Which Blu-ray Player for You?

Which Blu-ray player will you buy, now that HD DVD is dead (see Dispatches from the Format War, #5 for the death notice)? Here are rundowns on the contenders. Click on the large insets for more information on each player. If the small icon to the right appears for a given player, you can click on it to get information about updating its firmware.

Sony PlayStation 3 $399.99 (40 GB) 1080p/24 video output via HDMI 1.3; no bitstream audio output; upconverts DVDs to 1080p; awkward remote; plays video games; networking via Ethernet or WiFi

The Sony PlayStation 3 is a video game console that also plays Blu-ray discs. As a stealth Blu-ray player it had much to do with the ultimate victory of Blu-ray over HD DVD, since for a long while it was the cheapest way to play Blu-ray, which kept the Sony-sponsored format in the game with its more budget-minded Toshiba rival.

The PlayStation 3 has also long boasted Blu-ray features hard to find on early standalone players — including, right away, the capability to produce true 1080p output, an ability most early Blu-ray players could only envy, and (using an Ethernet connection or built-in WiFi) an ability to be periodically upgraded with new system software that keeps the PS3 always up-to-date.

Accordingly, the PlayStation 3's system software can today output 1080p/24: 1080p video from movie-based Blu-ray discs recorded at 24 frames per second, to match the frame rate of film. Originally, only 60-fps output was available in 1080p on the PS3, and Blu-ray movies had more judder and jerkiness than necessary, due to the in-player frame rate conversion from 24 fps to 60 fps. 1080p/24 output fixes that ... but can only by used when the TV supports 1080p/24 input on HDMI.

The PS3's software now supports upconversion of standard DVDs to 1080p/24 or 1080p/60, too. The original software didn't do that.

Moreover, the PS3 software's ability to be upgraded now lets it support Blu-ray Profile 1.1, giving it the ability to present picture-in-picture commentary and other "enhanced" content on a disc. A future upgrade will support BD-Live, the ability to grab "enhanced" content from the Internet. (For more information on these various Blu-ray ability levels, see Blu-ray Player Profiles.)

The PS3's Achilles' heel as a Blu-ray player is its lack of flexibility in handling audio tracks on Blu-ray discs. It can't pass through any of the new high definition audio compression codecs — Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, or DTS-HD Master Audio — as undecoded bitstreams for decoding by external gear. Of those four codecs, the only one the PS3 could originally decode internally in uncompromised glory is Dolby TrueHD. As of April 2008, a new release of the PS3's firmware added the ability to decode DTS-HD Master Audio as well.

For more information on how the PS3 handles audio on Blu-ray discs, see Sony PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray Audio Codecs.

Panasonic DMP-BD30K $499.95 fine 1080p/24 picture via HDMI 1.3b; upconverts DVDs to 1080p; first player with Blu-ray Profile 1.1 capability for handling interactive disc content; Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio tracks output as bitstreams, but not decoded internally; no network capability for firmware updating

The Panasonic DMP-BD30K was the first Blu-ray player to include Blu-ray Profile 1.1 for handling interactive disc content, also known as the "Final Standard Profile" or "Bonus View." Previous players implemented only the "Grace Period Profile," aka Profile 1.0 or "BD-Video."

For more information on these various Blu-ray profiles, see Blu-ray Player Profiles.

The Panasonic DMP-BD30K has neither an Ethernet port nor WiFi wireless networking, so its firmware updates involve downloading an updater file to a personal computer, using the computer to burn the file to an optical disc, and inserting that disc in the Blu-ray player to install the update.

Panasonic DMP-BD50 $???.?? first player with Blu-ray Profile 2.0 "BD-Live" capability for handling interactive content from discs and from the Internet

The Panasonic DMP-BD50 is so new it isn't (as of 2/25/08) being sold yet, so I have linked the inset at left to a web page discussing its announcement as the first Blu-ray player that implements BD-Live. BD-Live, also known as Profile 2.0, is a hitherto unimplemented part of the Blu-ray standard that, according to Panasonic, "opens up a myriad of interactive possibilities for the consumer. In the future BD-Live will allow users to connect the DMP-BD50 to the internet to download such data as images and subtitles, and to join in multi-player interactive games that are linked to bonus movie content contained on Blu-ray discs."

