HD200 and HD Audio

[Fuzzy]

I do wish the HD extenders supported SOME sort of selective transcoding... sad that the MVP can play back just about anything (because it gets transcoded on the server) but the HD ones cannot. I mean, the server SHOULD be able to determine the capabilities of the extender, and transcode as necessary to bring it to that capability. Whether that's bringing it to 480i-MPEG2 w/ MPA for the MVP, or leaving video as-is and transcoding audio to 5.1 for spdif, 6xPCM for HDMI, or stereo pcm to analog for the HD200... ahhh.. to dream...

[DMT]

Boy, I realize I still have a lot to learn!

Mostly I just stream blu-ray from the drive to the HD200 but I do have a few rips using AnyDVDHD (default state) on WHS. Works great, rips in less than 1hour and plays on HD200. The main audio track is either DTS-MA or Dolby TrueHD. Both decode fine (5.1) via DH200 optical out to my receiver. The problem is HDMI (audio) to TV. In my case Dolby works and DTS does not so it appears the HD200 can/does extract an audio stream from Dolby and passes to the TV (stereo). This does not appear to be the case for DTS so I can only conclude that in my case the HD200 cannot extract the necessary stream from DTS and pass thought HDMI to TV (stereo). So this is a DTS vs. Dolby thing with the HD200. Perhaps I don't comprehend or have set something incorrectly. I know you can select ' Audio Language ' and if the blu-ray has an AC3 track that will work but I am finding some only have AC3 with ' directors cut '. If the HD200 could do for DTS what it does for Dolby that would be ideal but likely it is not as easy as I make it out to be.

Thanks for all the help, great learning for me in these forums.

[Suntan]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Hey Jeff, you get that HBR decoding done yet?

Please, please!!

It's the only thing keeping me from buying the HD200.

-Suntan

[Brent]

okay, I have to ask. What is HBR decoding?

[dbone1026]

Originally Posted by Brent

okay, I have to ask. What is HBR decoding?

I think it is High Bit Rate (HBR) decoding of the newest surround sound formats from Dolby and DTS. Either that or the Harvard Business Review???

[Brent]

Originally Posted by dbone1026

I think it is High Bit Rate (HBR) decoding of the newest surround sound formats from Dolby and DTS. Either that or the Harvard Business Review???

Harvard Business Review....

Hmm that's what I thought. I'm confused though as I didn't think the hardware on the HD200 (sigma board) could decode anything 7.1. Downscale yes, decode no. Unless I'm mistaken.

[stanger89]

The HD100 didn't have the HDMI capabilities needed for multichannel PCM, but I "think" the HD200 does. It's also got the general purpose Audio DSPs to do it so again I "think" it's possible. At least I've never seen it ruled out.

[dbone1026]

Since I have 2 audio tracks for Taken, I just tested out as razrsharpe suggested and was able to switch audio. BUT as DMT noted as well, the AC3 track that was supplied with the Blu Ray disk only comes with the directors commentary, so that track is now useless!!! Between this and my PCH dying on me yesterday I am ready to hang out under my deck with my groundhog!!!

I am just going to have to make a list of my movies with DTS and use Clown_BD or eac3to to get the Ac3 tracks in addition to the DTS tracks.

[razrsharpe]

well isnt that annoying... if i remember correctly taken had several english ac3 2.0 soundtracks... maybe one of the other ones isn't the directors commentary?

otherwise ya clownbd (which is just a front end for eac3to) is the way to go.

[dbone1026]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

well isnt that annoying... if i remember correctly taken had several english ac3 2.0 soundtracks... maybe one of the other ones isn't the directors commentary?

otherwise ya clownbd (which is just a front end for eac3to) is the way to go.

Yeah, probably just go right to Clown_BD (was using until I ran into the m2ts VC-1 prob). Sorry if I offended any moose out there

[dbone1026]

As an update to this, I am trying out a tool called PopCorn MKV AudioConverter, which converts the DTS track in an MKV to AC3. You can still keep the DTS track, it just creates an additional AC3 track which I can then use to play my DTS mkvs on the HD200. I will report back if I have success.

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by Brent

okay, I have to ask. What is HBR decoding?

this i assume is the HD audio formats on bluray that we can't access yet since the hd200 lacks hdmi1.3 to carry the bitstream to an avr..........only way out is to decode to 5.1pcm and send that over, which does fit on hdmi1.2

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by dbone1026

Unfortunately my hope was eventually to get the HD200 into all the bedrooms in my house (connected via HDMI to TV), and obviously I won't have a receiver in each room. Looks like I will be scrapping that plan.

