Couldn’t the player decode the format and send it to the receiver through LPCM?  I thought that was the benefit to having the decoders in the player?

No, LPCM is the baseline format, the codec is decoded via bitstream and that’s available from HDMI.

This is entirely incorrect. Sounds like someone should get a primer on LPCM and Bitstream.

If your AVR/pre-pro cannot decode the lossless formats, you can simply shift the responsiblity to the player, which will result in outputting LPCM. Both 5.1 and 7.1 channel LPCM can be carried over HDMI interface.

Or, as stated, you can use multi-ch. analog connectors.

From a technical perspective, it doesn’t matter where the decoding takes place; the resulting audio quality should be identical. In other words, the user can still benefit from Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD MA by decoding in the player and sending LPCM over HDMI.

It’s all here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15289437#post15289437

Burn.  Thanks Scion Racer, I thought this sounded not so right.

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

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.

@ 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

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.