For more information on these various Blu-ray profiles, see Blu-ray Player Profiles.

Sony BDP-S550 $500.00 1080p/60 and 1080p/24 video output; decodes 7.1-channel audio from Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master Audio; Ethernet/WiFi networking; comes with 1 GB local storage; has USB port for expanding local storage capacity

The Sony BDP-S550 is slated to be Sony's first "BD-Live capable" Blu-ray player. Like the upcoming Panasonic DMP-BD50 (see above), it will open up the possibility of using a home Ethernet or WiFi network to download "enhanced" content from the World Wide Web that will augment the Blu-ray disc in the player: games, picture-in-picture commentaries, and the like.

In supporting the Profile 2.0 capabilities that constitute BD-Live, it will also support Profile 1.1, or Bonus View.

For more information on these various Blu-ray profiles, see Blu-ray Player Profiles.

Sony BDP-S350 $400.00 1080p/60 and 1080p/24 video output; decodes 7.1-channel audio from Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD High Resolution; Ethernet/WiFi networking; has USB port for expanding local storage capacity

The Sony BDP-S350 is functionally like the Sony BDP-S550 (see above), except that it doesn't come with the one gigabyte of storage capacity required for BD-Live to work. That's why Sony calls it "BD-Live ready" instead of "BD-Live capable": you have to attach 1 GB (or more) of flash memory to its external USB port to get BD-Live going. (The BDP-S550 also has a USB port, so you can augment its storage as well.)

Early reports suggest that the BDP-S350 will also lack the BDP-S550's ability to decode DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks — though, in truth, the exact audio capabilities of these two forthcoming players from Sony are as yet (as of early March 2008) unclear.

Samsung BD-P1400 $399.99 mediocre 1080p picture at 24 fps, otherwise fine image quality; decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution audio tracks; outputs Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as bitstreams; Blu-ray disc compatibility issues?

The Samsung BD-P1400, released on 11/15/07, beats earlier players' handling of high-resolution audio tracks that can optionally be present on Blu-ray discs. The BD-P1400 is one of the first players to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution audio tracks with an onboard decoder. It also outputs Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio tracks as undecoded bitstreams. See Blu-ray Audio Codecs Revisited for more on what this means.

The BD-P1400 can have its firmware updated only by means of a recordable optical disc that you make on your computer after downloading the necessary updater file. Lacking an Ethernet or WiFi connection, the BD-P1400 cannot be updated over a network. Click on the icon at right to find out more.

And now for a rundown on the various earlier standalone Blu-ray players Sony has made. None of the following models would seem a good buy, as of late February 2008, because they don't support BD-Live (Blu-ray Profile 2.0) or even the Final Standard Profile (1.1). Hence, they won't handle the disc-based (1.1) or Internet-based (2.0) interactive content that is coming to Blu-ray.

Sony BDP-S1 $699.99 Sony's original standalone Blu-ray player

The Sony BDP-S1 was the first standalone Blu-ray player brought to market in the U.S. by the company that originated Blu-ray. As of late February 2008 this legacy model is no longer made but can still be bought online. Its firmware has been updated to decode Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus (see below), but by today's advanced standards, it's a poor choice ... even though its price is now much lower than it originally was.

The BDP-S1, like the three Sony players that follow, can have its firmware updated only by means of a recordable optical disc that you make on your computer after downloading the necessary updater file. (If that doesn't work for you, Sony will provide you with a free prerecorded disc containing the update.) Lacking an Ethernet or WiFi connection, the BDP-S1 cannot be updated over a network. The latest update adds Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus audio decoding functionality. Click on the icon at right to find out more.

The following three models represent "second-generation" Sony Blu-ray players.

Sony BDP-S300 $399.99 1080p/24, 1080p/60 video output; excellent picture on Blu-ray discs and 1080p-upconverted DVDs; minor video quality issues (see main text); no onboard Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD Master Audio decoding; slow disc load times

The Sony BDP-S300 is Sony's original Blu-ray player for the budget-limited. It boasts the ability to output movies at 1080p/24 and other content at either 1080i/60 or 1080p/60. But in this last case, it has trouble "deinterlacing" 1080i/60 disc content to 1080p/60 output without introducing "jaggies" and moiré artifacts.

For a general explanation of this topic, see 1080i and 1080p on Blu-ray.

