Sony responds to rumors of the PlayStation 3's audio limitations

by Colin Torretta { May 9th 2007 at 7:00AM }

Yesterday, sister site Engadget HD posted a link to a site that claimed the PlayStation 3 wasn't capable of outputting Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD, even though the PS3's HDMI 1.3 support should guarantee that. Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD are considered two of the highest-end audio formats on the market and since the PlayStation 3 is advertised as being able to support both of them, this caused a bit of an uproar amongst the more hardcore technophile PS3 owners.

Sony responded later in the day though, stating that the PS3 DID indeed support both formats - but that you have to use the PS3 to decode the signals, not a separate AV receiver. A minor bummer, but not a huge deal. Now, I just need $1600 to buy a receiver that actually supports HDMI 1.3.

[Via Engadget HD]

Tags: Dolby, DTS, HDMI, TrueHD

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

gareth Burleigh @ May 9th 2007 7:25AM

Id rather they responded to the green screen RGB DVD/Blu Ray stupidity.
After dropping over £600 Sony basically call me a theif very nice.

Gareth

Sandy @ May 9th 2007 7:33AM

The funny thing is, most people don't seem to know that you can EASILY use TrueHD/Uncompressed PCM (up to 7.1!) without the use of HDMI 1.3. As long as the PS3 is SET to decode the stuff by selecting LinearPCM instead of BITSTREAM. If you have the right receiver (which youd need anyway if you got a 1.3 HDMI unit) for 1.2 HDMI or 1.2a HDMI then you can easily use the Uncompressed Sound from games like Resistance fall Of man (true 7.1 PCM! Sounds amazing) and Blu-ray discs.... almost no one ever mentions this.

humpty @ May 9th 2007 8:03AM

The hardware is all 1.3 spec... so, they can enable those formats with a fw update. Using PS3 to decode and send them out as LPCM makes more sense now since there is only one reciever (it costs 3x the PS3 and came out this week) that can decode those formats.

ThisOneKidMongo @ May 9th 2007 8:15AM

Actually, once Onkyo's new line comes out you won't need to spend anywhere near $1600 for HDMI 1.3 if you don't want to. Even the lower end of the new models, starting with the 605 (hopefully out later this month), is 1.3 compliant and can internally decode both lossless audio formats -- if you look in the right price, you can get it for $399 pre-sale right now.

steve @ May 9th 2007 9:25AM

I just wish sony would allow you to use hdmi to the tv and optical out to the amp like the elite does. If you have a tv with optical out your okay but mine doesn't. it's a 32 inch lcd jvc. most 32 inch lcd's don't have optical out. the 1080p lcd's all seem to have optical out. and my tv is only one year old so it's not like it's obsolete.

lopes @ May 9th 2007 5:44PM

To #5, you can do that. That's exactly how i have mine set up. Just tell the ps3 in the settings to output over optical (or whatever the exact setting says) for audio, and HDMI for video. I've heard people say this before, why is there this misconception? It's not hard to decipher in the settings.

Popfrogs @ May 9th 2007 9:58AM

Lopes is right, and if you hit the official playstation forums (google boardsus) you'll see that's how 80% of us have it configured. I've had mine set up like this from day one.

Andir3.0 @ May 9th 2007 9:39AM

I have my PS3 connected using a HDMI-DVI cable to my TV and the optical wire to my receiver and it works fine for my setup. It's not TrueHD, but it works with what my receiver supports.

OrganicShadow @ May 9th 2007 9:59AM

Just like last gen with PS2, we are going to start seeing those generic(did i say that?) speaker systems made for use with videogame consoles, and supporting all of the input methods needed.

They had PS2 4.1 rigs a LONG time ago I remember that even had optical input support, so it's really only a matter of time before those same companies come out with rigs that have HDMI in, or even HDMI 1.3 in for those big 7.1+ sized setups for the audiophiles with deep pockets.

Love how new gaming generations push other forms of tech along with themselves...

Thomas @ May 9th 2007 9:45AM

that website who posted the claim that the ps3 doesn't do Dolby True HD, should be run out of town... the logo for Dolby True HD, is on the ps3... or did I get a special verision, that no one else got.....

massive_98 @ May 9th 2007 9:53AM

Is the sound really that much better to spend $1000+ on a reciever?

GRT @ May 9th 2007 10:28AM

I'm with Lopes & Popfrog... that's exactly how I set up my PS3. I thought it was pretty obvious that you could do that.

Also there's this thing that came with the PS3 called a manual....

kingnick @ May 10th 2007 12:44AM

Dolby TrueHD isn't a mandatory codec for Blu-ray movies and so will be used on few (if any) titles.

The part that infuriates me about Blu-ray is how they dropped the ball when it came to codec support, there's no Dolby TrueHD for movies as it isn't a mandatory codec and most titles are still using the inferior AVC/H.264 and MPEG2 video codecs.

Sony and co have done a very good job of wasting whatever space and technical advantages they had by using lesser codecs and a sloppy menu system.

It's dual format for me, I'll buy everything I want in HD DVD and if it isn't available on HD DVD I'll have to settle for Blu-ray.

Stef Geiger @ May 9th 2007 11:51AM

So... how is it a bummer that the PS3 does the decoding for you? That's actually a PLUS, because it means you only need to buy a receiver that does LPCM 5.1, and not one that costs extra because it has the Dolby HD and DTS DS licensing.

antistar @ May 9th 2007 12:08PM

Just for clarification. You cannot get LPCM 5.1 or 7.1 via optical, hdmi is required. You can only to LPCM 2.0 over optical. Most receivers do not support LPCM 5.1 or 7.1 because of this limitation.

massive_98: yes it does sound significantly better in my opinion and worth the money to run LPCM instead of dolby digital or dts.

Stef Geiger @ May 9th 2007 12:13PM

The problem here is that most people can't tell the difference between the two in terms of quality - this is why almost no one cares that iTunes songs are 128kb/s, even though some of us know they sound awful.

Backtracking a bit, for those who don't know much about this audio stuff, LPCM is a completely uncompressed format, so again, having your PS3 convert to it has no negative effect whatsoever. It's like the difference between having a water filter on your kitchen tap, or having a Brita filter that you fill with regular tap water.

seedaripper @ May 9th 2007 1:28PM

er...i was gonna invest into a 7.1 surround sound system this weekend....i have a 42in 1080p tv (it has every port known to man)with a HDMI cable for my PS3...do i buy a 7.1 designed for pc use and use the component cables??? or use a seperate optic cable from the PS3 to TV? (and have to invest into a 7.1 system that has the optic feature?)
you lot seem to know what your talkin about (and im a bit off it) so any answers would be great

Wes @ May 10th 2007 2:13AM

I do the same thing kingnick. I've heard that part of the problem was when Bluray as first released to studios, the authoring tools? only included AVC/H.264 and MPEG2 initially.

Whereas hd-dvd was using.... hmmm....I forgot but a little bit more efficient codec. This was talk on the avsforums back, way back, when the Toshiba A100 was brand new and people were agruing which would be best based of display models scene in stores and theoretical specs.