m630

....what should be understood is that in most highend setups, the display panel does not contain speakers, so a digital media receiver is a pre-requisite for all sounds. In this, your receiver must have HDMI passthru capabilities to capture the sound. In addition, depending on the cablebox, you may also need a digital optical wire that would run from the cablebox to the receiver.

in the case of the ps3, you should pass thru directly to the receiver to receive the TrueHD, your receiver must specify that it can decode TrueHD, and if its not fairly highend and rather new, it most likely cannot, so you would not be able to capture the true sound definition

and as UUronL posted, AVS is a great forum for learning all the ins and outs of the digital age!

UUronL

My boss does something interesting... he uses a PC to do his main audio functions - like a pre/pro. He uses some uber-high-end audio card with a host of inputs/outputs, and a combo HD-DVD, Blu-Ray drive. The software player dictates the support for decoding the high-def formats, but ultimately everything gets sent to a digital amp (Rotel). It's a great idea, since you can input coax and optical for TV and video games. None of the audio for either of those use-cases (TV, gaming) require next-gen audio processing.

m630

this sounds like a good setup (except using a PC)

digital sound cards are very useful, my old MAC is setup using a soundcard that was like $800 when i had bought it years ago when I was developing my at home sound studio. It allows S/PDIF connections directly from my DAT, which back in '97 was the sh*t! (yeah im old school!)

im actually planning something similar with my homeoffice/bedroom setup, but since Im a MAC man, i've been waiting for Apple to offer a fully integrated Blu-Ray solution, which should finally be on the way now... i will build out my new Mac with a fully integrated HD soundcard and full HDMI support for multiple ins and outs, which I'll eventually pass thru my media receiver to my panel for watching Blu-ray and making DVDs, etc, and ofcourse, sound sequencing and master CDs/DATs for recordings

Bimmer32

I read somewhere that the PS3 decodes TrueHD and sends it out to the receiver in PCM, and since my receiver understands PCM, I think it should work. I guess. I'm trying to not to spend so much money if my existing receiver can handle TrueHD if it's being decoded by the PS3.

UUronL, thanks for the helpful links. Sometimes, AVS Forum can get really technique for the average Joe like me who enjoys good clean 2 channel music. Afterall, I only have 2 ears.

m630

ps3 does send via PCM, but that has nothing to do with your media receiver's ability to decode and present sound in Dolby TrueHD. Only higher end relatively new (within the past 12 months) receivers have offered this capability, and your receiver would probably have the icon listing it as a feature.

Skimming through my manual, TrueHD is described as the next generation lossless encoding for the upcoming era. My receiver is the Elite VSX91-THX and became available last September, so if you're saying you're using an older receiver, it most likely will not produce the sound you may be expecting...