PS3 Audio - Linear PCM or Bitrate?


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So okay, I googled the hell out of this specific topic, and I am still a tad confused.

I watched the new Exorcist BluRay release last night (it is pretty much one of my favorite movies ever, so I purchased it Day 1), and one of the things I was really excited about was the audio, because it really is fantastic in this movie.

So literally right away I noticed that the little light on my receiver that indicates if a game is running in surround sound did not come on, so I went into my Audio Options, changed it to Bitrate, and Boom, I got a light that I never saw before actually, it was a Dolby light and it also had DTS next to it as well. It also defaulted my receiver to Matrix, or something like that. Whatever it did, the sound sounded amazing. Literally.

Now here is the thing, when I changed it to Bitrate, I also get a message from the PS3 that said something like "If you change the sound to Bitrate, you may not hear all of the audio." Now thing is, I definitely heard all of the audio, no doubt about it, but when I Googled it, a lot of people said no doubt to leave it on Linear PCM. There was a lot of discussion about if you are using an optical cable vs and HDMI cable, so FTR, I am using HDMI, and it does support 1.3.

So I am a bit confused here.

Should I use bitrate when the movie supports it, such as the Exorcist BluRay does? Or should I leave it at Linear PCM?

If you do know, can you please explain why I should use which one over the other?

All I know is like I said, when I changed it to Bitrate for the Exorcist BluRay, it not only sounded better, but I got a light that said "Dolby & DTS", the combination of which I am pretty sure I never have been prior to enabling Bitrate.

TIA to anyone that can answer.

DL

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If your receiver supports DTS-HD and TrueHD decoding bitstream will pass on that signal into the decoder in the receiver and receiver will do the decoding, if you use PCM instead, PS3 will decode those formats and pass on the decoded sound, not really sure which is better though, i think for full surroud you need bitstream, but i use stereo only so PCM is fine for me

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If you are using an optical out, you won't be able to have more than 2 channels in any of the HD sound formats, it can't transport that amount of data.

To have HD audio in surround from the PS3 you will need to use HDMI and a receiver that supports DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD...etc.

I would probably also use bit stream and let your receiver process the signal, as it has dedicated hardware to do it rather than the PS3 processing the PCM...etc

If you use an optical cable, the PS3 will automatically downsample it to standard DD or DTS if in surround.

Hope that clears things up a little :)

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Okay cool thanks all, that definitely clears it all up for me. I had read more or less the same when I Googled it last night, but it was never made as clear as the responses here. (Y) :yes:

So I will leave it at Bitstream and let my receiver do the decoding. (Y)

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As far as I'm aware there should be no difference in sound quality between LCPM and bitstream with your hardware setup, the only difference will be the little light on your receiver which indicates that it's decoding HD audio (rather than having already decoded HD audio passed to it).

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Like previously stated. If you use bitstream it means that the receiver will be doing all of the audio decoding, as opposed to LPCM which means the PS3 does all the decoding and sending the processed audio to the receiver.

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My reciever does DTS and I'm connected via optical cable. Should I stick with Linear PCM?

Bitstream, while the PS3 is good at decoding, chances are your receiver will do a better job if it's a good one.

The only reason I stick with Linear PCM is my receiver accepts PCM over HDMI essentially giving me HD audio - However it can't decode HD audio itself, therefore I have to let the PS3 do it and pass it to my receiver already decompressed.

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Not all PS3s bitstream HD codec like Dolby TruHD or DTS Master Audio. Only the slim PS3s are capable of outputting HD audio track.

If you have a PS3 fat I would suggest you switch to LPCM so you can enjoy HD audio.

If you have PS3 slim and your audio receiver supports decoding of HD audio then bitstream is the best option. If you only see DTS or DD then the receiver is not processing HD audio. Make sure you go into the disc audio menu and check whether HD audio is selected. Sometimes its defaulted to DD or DTS 5.1.

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My reciever does DTS and I'm connected via optical cable. Should I stick with Linear PCM?

You can't stream HD audio with optical cable on the PS3. Even if you chose LPCM you will only get stereo as multichannel is not supported with a optical cable.

Its better to stick with bitstream if you are using optical cable as it will let you stream legacy audio like DD or DTS 5.1

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