Bryston SP3 Owner's Manual page 26

APPENDIX D: HDMI HANDSHAKING continued
A player will try to output the highest resolution (video) and the highest number of audio
channels, and the highest sample rate
supported by both the repeater (SP3) and by the "sink" (TV) further down the HDMI device chain.
This is determined by the maximum capability of the SP3 (Video up to 1080p, 3D, color depth 36,
audio 7.1 channels up to 192kHz sample rate). In some cases very long HDMI cables (i.e 10m) the
limiting connection factor becomes the cable itself. In such cases the source device will often
negotiate a lower video or audio resolution format than would have been available over a shorter
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cable .
PCM versus "bit-stream"
Most DVD and Blue-ray players can be configured to output audio contents either as PCM (or "Linear
PCM") or as "bit-stream". The former option makes the player decode and covert the media format to
an uncompressed PCM format which is the most compatible. The latter option causes the player to
transmit the digital contents of the media "as-is" unconverted, down stream to the repeater (SP3) and
the sink (TV). The "bit-stream" option relies on the audio decoding being performed in the SP3, and
ensures the highest quality
including the latest lossless formats such as DTS-Master and Dolby TrueHD, thus it is recommended
to use "bit-stream" player setting.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI
http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/kb.aspx
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Sample rate or "frame" rate (in this case "frame" and "sample" are synonyms) is the frequency of the digital data frames.
For example 44.1kHz is the repetition frequency of the whole data frames transmitted from a standard Compact Disk (CD).
One data frame is 16 to 24bits of digital data. Typical sample or frame rates are 44.1kHz (CD), 48kHz (DVD), 88.2kHz
(SACD), 96kHz (high end digital sources), 176.4kHz, 192kHz – future very high resolution audio sources. Frame rate
shouldn't be confused with the bit clock rate which the clock frequency of the bits within each data frame. For example,
for CD disk the bit clock is 2.822MHz.
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This is a part of the HDMI adaptive filter configuration feature. The sink measures the electrical quality of the cable
during handshake and can block transmission that is exceeding a capacity of the cable, forcing the source to downgrade the
stream to a lower resolution settings.
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In the practical situation the difference in audio quality between down-converted PCM and the "bit-stream" may be
difficult to perceive.
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that is available in the media being played, and which is still
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. SP3 is capable of decoding virtually all common digital audio format
HDMI Notes Pg. 2 of 2