come ON man! cut the dude a break. that's like his best friend from grade school. sometimes you gotta let people find out for themselves. i bet georgey boy is real clear now that putting aliens in indiana jones wasn't the best idea and he didn't lose one of his best friends in the process. those two guys sat down in the late 70's and made Indiana Jones together man. From what i understand they argued about the aliens for a long time and Spielberg finally gave in. I think he was able to let the public prove his point but lost a great franchise in the process. which actually makes him the opposite of a sell out.

keep in mind, it's mr. spielberg's buddy george lucas that ruined crystal skulls with that alien plot line, give the guy a break.

always wanted one of these. not a chance i'm willing to pay for one though. i guess that makes this a perfect opportunity for me huh?

hey guys, please disregard my previous post. after reading "LPCM is not always equal to bitstream" and the comments that followed, it has become PRETTY clear to me this subject is like arguing HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray or PS3 vs. Xbox360. it just comes down to a personal preference i guess. there doesn't seem to be ANY proof whatsoever that LPCM is better than Bitstream or the other way around. my question was answered months ago here:

http://whatsonhdtv.blogspot.com/2008/03/sony-playstation-3-and-blu-ray-audio.html

when i learned the only way to get the Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master codecs from your Blu-ray discs through the PS3 is to make sure the setting is turned to LPCM since the option isn't available by setting it to Bitstream. regardless of whether or not one is "better" than the other, the only way to get the lossless codecs from the PS3 is through LPCM which is why if you select Bitstream you get the following message:

"If you select [Bitstream], some portions of audio from the BD may not be played,"

i guess my greatest fear is most likely true, sony has lied about the actual abilities of the PS3 to output sound codecs via the HDMI. although the PS3 SHOULD carry all the sound codecs through the HDMI, it only caries the LPCM lossless codecs and not the bitstream. i don't have a choice, the choice has been made for me. if i want the lossless codecs, i can only get them via LPCM output.

hey guys,
so maybe i'm a lot more dense than i thought, but after posting months ago about the audio decoding from my PS3 to my Pioneer VSX-90TXV receiver, i'm still unsure of what the better option is. i had been waiting out Steve's trip to Dolby for a final answer and after listening to last weeks podcast and reading his post on the visit to Dolby, i still don't know what the consensus is. is it better to set the PS3 to output LPCM to my receiver for the Dolby TrueHD and DTS MasterHD, or leave it set to the bitstream option and lose those codecs? i feel like LPCM is better since the Dolby TrueHD and DTS MasterHD options won't output unless the PS3 is set to LPCM and this is the only way to get lossless audio out of the PS3, but once again last week, ben makes the argument that bitstream is better than LPCM. i really can't find a true answer on the web anywhere, and i kind of think of you guys as an authority on the subject so i'm just wondering what your thoughts are. i think in the end, i'm gonna end up shelling out another $350 for a standalone blu-ray player rather than use my PS3 which would suck since the reason i bought the PS3 at launch for $600 was to make it my blu-ray player with the bonus of a gaming system included. i just want to be sure i'm getting everything out of all the pricey gear i've invested in over the last 4 years.

Hey guys, meant 2 comment last week on your project natal coverage and just forgot and quite frankly assumed someone else would have written in. But I think everyone is forgetting that micosoft mentioned and demoed that natal is not only gesture based but has voice recognition. Which means it's potentially ALOT cooler as an addition to your home theater then just gestures to control the system. Imagine if they implement some kind of system tahr allows you to just speak what you want the media center to do. If you wanna watch netflix, you just say netflix and the name of the movie, etc. Pretty cool stuff potentialy.

guys, really, i LOVE the podcast but after listening to you guys bash PS3 for like 20 minutes, i just HAVE to say that contrary to your frequent statements that XBOX 360 is so much cheaper than PS3, let me be the one to say you could NOT BE MORE INCORRECT! as a PS3 owner since launch (yes, one of the 24 people that got suckered into buying it for $600) i finally broke down last month and added a 360 to my PS3 and Wii collection. the 360 is BY FAR the most expensive on the market! i originally wanted an Elite but after about 6 trips to different stores unable to find an Elite Jasper system, i settled for the Pro Jasper over the Arcade ($300) i got it home only to find out it not only excludes wireless, but i need to buy rechargeable battery packs AND a special charger to charge said battery packs ($15 for the battery, $30 for the charger) then i needed to purchase a wireless network adapter ($99) and if that wasn't bad enough, after i plunked down all THAT money, i found out the hard way that in order to play my friends online, i had to spend EVEN MORE MONEY to get a one year xbox live membership ($50). Bringing the total ammount to $494 which is exactly $94 MORE EXPENSIVE for the SAME THING the PS3 gives you right out of the box for $400, wait, let me correct myself, you actually get more out of the box with PS3 since it also plays blu-ray discs!!!! don't get me wrong, i LOVE my new 360 and all the badass XBL arcade games that aren't available on PS3, but really, the fact of the matter is, the 360 is 25% MORE EXPENSIVE than the PS3 and it still doesn't play BLU-RAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

put that DLC on PS3 and i'll pay whatever rockstar wants!

i'm gonna have to agree with david here whole heartedly. he really has the best plan that's been posted so far. if you're happy with your speakers, there's no need to upgrade especially since your room is getting smaller not larger. you typically only have to replace speakers when you blow one or you get a larger room they can no longer fill. speaking from expierence, those HTIB things suck balls! you get what you pay for man. i bought a sony DAV-C990 which was their top of the line $1000 model back in the early 2000's and that thing broke like every 4 or 5 months. it was a real piece of garbage! it was one of the few times i was able to take advantage of best buys extended warranty program.

