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Dolby
Digital
and DTS
(Digital Theater
Systems)
Digital Surround
Dolby
Digital
Plus
Dolby TrueHD and DTS-
HD
These formats use "accurate but not identical" compression to encode
multichannel (5.1) audio onto a DVD or Blu-Ray disk.
This format offers up to 7.1-channel
surround
sound, and is only available
on some DVD and Blu-Ray
disks. It uses less compression
than its Dolby
Digital or DTS counterparts,
for a better reproduction
of the original movie
soundtrack.
Both of these formats
offer up to 7.1 -channel
surround
sound, and are only
available
on (some) Blu-Ray disks.
These formats use "accurate
and identical"
(sometimes
referred to as
"lossless")
compression
to deliver
soundtracks
that are identical to the
movie studio's original audio master, for the closest possible
reproduction
of the movie theater experience.
These
Iossless
audio
codecs
can only
be sent out the HDMI output.
A compatible
HDMI surround
receiver
is
required
in order to play these tracks,
PCM
This storage method is similar to what is found on a music CD. DVDs often
have a stereo PCM audio track. Some BD discs also feature multichannel
(5.1,6.1, or 7.1 ) PCM soundtracks.
Multichannel
PCM soundtracks
are uncompressed
audio that can
sometimes
exactly match the quality of the studio master.
The
multichannel
Iossless
PCM formats
are only available
on the HDMI
output,
A compatible
HDMI surround
receiver
is required
in order to
play these tracks,
(Stereo PCM can be output over the SPDIF
or TOSlink
coax/optical
audio
outputs)
A summary
of these audio formats
is shown in the table below:
Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray and DVD
Dolby TrueHD
HDMI
DTS-HD
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital
DTS
PCM (BD - up to 7.1 channels @192 Khz)
PCM (DVD - stereo only, up to 96 Khz)
Any selected digital track will be decoded, mixed with effects
and secondary channel, and converted to analog.
SPDIF or
Toslink
All
7.1 Analog
Outputs
(For a detailed
description
of the audio output capabilities
of the BD player, see Appendix
C)
Regardless
of the type of codec used to store the movie's
audio track onto the disk, audio data is always
stored on a disk in a digital format.
The BD player therefore
has digital audio outputs,
so that the digital
audio soundtracks
on the disk can be sent straight to a surround-sound
receiver, without
any loss in
audio quality.
Not all surround-sound
receivers
are capable of playing
back all of the digital audio codecs
listed above.
In addition,
some surround
sound receivers
can play pack PCM data, but the data must be sent to the
receiver
at a slower rate that what is stored on the Blu-Ray disk.
17
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