My HD200 is used in exactly this scenario. When ripping I use eac3to to convert whatever lossless audio track is present to FLAC and AC3, then mux both streams into a mkv (w/ video, chapters, and SRT subtitles). I get lossless audio on the PC and can flip to the AC3 track on the HD200 (although FLAC is close to working on it). In the end I get one file that works perfectly on each system.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by cat6man

this i assume is the HD audio formats on bluray that we can't access yet since the hd200 lacks hdmi1.3 to carry the bitstream to an avr..........only way out is to decode to 5.1pcm and send that over, which does fit on hdmi1.2

Just to be clear, HDMI 1.1/1.2 support up to 7.1 24/96k, so there's no difference in the end result between HBR bitstreaming (requiring HDMI 1.3), and HBR decoding (requiring 7.1 PCM over HDMI 1.1+).

[jarredduq]

Originally Posted by dbone1026

Yeah, that is what I figured. Unfortunately my hope was eventually to get the HD200 into all the bedrooms in my house (connected via HDMI to TV), and obviously I won't have a receiver in each room. Looks like I will be scrapping that plan. I guess the HD200 would need to be able to downmix DTS for this to work with a tv and no receiver? I meant to test out these movies on my PCH as it is able to downmix DTS but of course it died on me yesterday

Another way to decode DTS is to get one of these: http://www.hovanfue.com/store/produc...-Adapter.html#

I use this when I take my HD200 on the road, and don't feel like converting my files to Dolby Digital.

Unfortunately, they have gone up in price, since I bought mine...

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Just to be clear, HDMI 1.1/1.2 support up to 7.1 24/96k, so there's no difference in the end result between HBR bitstreaming (requiring HDMI 1.3), and HBR decoding (requiring 7.1 PCM over HDMI 1.1+).

understood............my concern is that the only box that i know of that does hbr decoding is the sony ps3 and it has multiple cell processors with mega-horsepower.

it is not clear to me that the sigma chip will ever be able to do this..........please correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think any similar sigma based product has yet to do this..............the ones that support HD audio with these sigma chips do so via hdmi1.3 bitstreaming

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dbone1026

I was running with the 20090403 beta software. I just updated to the latest beta software which is 20090616. I am sorry to report that I am still not getting any audio on my DTS/TrueHD mkvs. I will submit a bug as suggested. Once again, I appreciate the quick response.

Originally Posted by cat6man

understood............my concern is that the only box that i know of that does hbr decoding is the sony ps3 and it has multiple cell processors with mega-horsepower.

My BDP-51FD does HBR decoding, as does the Oppo BDP-83, and a couple of the Panasonics, Sonys, etc.

it is not clear to me that the sigma chip will ever be able to do this..........please correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think any similar sigma based product has yet to do this..............the ones that support HD audio with these sigma chips do so via hdmi1.3 bitstreaming

I know the 51FD is a sorta weird custom SOC for Poineer, but you definitely don't need a Cell-class processor for to do HBR decoding. I think a bigger problem is the licensing.

[dbone1026]

Originally Posted by stanger89

My BDP-51FD does HBR decoding, as does the Oppo BDP-83, and a couple of the Panasonics, Sonys, etc.



I know the 51FD is a sorta weird custom SOC for Poineer, but you definitely don't need a Cell-class processor for to do HBR decoding. I think a bigger problem is the licensing.

I agree as well, I thought the licensing was the issue.

[cat6man]

not sure about that............and i don't think the oppo and other unit are limited to sigma863x chipsets..........lots of BD players can do it........my question is if any sigma863x based player can do it or not with less than a cell processor......can any 863x chipset do it at all?...........if this is just a licensing issue and a SDK for this functionality exists from sigma (or you know another streamer that has done this), let me know but at this point i've seen no existence proof that it is doable (but i'd LOVE to be proven wrong!!!)

[Fuzzy]

If they get audio transcoding worked into the server side for the extenders, and get the newer ffmpeg builds in there, they would at least get TrueHD support. This is working in recent ffmpeg builds. That would leave the only feature gap being DTS-HD MA. OF course, this is assuming they even intend on getting any sort of on-the-fly transcoding into the HD100/200 configuration...