i would either do what david suggests OR take the $600 and head over to best buy. they ALWAYS have some excellent open box deals on receivers. i have bought 3 open box receivers from them and NEVER had a problem. these open box buys are a STEAL! high end gear that is only priced on the cheap because they used it in their demo rooms. you can't find a better deal! lots of them don't have manuals, but you can download them off the net. i picked up a pioneer elite VSX91THX for $350 about 6 months ago (a $1,200 receiver) and 2 years ago i got a harmon/kardon avr 340 for $200 (a $600 receiver at the time). both receivers work as if i bought them brand new but i picked them up over 50% off because they were used in the demo rooms. you can't find a better way to get an awesome piece of gear that cheap. plus all warranties are valid and if you want, you can purchase the extended warranty in case you're freaked out about buying used stuff.

you can get a great receiver on the cheap and then save up for a stand alone blu-ray player or sell that red-ringing xbox and some games and pick up a PS3 and you'll be set.

hey guys, great show, i really enjoyed the addition of nilay again. i'm the one responsible for this original post with my question to you guys last week. i'm almost sorry i created all these arguments in the comments. in my own defense, the reason i wrote this question to you last week wasn't because i wanted to "see all the lights" i paid for in my pioneer elite receiver. it was because i wanted to make sure i had my PS3 hooked up correctly to be taking advantage of the cash i shelled out for what i consider to be one of the more expensive and technolically advanced recievers on the market. while steve was researching the answer to my question, i was able to find this page:

http://whatsonhdtv.blogspot.com/2008/03/sony-playstation-3-and-blu-ray-audio.html

and this guy eric was REALLY helpful and helped me understand this process last week before you were able to replay to my email. simply put, the PS3 WILL decode the Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA codecs via bitstream, BUT it only sends the "core" information to the receiver this way. "core" meaning it only sends the digital info for a 5.1 setup, so if you have a 7.1 receiver and speaker setup, your wasting your extra two channels if you have it set to bitstream on the PS3. it's my understanding the way to truly take advantage of your 7.1 audio capabilities is to set the PS3 to output audio as Linear PCM otherwise you're only getting SOME of the audio on the disc, which is exactly why when you set your audio to bitstream on the PS3 you receive an onscreen message that says "If you select [Bitstream], some portions of audio from the BD may not be played." therefore, if you have the 7.1 receiver and speaker setup, the best way to truly use what your system is capable of is to set the audio to linear PCM. if you only have a 5.1 setup, i think the only difference in setting your PS3 to output audio as bitstream or Linear PCM is the LPCM is lossless and the bitstream is lossy. i'm more of a videophile myself so i really just want my picture to be as good as possible but since i just shelled out a TON of cash for a pioneer kuro elite tv and matching 7.1 elite receiver, i want to be taking advantage of my money spent as much as possible. after all the information i've gathered over the last 10 days, it seems as though if i TRULY want to take advantage of my gear, i need to add a better stand alone blu-ray player since the PS3 seems a bit gimped audio wise. i wish i would have known this since i just bought a second PS3 for my bedroom setup a few weeks ago. according to many of the websights i visit for AV news and reviews (this one included i may add) the PS3 is still considered one of the best blu-ray players on the market.

also, in order to possibly save steve some time, i did SEVERAL of my own tests with my PS3 last week when i was trying to figure this all out. hooking up the PS3 via HDMI and switching between bitsteam and linear PCM on 5 different kinds of discs. a blu-ray with DTS HDMA, a blu-ray with Dolby Digital True HD, a blu-ray with English 5.1 uncompressed, a DVD with DTS, and a DVD with Dolby Digital. here's what i discovered....NONE of these discs output as bitstream or LPCM caused the Dolby True HD or DTS HDMA lights on my receiver to light up. HOWEVER, if you set the PS3 to LPCM, the info bar on the PS3 will display Dolby True HD and DTS HDMA as the sound codec that is being output, if you set the PS3 to output as bitstream, the Dolby True HD and DTS HDMA will not show up as being output in the PS3 info bar. I am not an engineer, but i'm pretty sure that means in order to take advantage of the Dolby True HD or DTS HDMA you have to set the PS3 to LPCM or the system won't even TRY to output those sound codecs to the receiver. BUT i fail to understand why that won't make my reciever light up with the Dolby True HD or DTS HDMA indicators. I also dicovered that setting the output as LPCM and switching between audio tracks on the disc, the Dolby True HD or DTS HDMA tracks were louder than the regular Dolby Digital or DTS tracks. I realize that louder is not nessasarily better, but that's really the only difference i could make out of the two. which leads me to believe that the "better" audio output setting on the PS3 is Linear PCM. As far as i can tell, the only way to get the PS3 to output the Dolby True HD and DTS HDMA codecs is through the Linear PCM. Whether your reciever can decode the Dolby True HD and DTS HDMA codecs as bitstream from the PS3 or not, the point is moot since PS3 only outputs the "core" 5.1 digital info as bitstream anyway. if you want the higher end lossless sound codecs, you HAVE TO output as Linear PCM. of course if you only have a 5.1 set up i guess none of this matters right? i guess if i understand this correctly a true audiophile would want the lossless sound rather than the lossy, but then again, maybe i don't get it. after all this, one thing is for sure, i set my PS3 to output Linear PCM, i THINK i'm getting the best out of what i paid for, and i'm selling my brand new second PS3 so i can buy a Samsung BDP-3600.

I'd love to hear more on this subject if you guys have the time. I think your site and podcast are the perfect vehicles for these types of discussions. i'd really like to know more about the difference between bitstream and linear pcm and lossless and lossy audio since they pertain so much to HD viewing and listening.Until about10-12 days ago, i didn't know what any of these things meant. i just thought you hook up your gear via HDMI and the machines talk to each other to decide what's best. boy was i mistaken!