How long have HD DVD and BD been on the drawing board? How long have companies known that these machines were coming, and that they’d be sporting new codecs like DD+, DD TrueHD, and DTS HD? And why haven’t any electronics firms taken that to heart and built a machine that could decode these formats?

These thoughts occured to me when I read about Rotel’s new a/v receiver with HDMI inputs. It seems to have all the bells and whistles. It’s missing two amplification channels for 7.1 surround, but that’s forgivable as not many people use 7 speakers anyway. It has lots of digital inputs, the usual surround modes, etc. (Though no mention is made of video transcoding, auto-EQ, or any fancy features like that.) It looks like a very capable machine, if you had no plans to purchase an HD DVD or BD player.

And that’s just the problem. If I were in the market for an AV receiver or pre/pro today, I’d come to the conclusion that there’s absolutely nothing out there I’d want to buy. Because nothing out there supports HDMI 1.3 with DD+, DD TrueHD, DTS HD, and DTS HD Master. These are the newfangled formats that promise better sound, and that are now arriving on the North American scene. I don’t want to use analog connections anymore. I want one HDMI connector from my BD or HD DVD player into my receiver. And one HDMI connector from my receiver to my HDTV. Is that too much to ask?

Right now, yes it is.

Rotel introduces new RSX-1057 surround-sound receiver with HDMI capability

The previous article points out what formats are mandatory and what formats are optional in the BD and HD DVD formats. What it doesn’t discuss (though you could read it at TWICE) was the players themselves, and what they support.

Dan Ramer over at DVDFILE has been thinking about it, and doesn’t like what he sees. “The really bad news is that, with the exception of PCM, the initial Sony player will not support advanced CODECs either by decoding with its internal decoder or by outputing those digital bit streams for external decoding. Until HDMI 1.3 becomes available, you will not be able to send the bit streams for the advanced CODECs to an external decoder.”

Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, Dolby True HD, and DTS HD Master are all optional formats in the BD spec. These are all superior formats to standard DD 5.1, and the new Sony BD player will pass none of them out on a digital output. And if I read things correctly, it won’t even decode them to analog for you either.

For now, the digital part is no big deal. No receiver or pre/pro in existence today can decode these formats, as far as I know. But many receivers and pre/pros have analog inputs. So it would have been nice if the Sony player could at least output the high-fidelity soundtracks in analog. But that’s not the case.

One more reason to wait things out…

Digital Audio in Early HD Disc Players

TWICE has a great article summarizing what’s up with audio on the next generation of optical disc formats. Here’s a summary of what is mandatory and optional on each of the formats.

BD Mandatory

• Dolby Digital 5.1
• DTS 5.1
• 5.1-channel PCM (up to 5.1 channels, up to 192kHz sampling rate and 24-bit resolution)

BD Optional

• Dolby Digital Plus
• DTS HD
• 7.1-channel PCM (up to 7.1 channels, up to 96kHz, 24-bit)
• Dolby True HD (2- to 7.1-channel up to 96kHz, 24-bit)
• DTS HD Master (up to 5.1 channels, up to 192kHz/ 24-bit)

HD DVD Mandatory

• Dolby Digital Plus
• DTS HD (core 1.5Mbps component compatible with current DTS 5.1 decoders)
• Dolby True HD (2- to 7.1-channel up to 96kHz, 24-bit) (two channel)

HD DVD Optional

• DTS HD (5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 channels to 3Mbps)
• Dolby True HD (2- to 7.1-channel up to 96kHz, 24-bit) (5.1- 7.1 channels)
• DTS HD Master (up to 5.1 channels, up to 192kHz/ 24-bit)

TWICE also discusses what happens with each soundtrack when it comes to putting it out of the player and interfacing it to the receiver or pre/pro in your system. It looks like HD DVD players will be more flexible when it comes to handling optional formats than Sony’s BD player. Toshiba’s HD DVD players handle all optional and mandatory formats while Sony’s BD player will only handle the mandatory formats. Which is terrible, really. Sony’s first BD player doesn’t even play CD’s, now this!

[via HD Beat]

1st HD DVD Players To Decode All Mandatory, Optional Audio Codecs

HD Beat has a great article talking about how great it is to watch movies at home versus at the theater. And I have to agree totally. I’ve been forced to curtail my outings to the local cineplex by the fact that I now have three kids aged 5, 2, and 1/2. That really puts a damper into your going-out plans, but I have to say I haven’t missed the theater that much.

Every once in a while I’ll go check out a major flick like Star Wars III or somesuch. But my 57″ HDTV, Paradigm subwoofer, Linn speakers, and sundry electronics keep me quite happy at home.

HD Beat - Home theater vs. movie theater