PS3 and Blu-Ray

[Boji7.1]

I just my hands on a PS3 this past weekend, and I just hooked it up to my home theater, but I have a few a questions. I am currently hooking up my PS3 with a HDMI wire to the a 1080i monitor and an optical wire to the my Harmon Kardon AVR-235 recevier (my receiver does not have any HDMI inputs). I know that Blu-Ray is capable of supporting Dolby Digital HD which is the next 7.1 standard, my recevier is capable of supporting 7.1, but will it still be able to decode Dolby Digital HD since I don't see the Dolble Digital HD logo on the front panal? Also is Dolby Digital HD supported with an optical wire or only a HDMI cable? Thanks for your help.

[Jay481985]

most likely not support it fully but there are probably ways. There are very few recievers that do decode in dolby digital hd anyways

[KungFuNat]

you will need a reciever that will decode the HD audio codecs, very few do currently, and these will all be transmitted via HDMI... the optical or coax digital cable as we know it cannot handle the bandwidth.

OR you can get a blue ray player that has 7.1 analog outputs and run them to a reciever or pre/pro that will accept 7.1 analog input.

[damonrpayne]

Right now I haven't seen a receiver that decodes the new audio codecs. There's a good chance that HDMI receivers should be firmware upgradable to do so. Sending the sound out the digital optical will downgrade it to 640kb/s which is still better than regular DD is right now, but a small fraction of the many mb/s these new codecs are capable of.

[chitown2477]

The PS3 has HDMI 1.3 which means that it is already sending (decoding) out HD audio via HDMI only. Besides one or two HD and Blue-ray DVD players, it is one of the very few HDMI 1.3 consumer devices on the market right now. The receiver is not sending out true HD to your system, even if it has HDMI pass through. As damonrpayne wrote, hopefully there will be firmware updates to enable HDMI 1.1 and 1.2 receivers to pass through true HD audio. This will definitely make those of us with HDMI 1.1 and 1.2 receivers very happy as we will only have to get a DVD player that decodes HD audio to be sent to the receiver. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Even when HDMI 1.3 receivers come out, they will be expensive at first and it may be some time before there are even released.

[sunburnwilly]

I just my hands on a PS3 this past weekend, and I just hooked it up to my home theater, but I have a few a questions. I am currently hooking up my PS3 with a HDMI wire to the a 1080i monitor and an optical wire to the my Harmon Kardon AVR-235 recevier (my receiver does not have any HDMI inputs). I know that Blu-Ray is capable of supporting Dolby Digital HD which is the next 7.1 standard, my recevier is capable of supporting 7.1, but will it still be able to decode Dolby Digital HD since I don't see the Dolble Digital HD logo on the front panal? Also is Dolby Digital HD supported with an optical wire or only a HDMI cable? Thanks for your help.

Congrats on your PS3 , I got one a week ago and finaly got it hooked up properly an hour ago .

Not the easiest system to set up for sure and I had so incapatability issues . My TV is almost 3 years old ; a "50 Samsung DLP , and supports DVI and component video not HMDI . Also my processor is 6 years old ; a Sony 9000ES , and does not support HMDI .

My main issues concerned aftermarket cables . When I bought the PS3 I purchased a DVI to HMDI cable . The DVI connection would not fit my tv , excessive material around the connection . Granted I could have shaved off some of the material around the connection but if the cable itself turned out to be bad I would be screwed . I'm sure I would not be allowed to return a cable that I had modified . Finaly today I found an adapter that would let me use one of my old DVI cables . Most of the adapters out there are meant to allow an HMDI cable to attach to a DVI imput . Again , all of the adapters I had tried were to beefy around the connection to fit into the DVI imput on the back of my tv .

Also , since HMDI carries the audio signal and DVI does not . My tv does not have sound from the PS3 . I have to have my HT on for the sound . "Sometimes I just want to play using the tv speakers without firing up the HT ." Oh yeah , you have to go back into the settings to allow the optical cable to handle the sound while still supporting the HMDI to DVI video output . I guess I need to upgrade my tv huh . When I first got the PS3 I had to use my old SVideo multi out just to set it up and check it out , the picture is kinda grainy with the SVideo as to be expected . All the setting on the PS3 had to be changed to allow the new cables , it will not automaticly detect and adjust to the different connections . "I had to reformat the hard drive to get everything to work ."

One word of caution to those of you that may purchase a PS3 and use the multi tap out to SVideo or component outputs . The optical output and multi tap outputs are too close togather on the back of the PS3 . I had interferance issues there as well . Again , I could have shaved off some material but who wants to go cutting on their cables so that they fit ?

Now that I have finaly got it hooked up to my tv and processor properly , 5 days of going back and forth to different stores , I can go ahead and set up my new wireless router that I bought the first day I got the machine . Hopefully once I get it online there will be blue skys ahead .

[damonrpayne]

The rollout of everything related to HDMI has been a mess! Given that many of us have large investments in preprocessors and such that cannot decode the HDMI-only sound formats, it'll be years before its sorted out.

Have you watched a BD film yet? What do you think of the sound over optical?

[chitown2477]

I have listened to HD via the XB360 and while the sound is good, I have to turn up the dail a bit more. I am curious if teh PS3 has the same issue.

[RM1111]

I am using the optical out on the PS3 and the HDMI conversion to DVI to my tv and I don't need to turn the dial up more. I heard that the HD player with the Xbox630 isn't really that great compared to the PS3 blu-ray as for game systems, but not 100% sure.

[sunburnwilly]

The rollout of everything related to HDMI has been a mess! Given that many of us have large investments in preprocessors and such that cannot decode the HDMI-only sound formats, it'll be years before its sorted out.

Have you watched a BD film yet? What do you think of the sound over optical?

I have watched the Blue Ray disc included with the system , "Rickie Booby" and to tell you the truth I'm not very impressed . The menu and scene selection is faster . The sound through the optical is fine . But it really doesn't look much better than the DVD . "Granted , I have a beast of a DVD player Sony NS999ES ."

I didn't purchase the system for the Blue Ray and don't suggest anyone else to as well . When I was in Best Buy yesterday , to get the last piece of the puzzle , I noticed that there were at least twice as many HD DVD's than Blue Ray discs . "This format war is going to be a huge mess ."

On the brighter side of things I have been enjoying playing the Resistance Fall of Man game . The graphics are good and the gameplay is decent . "Not the huge leap that I was expecting but it does look better than anything from the PS2 and XBox , (not 360) , that I have played on my TV ." I finaly got my online account setup today and am downloading my first demo , GT HD Concept . I must say it is taking a looooong time . Probably won't get to check it out before I go to work in an hour .