sold my pop/rock ones 10 years ago). So I ordered 4 SACDs of which I am VERY familiar with the program. Elvis Is Back, Elvis 24 Karat Hits, Holy Cole Temptation and Shelby Lynne Just A Little Lovin', all of which are great sounding in the CD format.
They will be a good test for SACD through the Pioneer DV-79AVi analog out. One thing to realize, you are not the first to discover that you can not output DSD through digital coax or digital optical.Last year I replaced a CD player and a Blu-ray player, older inexpensive units with an Oppo BDP-93. I did not previously own a SACD compatible player and I was curious as to what it might sound like. I have a Peachtree iNova that has a nice Saber DAC, so I route everything into the Peachtree unit, which provides analog inputs in additional to the digital ones. This design is about 5-years old now and I realize that DAC's continue to improve. I didn't know if my unit could decode DSD or not but I was planning on trying it out using the digital outputs of the Oppo. This is when I too found out that the output of DSD was prohibited from being sent out via any digital with the exception of HDMI.Up until 5-years ago, when I downloaded my first MP3 song from Amazon (just wanted to hear how it sounded), I never listened specifially to a didital MP3 file before.
Even then, I didn't own any stereo equipment, speakers or amps and listened to it through my laptop. I was taken back with how good it actually sounded as compaired to the analog version that I remember.
If there was anyone who had a previous dislike for CD's and digital music, it was me! And I was listening to some crappy ear buds that came along with a $25 cell phone accessory kit. The music was not harsh, but smooth, detailed and very pleasant.What I found is that digital music can indeed sound good but from my experience, not all of it ever will. Digital music had the major effect of driving me away from stereo for almost twenty five years. Click to expand.This is an interesting discussion/question. It sent me running to my Oppo user manual to check the specifications.
I have been feeding the output of my Oppo BD-105 through either its coaxial digital or optical digital Toslink (I can't hear a difference between them) connection to a Sennheiser headphone amp/DAC. The specifications state that either of these digital connections output 'up to 24 bit/192KHz' resolution signals. So, I believe that with this player I get full resolution from Bluray, SACD, or DVD-A playback to send to an outboard DAC, in PCM format. I hope this is correct, and that therefore I would have no need for an HDMI extractor device. As for industry or copyright restrictions, it would seem that is not the case, but some players may restrict bandwidth and downsample for design reasons, but that this is not a required standard. This is an interesting discussion/question.
It sent me running to my Oppo user manual to check the specifications. I have been feeding the output of my Oppo BD-105 through either its coaxial digital or optical digital Toslink (I can't hear a difference between them) connection to a Sennheiser headphone amp/DAC. The specifications state that either of these digital connections output 'up to 24 bit/192KHz' resolution signals. So, I believe that with this player I get full resolution from Bluray, SACD, or DVD-A playback to send to an outboard DAC, in PCM format. I hope this is correct, and that therefore I would have no need for an HDMI extractor device. As for industry or copyright restrictions, it would seem that is not the case, but some players may restrict bandwidth and downsample for design reasons, but that this is not a required standard.
Click to expand.I have read, I believe in the Oppo manual, that the SACD licensing restrictions is why DSD is not available with the digital outs. I run 2-channel stereo out the Optical Toslink to the Toslink input on my Peachtree iNova, The digital outs only work with PCM. I am given to understand this is the same, no matter which company you choose that offers SACD players.I just looked this up.This is from the Oppo BDP-93 user manual:Due to bandwidth limitations, high resolution audio formats such as Dolby Digital Plus,Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio cannot be sentthrough the coaxial or optical digital audio output.
A reduced resolution version of thesame audio track will be output instead. To listen to high resolution audio formats intheir best quality, please use the HDMI connection if you have a receiver that handlesHDMI audio (see page 14) or use the multi-channel analog outputs if you do not (seepage 15). Due to copyright restrictions, SACD audio cannot be sent through the coaxial oroptical digital audio output. To listen to SACD, please use the HDMI or analog audioconnections. Due to copyright restrictions and bandwidth limitations, full resolution audio from DVDAudiodiscs cannot be sent through the coaxial or optical digital audio output.
