Sorry a question that may not be answerable.

If I bought a 990 or 970 and a PS3 as my primary high def player what options would I have with these Pre/pros since the PS3 doesn't have analog outs like SACD players only HDMI?

Cory

Watching Blu-ray on the PS3, you'd be listening to Dolby Digital or DTS (via optical) that were downmixed from the DD+ or DTS-HD.

Cory:

PS3 will have a standard digital audio output, as does Xbox 360, so you're good to go on that count.

You will be able to switch the video, but you will only get the DTS or DD track like you get now from DVD. You will not get the newer Dolby and DTS high res movie tracks (I don't remember what they are called). For those you would need the analog output.

Regards,

Charlie

Won't we be able to use the 7.1 channel inputs on the back, if our Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player has the analog outputs?

I see that as one possible solution.

-Rob

Hi Rob,

Yes on a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Stand alone player you would be able to use the 7.1 outputs on the player connected to the 7.1 inputs on your receiver/processor.

The origanal post was about the PS3, which I think will not haave the 7.1 outputs necessary.

Regards,

As brubacca says, most of us who pursue either format will do so using 7.1 analog inputs, which should be standard on all but the least expensive players. Sony's PS3 will not have onboard DAC's.

Correct me if I'm wrong as I don't fully understand, but whether we are using the old DTS and DD or not, we will still have better sound because blu-ray will have a higher bitrate for audio. Currently, the limiting factor is that the standard-def DVD player can not support as high of bit-rates as our processors can. Is this true?

I wanted to take advantage of the higher rate Audio of DTS HD and Dolby HD. So for the PS3, HDMI is the only option right since no analog out?

Thanks for the help.
Cory

With the PS3, you will not be able to get the new formats without a receiver or processor that has an HDMI input that can let it get that eight-channel PCM output. The only way to get any of these formats out of a player is either HDMI (the only approved avenue for decoded eight-channel PCM) or multichannel analog outputs; coax and optical digital audio don't have the bandwidth for eight PCM streams, and even if they could handle the bitstreams (which I don't believe they could) there's no way to pass those bitstreams - not even HDMI will be allowed to do so until HDMI 1.3, and no receivers or processors will pack the decoders until then because they'll never see the original bitstreams.

I'm most interested in Dolby TrueHD, since it's using MLP lossless (DTS-HD and DD+ should be cool but are still lossy compression schemes), but don't have any intention of buying hardware in this format war until somebody surrenders. The closest I'll come to that is settling for a PS3 and living with only getting the downmixed DD/DTS via optical. If you want to have access to the new audio formats, you'll need to spring for a dedicated player in the format of your choice or find a receiver or processor with HDMI.