96/24 2.0 from Blu-Ray?

[ted_b]

copy protection and output up to 192k from DVD_A via SPDIF (we have all kinds of posts on it at AVS, AC and others). Oppo's "official" response is that they have to reduce the bit depth to 16 bits, but their latest comments about it say that the chip maker somehow got them chips that allow full 24 bit. Anyway, I've not been able to ever confirm bit depth, but have many times confirmed 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192k.

 

Here's an email from Oppo (dated Jan 2008, regarding, of course, the 980 not the BD 83)

Our DVD players have no oversampling capabilities for audio. It can only send out the audio as it was originally encoded or downsample it. If you have the HDMI interface set to Off and the LPCM rate set to 192KHz, the DV-980H can send up to 2.0 Stereo 24-bit/192KHz over optical or coaxial.

 

You will also have to set your output resolution to at least 720p, 1080i, or 1080p.

 

Best Regards,

 

Customer Service

OPPO Digital, Inc.

 

 

[Synfreak]

Hi Dan!

 

Hmmm, ...

I don't own an Oppo myself, so I'm a bit limited in evaluating the problem ...

 

But, I can only recommend to check the settings twice.

 

First:

Have you choosen the right setting in the Oppo "Setup Page" menu:

"DVD-Audio Mode" to DVD-Audio

 

Second:

Does the Oppo light up the "DVD-A" symbol on its frontpanel display?

 

And a note to the "surround" setting:

You should be able to set the player to accept even surround material for two channel playback (it will be downmixed then).

 

Hope you will get your player running as you would like it to ...

 

Cheers

Harald

 

[DanG]

First of all, this is the greatest forum. Thank you Ted and Harald and others. You help and suggestions are most appreciated. So Ted, I did as you and Oppo support suggested. I turned off the audio-over HDMI and wow! I'm getting a lock at 96K Hz from both of my DVD-A's. Eureka!

 

And Ted, thanks for your tips. It's kinda weird, but I was getting 48K PCM over the de-embedded HDMI (I still don't know if it was 16 or 24 bits). But turning off the audio-over-HDMI setting, I'm getting 96K out of the S/PDIF port of the Oppo. And the front panel display indicated DVD-A for both settings.

 

So now my only small dissapointment is that I have to change menu settings to switch between playing DVD-A and SACD. But my real goal is to record those hi-rez bit streams to my hard drive (this is Computer Audiophile after all) and then serve them to my system via my firewire connected TC Electronic Konnekt 8. 88.2K for SACD and 96K for DVD-A. I don't want to have to deal with discs at all in the long term.

 

My only challenge is one interface for all resolutions. I am a long-time, very happy user of Sonos. But Sonos is 16 bit only. And, Sonos doesn't publically speculate on future improvements to their interface. I understand that the Squeezebox Touch will do 24/96 and I hope that selling point will encourage Sonos to counter with that feature too. I've already been told by Sonos tech support that their hardware is ready for some implementation of 24/96. I'd love to have all my hi-rez files served by Sonos. But until that day comes, I'll have to switch to another PC-based interface to play the hi-rez files. More complication when I really want more simplicity of operation. I don't mind playing with my playback hardware to get all this set up (it's really fun in hobbiest kinda way), but to switch between the Sonos handheld interface and a PC based interface is a pain. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain. At least I'm making progress.

 

DanG

 

[ted_b]

Don't even deal with SPDIF or de-embedders when it comes to DVD-Audio ripping. It is done easily (and natively to 24/192k) with DVDAexplorer (Windows). I listen to 24/192 DVD-A's via hardrive and Weiss DAC2 every day (and posted/documented on another thread here or on the hirez Circle I moderate over on AudioCircle....I stickied it) I'll send you the executable if you PM me. You can easily make them 24/96k max, too (for those above 96k).

 

As for downsampled (24/88.2k) SACD you're on your own. I leave them as SACD's and use my BDP-83 SE.

 

[bottlerocket]

ted, can you share how you limit say 24/192 DVD-A to 24/96 with DVDA explorer? I've been wanting to do this but did not see how. Thanks.

 

[ted_b]

but you can use many different easy conversion tools to downsample. It's upsampling that can be destructive with the wrong tools.

 

[Synfreak]

Hi Dan!

 

Good to hear that you have made some progress with your setup, and got it running

 

But, on the subject of DVD-Audio (and on DVD-Video discs with high-resolution content), there are better ways to get them on your harddisc.

 

With DVD-Audio, Ted has nailed it right down.

I'm also using DVDAexplorer for this.

 

And if you want to get the audio of some DVD-Video discs I would strongly recommend "DVD-AudioExtractor"

(there is a trial version on their website).

 

It might take you some self-education and time to get used to the progs, but they are worth it!

 

That spoken, you would only have to deal with your OPPO/HDMI-box setup for the (stereo) transfer of your SACDs.

 

Have fun!

 

Greetings

Harald

 

[bottlerocket]

Thanks that answer for downsampling from 24/192 to 24/96 works well for me as I have Windows available on my Mac to run DBpa. So I downloaded DBpoweramp to convert and kept them as .wav and moved the new copies back into Itunes after converting. For now my DAC is only 24/96 and I use Amarra Mini so wanted them to play through Mini. Thanks again.

 

Interesting that MAX does not let you do this.

 

[ackcheng]

I got the Altona audio extractor but it is not useful at all. The description is very misleading. It extract the audio signal from the HDMI and convert it to analog signal. But your BD83 is already doing that and with a much better DAC. The SPDIF output is only 44.1/48 Hz but not high resolution.

 

I am getting this to mod my BD83. http://switch-box.com/3x_S_PDIF_Transceiver_%28In_Out%29_board.html

 

Will report back if I have any success!

 

[DanG]

Hi ackcheng.

Just wanted to let you know that I contacted Atlona tech support and asked about the data rates I could expect from their HD570 HDMI audio de-embedder. Here is my question and the customer services rep (Alex) responses:

 

(First, my question): "Regarding the AT-HD570, if 24 bit, 96K LPCM audio exists at the HDMI input, will the optical port of the AT-HD570 output 24/96 LPCM, or will the HDCP Compliant nature of the box output a lesser quality, lower rate LPCM?"

 

 

"Hello, I’m sorry for the delayed response, we have been catching up on our emails due to the holidays in the past 2 weeks. I will have to do some more research to see if the HDCP lowers the LPCM. None of the prior research I didn’t on this suggested that it lowers the quality but I’m not positive because everything was not to specific. I will ask my product manager and get back to you tomorrow morning. Is that okay? Once again I’m sorry for the delayed response."

Thank you

Alex"

 

Then a few days later I got this response:

 

"Hello, I first want to thank you for your patience. Second the HD570 Does provide 24/96. I just spoke with my product manager and he said it does. We are going to update the website soon to show that spec.

Thank you

Alex"

 

So I would expect that you can get higher-rez from the Atlana. Maybe you have a setting wrong on your disc player that's not allowing the HDMI stream to contain the resolutions you're looking for. I have a very similar unit by Kramer (the FC-46) and it's working quite well for me. I'm getting PCM streams of 88.2K from SACD's. It took a bit of fussing to get the settings right, but now it's working like a champ.

 

Hope this is helpful to you.

 

DanG

 

 

 

 

 

[ackcheng]

Thanks Dan

 

This is very useful and I will certainly try. I guess I also need Dolby True HD which is a 8 channels high resolution output, so the SPDIF transceiver will also help

 

ackcheng