To listento DVD-Audio in full resolution, please use the HDMI or analog audio connections.You will note that DVD-A audio disks will not play at full resolution over the digital outputs either. I was not aware of that before but I don't have any DVD-A audio disks.I have the Blu-ray output running through the HDMI inputs of the processor and the digital outs from the processor go to a digital input on the Peachtree, when I'm viewing Blu-Ray or DVD movies. The digital outputs of the Oppo will not output anything from your digital outs during SACD playback, unless you happen to be playing the CD layer, in which case you will get a 16bit/44.1K signal. With Blu Ray; you may get PCM capped at 48K/16bit, but the only 'legal' way of getting higher resolutions is via HDMI. The same should be true of DVD Audio, though I have read reports of some players generating a full 192 or 96K/24bit signal via the digital out. Strictly speaking, that isn't meant to happen.Edit: explained much more coherently by the last poster!
I just listened to Elvis Is Back and 24 Karat Hits SACDs from Acoustic Sounds. Heartbreak Hotel sounds horrible. A Big Hunk Of Love is not the original master, which is a splice of take 3 and take 4, but rather it is take 3 in its entirety (something RCA/BMG/Sony has screwed up for years). All tracks (except Heartbreak Hotel) sounds better than CD.
I can hear the magnetic tape come up just before the signal on most of the songs, so all tape hiss is intact, which gives evidence that no noise reduction was used. I can hear studio, tape and other artifacts either for the first time or at least more prominently over the many, many CDs I have of this material. The transients and dynamics are much better, I like it. But the 3-d 'roundness' if each instrument and the space between just is not there like analog. This is the feature that digital just does not get right and my main complaint about it. My 5000 CDs do not sound horrible, I do not hate to listen to them per se' but they just do not engage me when I sit and actively listen. In any other situation, there is no problem, like when I am working or using the music as background or even blasting when cleaning house.I will proceed with listening to my other two SACDs I got today: Just A Little Lovin' by Shelby Lynne and Temptation by Holly Cole.
This is an interesting discussion/question. It sent me running to my Oppo user manual to check the specifications. I have been feeding the output of my Oppo BD-105 through either its coaxial digital or optical digital Toslink (I can't hear a difference between them) connection to a Sennheiser headphone amp/DAC.
The specifications state that either of these digital connections output 'up to 24 bit/192KHz' resolution signals. So, I believe that with this player I get full resolution from Bluray, SACD, or DVD-A playback to send to an outboard DAC, in PCM format.
I hope this is correct, and that therefore I would have no need for an HDMI extractor device. As for industry or copyright restrictions, it would seem that is not the case, but some players may restrict bandwidth and downsample for design reasons, but that this is not a required standard. One thing to realize, you are not the first to discover that you can not output DSD through digital coax or digital optical.Last year I replaced a CD player and a Blu-ray player, older inexpensive units with an Oppo BDP-93. I did not previously own a SACD compatible player and I was curious as to what it might sound like. I have a Peachtree iNova that has a nice Saber DAC, so I route everything into the Peachtree unit, which provides analog inputs in additional to the digital ones.
This design is about 5-years old now and I realize that DAC's continue to improve. I didn't know if my unit could decode DSD or not but I was planning on trying it out using the digital outputs of the Oppo.
This is when I too found out that the output of DSD was prohibited from being sent out via any digital with the exception of HDMI.Up until 5-years ago, when I downloaded my first MP3 song from Amazon (just wanted to hear how it sounded), I never listened specifially to a didital MP3 file before. Even then, I didn't own any stereo equipment, speakers or amps and listened to it through my laptop. I was taken back with how good it actually sounded as compaired to the analog version that I remember. If there was anyone who had a previous dislike for CD's and digital music, it was me! And I was listening to some crappy ear buds that came along with a $25 cell phone accessory kit. The music was not harsh, but smooth, detailed and very pleasant.What I found is that digital music can indeed sound good but from my experience, not all of it ever will. Digital music had the major effect of driving me away from stereo for almost twenty five years.
