Robert Archer
Q. I have a Blu-ray player (Samsung BD-P2500) that decodes Dolby TrueHD. It is hooked through HDMI to my Denon 3806 Receiver, which doesn’t have that capability. But shouldn’t I be able to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio with that setup? - Pat, Libertyville, Illinois
A. No, not necessarily. Your Blu-ray player may be compatible with those formats, but you need a compatible receiver to decode those signals.
If your Blu-ray player has multichannel outputs, you can set it up to decode and output the signals via the multichannel analog outputs, sending them to the receiver’s multichannel inputs.
I have my Blu-ray player setup to decode and output via its multichannel outputs, and I run the RCA cables to my preamp’s multichannel inputs. My preamp doesn’t have Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, but with the Blu-ray player set up to do the decoding, my preamp is running in a bypass mode.
You can do the same thing if your Blu-ray player has multichannel analog RCA outputs. Once you make the physical connections, go into the Blu-ray player’s menu and configure it for the multichannel analog outputs.
If your player doesn’t have multichannel outputs, the best you’ll get is the traditional Dolby Digital and DTS audio. The good news is that the prices of receivers and Blu-ray players are falling.
@ Todd: I don’t think the article needs to be deleted, just edited.
Technically, Pat cannot enjoy Dolby True HD, or DTS Master decoding with the current setup period. She can enjoy uncompressed LCPM audio, which should be identical to either format, and that is what needs to be changed in the article, otherwise it’s misleading.
my 2 cents
This article should be deleted as the “info” contained in it is entirelly wrong.
An AVR only need be HDMI 1.1 spec’ed and have the ability to accept LPCM over HDMI to play lossless if the AVR can’t decode lossless.
You are correct, the player can decode and output via HDMI or analog.
We will be covering this in an upcoming story with Dolby (rather than citing Wikipedia) to clear up any confusion.
Robert Archer
Burn. Thanks Scion Racer, I thought this sounded not so right.
Name:
Email:
Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?
Please answer the question below:
Type the last letter of the word "cable":
Electronic House is now available in a digital edition. Learn more.
I liked the LG Theater System the most. Thanks for sharing this information. Top… 
Stay up-to-date with home electronics. 
Weekly email offers tips, info and product news.
Get the content that's important to you.
Not true at all. She can enjoy TrueHD or dts MA. TrueHD and dtsMA are just packaging methods for LPCM anyway. They are ways of compressing a file without the loss of any data.
So, if a player decodes TrueHD or dtsMA to LPCM the resulting audio is the original audio.
It is just a matter of where the decoding takes place. What do you think an AVR that decodes TrueHD or dtsMA decodes it to? You guessed it…...LPCM.