The Sony BDP-S300 apparently does a worse job of deinterlacing than many TVs and many other Blu-ray players do. The result is that vertical lines look can jagged and certain visual patterns can develop swirling moiré effects.

This criticism does not apply to the BDP-S300's use of 1080p/24 video derived from film, since it doesn't have to be deinterlaced at all.

The BDP-S300, like the other three Sony players in this group, can have its firmware updated only by means of a recordable optical disc that you make on your computer after downloading the necessary updater file. (If that doesn't work for you, Sony will provide you with a free prerecorded disc containing the update.) Lacking an Ethernet or WiFi connection, the BDP-S300 cannot be updated over a network. Click on the icon at right to find out more.

Sony BDP-S500 $699.99 optionally outputs 1080p/24 video; upconverts DVDs to 1080p; HDMI 1.3; decodes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution audio

The Sony BDP-S500 seems to have had its model number widely misrepresented as the BDP-S5000, with an extra zero. The inset at left links to coverage that calls it by both model designations. The correct designation is BDP-S500, without the extra zero.

The BDP-S500 has functionality much like the less expensive Sony BDP-S300 but offers extra audio decoding options. Like the BDP-S300, it decodes Dolby Digital Plus and DTS, but unlike the BDP-S300 it decodes the full Dolby TrueHD stream, not just the "core" Dolby Digital portion of the stream. It also decodes lossy DTS-HD High Resolution audio (but not its lossless cousin, DTS-HD Master Audio).

Because it supports version 1.3 of the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) standard, the BDP-S500 can alternatively output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution audio tracks in undecoded form as bitstreams to be decoded by external gear. The previous version, HDMI 1.2, didn't permit this. Released in Summer 2007, the BDP-S500 (along with the BDP-S2000ES; see below) was one of the first Blu-ray players to support HDMI 1.3. The roughly concurrent BDP-S300 didn't support it. Virtually all more recent Blu-ray players support HDMI 1.3.

The BDP-S500, like the other three Sony players in this group, can have its firmware updated only by means of a recordable optical disc that you make on your computer after downloading the necessary updater file. (If that doesn't work for you, Sony will provide you with a free prerecorded disc containing the update.) Lacking an Ethernet or WiFi connection, the BDP-S500 cannot be updated over a network. Click on the icon at right to find out more.

Sony BDP-S2000ES $1299.99 top-quality design and construction

The Sony BDP-S2000ES has the same functionality as the BDP-S500, but its design and construction represent an "elevated standard" — thus, the ES designation. Sony says the "rigid, dual-shield construction ... reduces the amount of dust collected on the drive" and the "solid beam chassis ... contributes to minimized vibration and drastically improved playback." "What's more," says Sony, "the unit's aluminum insulator feet help isolate the player from external vibrations, while separate audio and video boards deliver better sound and picture quality."

The BDP-S2000ES could be called the Rolls-Royce, or maybe the Humvee, of Sony's second-generation Blu-ray players.

The BDP-S2000ES, like the other three Sony players in this group, can have its firmware updated only by means of a recordable optical disc that you make on your computer after downloading the necessary updater file. (If that doesn't work for you, Sony will provide you with a free prerecorded disc containing the update.) Lacking an Ethernet or WiFi connection, the BDP-S2000ES cannot be updated over a network. Click on the icon at right to find out more.

Panasonic DMP-BD10A $529.00 fine picture on Blu-ray and DVD; upconverts DVDs to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p; on-board decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution audio tracks; HDMI output not latest v. 1.3; poor ergonomics; no network capability for firmware updating

The Panasonic DMP-BD10A is already a dinosaur, even though it was introduced as recently as 6/15/07. It implements neither Blu-ray Profile 1.1, for handling interactive disc content, nor Blu-ray Profile 2.0 ("BD-Live") for augmenting that with interactive content from the Internet. The same company's DMP-BD30K, released in November, is 1.1-capable. And the Panasonic DMP-BD50, due out any time, has BD-Live.

That said, the DMP-BD10A fully decodes, without discarding any information, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution soundtracks, a feat which the DMP-BD30K doesn't do. The DMP-BD50 is said to be able to decode those two codecs plus DTS-HD Master Audio.