Click to expand.What a great and well thought out post!The issue that we are being asked to give credence to here is that the OP has about 5,000 CDs that all suck from an audio quality perspective. Once you get your head around that concept, it's probably not too far a journey to the town of Conclusion where we can realise that the problem lies more with the OP's bias, than the unlikely circumstance that all of his discs have no redeeming audio qualities whatsoever.Needless to say, I am sceptical. Not that the OP is being particularly negative for the sake of it, but his expectation bias ruins any chances of a remotely positive outcome. What a great and well thought out post!The issue that we are being asked to give credence to here is that the OP has about 5,000 CDs that all suck from an audio quality perspective.
Once you get your head around that concept, it's probably not too far a journey to the town of Conclusion where we can realise that the problem lies more with the OP's bias, than the unlikely circumstance that all of his discs have no redeeming audio qualities whatsoever.Needless to say, I am sceptical. Not that the OP is being particularly negative for the sake of it, but his expectation bias ruins any chances of a remotely positive outcome. Click to expand. I did not say they have no redeeming audio qualities. I am saying they do not give me the same positive qualities I experience in analog. Certainly I have some CDs that sound pretty good and others that do suck. But then again, I have had plenty of LPs that sucked too.
But I am not concerned about the ones that suck, I am more concerned about the better sounding CDs, and how they still fall short of the better analog recordings I have had.I do not recall saying anything sucked. I am chasing an analog sound that many reviewers refer to when they talk about a digital piece of equipment. 'It sounds most analog-like'. And I have not yet experienced that with any digital piece of equipment. If someone does not know what 'that' is, they would not miss it. But if they get what 'that' is, and like it, they would miss it.It is more of a feeling or experience than something that can be related to with references to 'aural' adjectives. Everyone has bias.
Some bias may not be affected by whether a recording is digital or analog, others may. If one's bias is not affected by whether a recording is digital or analog, not only would it not matter to that person which format he is listening to, he may not even notice the aspects of another's person's bias that IS affected by either digital or analog.If your bias in women is that they are tall, you may not even notice in what manner her fingernails are manicured, and if you do notice, you may not care.I could tell you with a simple glimpse whether that car is a 58, 59 or 60 Thunderbird. Most people could not. On the other hand I cannot distinguish between an Audi, Toyota or Kia, and it matters not to me because none of them are Thunderbirds. I did not say they have no redeeming audio qualities. I am saying they do not give me the same positive qualities I experience in analog. Certainly I have some CDs that sound pretty good and others that do suck.
But then again, I have had plenty of LPs that sucked too. But I am not concerned about the ones that suck, I am more concerned about the better sounding CDs, and how they still fall short of the better analog recordings I have had.I do not recall saying anything sucked. I am chasing an analog sound that many reviewers refer to when they talk about a digital piece of equipment. 'It sounds most analog-like'. And I have not yet experienced that with any digital piece of equipment. If someone does not know what 'that' is, they would not miss it.
But if they get what 'that' is, and like it, they would miss it.It is more of a feeling or experience than something that can be related to with references to 'aural' adjectives. Okay, I can see that. I should have said that a CD will sound the same, but never like a LP. Whereas an LP is so dependent on day to day maintenance and tweaking. I know what to expect day in and day out with a CD and what bothers me about them will always be there on a consistent basis.I certainly do not miss the tweaking and maintenance required to optimize analog enjoyment. I often dreaded putting a record on the turntable and often simply put in a CD instead just to play music.
That eventually led me to get rid of my LPs altogether. I am the kind of person who would rather eat crap than to clean up after making a great meal too. I am lazy when it comes to repetitive chores.
I have read, I believe in the Oppo manual, that the SACD licensing restrictions is why DSD is not available with the digital outs. I run 2-channel stereo out the Optical Toslink to the Toslink input on my Peachtree iNova, The digital outs only work with PCM. I am given to understand this is the same, no matter which company you choose that offers SACD players.I just looked this up.This is from the Oppo BDP-93 user manual:Due to bandwidth limitations, high resolution audio formats such as Dolby Digital Plus,Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio cannot be sentthrough the coaxial or optical digital audio output. A reduced resolution version of thesame audio track will be output instead.
