Longhorn, you're not even listening to lossless. The Marantz can't decode it. Its HDMI capability is limited to HDMI 1.2, so its HDMI feature is only functioning as an HD video switcher; it's not extracting the audio bitstream from your Blu-ray. The TrueHD and DTS-MA lossless bitstreams require HDMI 1.3. You're evidently getting your bitstream over the optical digital link, which doesn't have the bandwidth to transmit lossless multichannel. The PS3 downconverts the lossless bitstream to DVD-standard DD or DTS, which is lossy. By this method the Blu-rays still sound a bit better than standard DVD because the downconvert operates at a higher bit rate than the DVDs did.
Showing 2 responses by johnnyb53
BTW, I have A-B tested War of the Worlds and yes, it is more 'dynamic' on lossless format, not necessarily louder though.Since "War of the Worlds" won't be available on Blu-ray for two more months, what *are* you talking about? BTW, you're right that the Marantz should be able to decode multi-channel PCM, though it's limited to 5.1 unless it's had a firmware upgrade. |