Marantz SR5004 Manual page 28

The Outlaws' Guide to the Marantz SR5004
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Labs developed a successor to Dolby Digital for use with HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
This audio format is called Dolby Digital Plus (DD+). Dolby Digital Plus offers 7.1
discrete channels (rather than 5.1). It also employs a lossy compression algorithm, but
operates at a higher sampling rate. This format can only be delivered to the receiver in
its native form via HDMI.
Dolby TrueHD
Dolby TrueHD was developed for use with the new HD disc formats, HD-DVD and
Blu-ray. The technology is derived from the high-resolution audio format DVD-Audio.
Like DVD-Audio, it uses Meridian Lossless Packeting (MLP) to store digital audio with
lossless compression. Since the compression used does not discard any data, a
TrueHD track preserves the original integrity of the uncompressed master.
DTS
DTS is a competitor of Dolby Digital that shares the same basic concept: six channels of
audio, compacted using a lossy compression algorithm to save space. DTS is not as
heavily compressed as Dolby Digital, which many people believe allows it to sound
better. It was originally developed for use in theaters, but its creators extended it to
consumer electronics and at one point tried to make it the standard audio format for
DVD. Dolby Digital won that battle, but DTS was included in the DVD specifications as
an option. As with Dolby Digital, the only DTS tracks affected by this setting are those
with three or more channels of audio being used.
DTS-HD High Resolution
DTS responded to Dolby Digital Plus with DTS-HD High Resolution. Like DD+, DTS-HD
HR supports 7.1 channels, may be included on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and can
only be transmitted via HDMI v1.3 or higher.
DTS-HD Master Audio
DTS has consistently answered each of Dolby's digital formats with one of their own. In
the case of TrueHD, DTS has DTS-HD Master Audio. Despite the similarities in name,
DTS-HD Master Audio is a separate audio format from DTS-HD High Resolution. Like
Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA employs lossless compression to provide a format that
offers the sound quality of an uncompressed PCM track while offering a way to use less
disc space.
Multich PCM
HDMI allows sources to output multichannel PCM because the connection can support
the greater volume of data required to transmit up to eight channels of uncompressed
digital audio. A multichannel PCM signal may be from a DVD-Audio disc; from decoded
Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, or other audio formats that are decoded
inside the source players (Blu-ray, HD-DVD, or DVD); or from the uncompressed PCM
tracks offered on some Blu-ray discs.
Marantz SR5004 28
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