To listen to high resolution audio formats intheir best quality, please use the HDMI connection if you have a receiver that handlesHDMI audio (see page 14) or use the multi-channel analog outputs if you do not (seepage 15). Due to copyright restrictions, SACD audio cannot be sent through the coaxial oroptical digital audio output. To listen to SACD, please use the HDMI or analog audioconnections. Due to copyright restrictions and bandwidth limitations, full resolution audio from DVDAudiodiscs cannot be sent through the coaxial or optical digital audio output. To listento DVD-Audio in full resolution, please use the HDMI or analog audio connections.You will note that DVD-A audio disks will not play at full resolution over the digital outputs either. I was not aware of that before but I don't have any DVD-A audio disks.I have the Blu-ray output running through the HDMI inputs of the processor and the digital outs from the processor go to a digital input on the Peachtree, when I'm viewing Blu-Ray or DVD movies.
Well, that's the thing. I'm not actually sure what the Oppo digital outputs are passing, only an interpretation of what the manual says, and that looks like it could be misleading. I know the coax and optical outputs cannot output DSD, but I thought perhaps there was a conversion to PCM hi-res within the player for the signal at those connections.
Based on the previous post from SandAndGlass, however, this appears not to be the case. Given this reality, I would be better served by using the analog headphone output of the Oppo player when playing SACDs or DVD-As and listenening on 'phones.
Or else get an HDMI extractor. I do remember now that the licensing restrictions were implemented by Oppo at a certain date of manufacture. Before that, I believe it was possible on earlier models to get high res digital out of the non-HDMI outputs. When I heard the news I remember thinking I should buy one before it was too late, but it probably already was by that point. Well, that's the thing. I'm not actually sure what the Oppo digital outputs are passing, only an interpretation of what the manual says, and that looks like it could be misleading. I know the coax and optical outputs cannot output DSD, but I thought perhaps there was a conversion to PCM hi-res within the player for the signal at those connections.
Based on the previous post from SandAndGlass, however, this appears not to be the case. Given this reality, I would be better served by using the analog headphone output of the Oppo player when playing SACDs or DVD-As and listenening on 'phones.
Or else get an HDMI extractor. I do remember now that the licensing restrictions were implemented by Oppo at a certain date of manufacture. Before that, I believe it was possible on earlier models to get high res digital out of the non-HDMI outputs. When I heard the news I remember thinking I should buy one before it was too late, but it probably already was by that point. Click to expand.I don't know enough about Oppos to answer definitively but it seems to me DVD-A and Blu-ray would both be rendered at full resolution via S/PDIF but SACD would be PCM-only (not DSD, because of bandwidth constraints) and even then would be throttled by licensing restrictions. So, yes, if you wanted higher resolution from SACDs, you would have to listen to the analogue output or get an HDMI de-embedder. Even then, if memory serves, Oppos will only output PCM via the HDMI output to a maximum of 88 kHz so you're not missing much by taking the throttled 48 kHz from the S/PDIF outs.
There are two major issues in regards to TOSLink:1. To receive a fully intact 16/44.1 stream, a minimum of 9-10 MHz is required. The standard cheap plastic TOSLink cable can handle maybe 4-6 MHz. What this leads to is a serious jitter issue as much of the source clock is lost. The good news is that any quality DAC, especially made in the last 10-15 years, will re-clock incoming data thereby repairing much of the damage to sound quality.
But, I do believe that it's better to avoid jitter to begin with.2. TOSLink's Achilles' Heel. Unlike a typical electrical cable which transmits electrons straight down the conductor material, light bounces around a lot within the fiber core, and the more they bounce, and the longer the distance they travel from one fiber wall to another, the higher the refraction damage to the signal. The fiber core diameter, material, and geometry all play a role - high-quality quartz glass fibers, as thin as possible (I believe 200 micros will get you to a negligible refraction factor), that is not being bent much, will not only greatly increase the bandwidth (see point 1) of the cable, it will greatly reduce the refraction factor.If you ever wondered why high quality glass TOSLink cables sounded better than plastic ones, this is why.