Onkyo 605 & HD-DVD

[witcomb]

Just this weekend I bought the HD-A30, hooked it up to my 605 only to learn that the audio is not passed through to my receiver for processing. I suppose I should have done my homework before hand, but then it wouldn't have been an impulse buy.

The reason I got the 605 was because it would handle anything thrown at it and I would rather it do the processing than the player. I've since done some homework and found that I would have to get the A35 in order to have this ability, which means more money for a player to do less.

At the moment I'm getting mutli-channel PCM to my 605, how much of an improvement would I get if I had the raw audio going to it? Is this really something I should be fretting? If this is worth-while, which player should I be looking at? The A35? The XA2?

I saw a post that mentioned they were getting the raw audio through optical for TrueHD and DD+, but the Toshiba documentation says this is plainly not possible so I'll have to try it myself.

Thanks in advance; I really appreciate any light that can be shed.

[Liquid]

The way I understand it, is that your getting the best audo right now. My Denon 3808 also says multi channel PCM. The only difference is that the True HD light does not come on your Onkyo. A Toshiba A35 would light up the True HD, but it's the same high quality sound.

[witcomb]

Well, there would be more to it than just the light being displayed. With multichannel input the speaker configuration is ignored and the signal is fed directly to the speakers as it is received. This means that any speaker balancing that has been done in the receiver is bypassed.

I hope that I'm misunderstanding something, it would be great to hear that.

[hc666]

From my experience with my 605, my speaker configuration is held. I believe that the light not coming on is the only issue. I'm using the HD-A2 set to PCM.

From what I have read... "It's just a light, let it go".

[rod farva]

there are reports over at avs that a slight improvement is noted in bitstream mode on the a35. i would suspect you would have to be an audiophile with some quality speakers to notice the difference.

[1anawatchman]

My understanding from reading all the literature is that via HDMI, the player can only pass along 5.1 in PCM. The high bit rate will allow the player to send all 8 channels for decoding by the receiver. At this time I am only aware of two movies where this may make a difference. Face Off has a 6.1 audio track and Pan's Labyrinth which is suppose to include a 7.1 audio track.

[hal9000]

Hey guys,

I've been scouring these forums and have yet to find the answer I'm looking for. I'm sorry if it has been previously answered, but I may have missed it amongst all the information being thrown out there.

I have my PS3 hooked up to my Onkyo 605 via HDMI, and the picture looks great. From what I understand, it seems that having the PS3 output Linear PCM is the best option (right?). As far as as the audio on the reciever's end, what do I need to setup to get it to optimally hadle the 5.1 LPCM stream. How does it know what decoder to use (Dolby, DTS, etc) and what surround settings should I use on the 605.

If someone could help me out by sharing their experiences with a similar setup for the best resuls, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

[mfabien]

Direct
In this mode, audio from the input source is output
directly with minimal processing, providing high-fidelity
reproduction. All of the source’s audio channels are
output as they are.

The above from your 605 owner's manual.

The LPCM will be transmitted by your PS3 without little if any processing by the receiver. There will be no decoding done by the receiver.

[JohnnyCanuck]

Direct mode refers to a button on the Onkyo remote and front panel that bypasses the receiver's processing settings. That is, it turns off any DSP modes you have active, etc.

That is not the same as a PS3 set to output as LPCM, which the Onkyo will display as "MultiChannel". You should use the "Surround Mode" button for your Onkyo until you get "MultiChannel" as your input from your PS3. You are then getting Dolby TrueHD, decoded by your PS3, and delivered via PCM over your HDMI connection.

[REFLEX]

The 605 won't perform any audio processing on those formats...meaning that you can only mess with speaker dB levels on the track....just something to consider... but its a great unit for the price.

I've never owned an Onkyo, but Ive used them enough to get a feel for them.

[rparamount]

Hi there, I don't have a 605, I have the 875 and I also have a HD A35 and I can say that I have noticed the difference when my a35 sends the audio over to my 875 to decode as dolby truehd or dolby digital plus. I have a full 7.1 speaker channel setup as well although depending on the HD DVD it might only use 5.1 instead of the 7.1 most times. I can overide this by forcing it into the Onkyo neural thx 7.1 mode, but then that's not the same as Dolby TrueHD.

In any case, these new HD sound formats sound great on the Onkyo receivers that support them and I can definitely tell the difference when doing a comparison between the two. I find that there seems to be a bit more punch in the soundtracks and also I seem to notice a lot more of the little background/enviromental surround sounds as compared to lossy soundtracks. But these things are only noticeable to me when doing a direct comparison by flipping back and forth. I doubt I would notice the difference as much if I wasn't comparing them side by side. Also without good speakers I suspect it would be even harder to tell the difference.

The thing for me is that once I know there is something better, I gotta have it no matter how small the difference.

-Cheers, RP

[merve04]

So the Onkyo 605 with a blu ray player hooked up via HDMI should decode DDHD and DTSHD???

[Mr_Rt]

Originally Posted by merve04

So the Onkyo 605 with a blu ray player hooked up via HDMI should decode DDHD and DTSHD???

Yes it will, but you have to have a player that will bitstream those audio formats.

Eg, if you have a PS3 it will decode them internally and send them and a multichannel PCM. but the PS3 cant do DTSMA just core

The end result is the same, just where the decoding is done is different.

[merve04]

Well I did end up buying the 605,, nice unit i must say, I'd never consider getting a PS3 for blu ray, I giving it a couple more month befor getting a player, but it would be a stand alone player like sony, panasonic or sharp. Would those allow me to access the high def track if avail via HDMI connection to the amp?

[rparamount]

Some players can and some players can't. Make sure you check the specifications before you buy. The new Sony BDP-550 definitely supports bitstreaming DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD as well as being a profile 2.0 player. I am going to pick one of those up when it comes out.


-RP