The DMP-BD10A also lacks HDMI 1.3, the latest version of the popular High-Definition Multimedia Interface, which is one reason why it doesn't even support output of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as bitstreams for external decoding by AV receivers.

The lesson here is that Blu-ray player models from as recently as Summer 2007 are already obsolescent. They're not necessarily awful choices today, but favor them only if their prices come down sharply with the advent of newer models that offer BD-Live, HDMI 1.3, and the full gamut of audio codecs and bitstreams.

The Panasonic DMP-BD10A has neither an Ethernet port nor WiFi wireless networking, so its firmware updates involve downloading an updater file to a computer, using the computer to burn that file to an optical disc, and putting that disc in the Blu-ray player to install the update.

Sharp BD-HP20U $399.99 outputs movies at 1080p/24 with excellent picture; Quick Start functionality loads discs superfast; no support for Profile 1.1/BD-Live; poor internal deinterlacing; decodes Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, standard DTS; lacks onboard decoding or bitstream output for DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio formats

The Sharp BD-HP20U, which hit the streets in mid-September 2007, is another recent Blu-ray player model that went quickly obsolescent. It decodes Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD audio internally, but it doesn't have HDMI 1.3, so it can't pass Dolby TrueHD bitstreams along to external gear for decoding. As for the DTS audio formats, it decodes standard DTS but throws up its hands at either of the two more advanced DTS-HD formats, High Resolution and Master Audio.

The BD-HP20U is limited to the original Blu-ray Profile 1.0, so it can't use such interactive disc features as picture-in-picture commentary, and it can't access interactive Internet fare.

The BD-HP20U does have the ability to output movie-derived Blu-ray video at "24p," shorthand for 1080p/24: 1080p high-definition video at a filmlike 24 frames per second. But this once-coveted 1080p/24 feature has been standard for nearly a year now on many Blu-ray player models. And the player's performance at "deinterlacing" video-derived 1080i fare is questionable, while its performance at upconverting standard DVDs is poor.

One of this player's main selling points is its Quick Start functionality, which allows you to load a Blu-ray disc and start watching it, (seemingly) turn the player off, and then turn it on again some time later. At that time, the disc will start playing in about 10 seconds, without the customary minute-or-so delay usually associated with loading a disc. Quick Start works because the player isn't really powered down, just put to sleep. It only works when the disc that is already pre-loaded doesn't contain interactive menus based on the BD-Java programming language; such discs are increasingly common. Quick Start consumes a lot of power, leaving the player essentially powered on at all times. Plus, how often do you come back to a disc you already have loaded, after a long hiatus?

LG BH200 $799.99 plays HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs

The LG BH200 is an expensive dual-standard or "combi" player that plays both formats of high-definition discs: HD DVD and Blu-ray. Hitting the market 10/25/07, it catered to the possibility of an extended format war in which buyers might want to have both sides covered. But now that Blu-ray has won, perhaps the only buyers who might spring for a combi player are those left orphaned with a large collection of HD DVDs and now wanting to get into Blu-ray.

Samsung BD-P1200 $499.99 outputs 1080p/24, 1080p/60 video; excellent image quality on Blu-ray discs and DVDs; HDMI 1.3; decodes Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS audio; won't decode or pass along Dolby TrueHD or the DTS-HD formats

The Samsung BD-P1200, once touted as the "first second-generation Blu-ray player on the market," is today an obsolete predecessor of the BD-P1400 shown earlier. It is included here because it is still being sold online, but Samsung no longer makes it. The original street price was $800: ridiculous by today's standards. The current quoted price (as of late-February 2008) of $500 is still too high.

The BD-P1200 does have the ability to output video — including that upconverted from standard DVDs — at 1080p, using either 24 or 60 frames per second.

The BD-P1200, though it has HDMI 1.3 connectivity, strangely can't pass along Blu-ray discs' best audio bitstreams for external decoding by an AV receiver: Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master Audio. Nor can it decode those bitstreams internally.

Samsung BD-UP5000 $799.99 plays HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs; 1080p/24, 1080p/60 video output; HDMI 1.3; decodes Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD; decodes DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio with firmware upgrade

The Samsung BD-UP5000 is Samsung's version of the dual-standard or "combi" high-def optical player which accepts both Blu-ray discs and HD DVDs. Because my usual source of product reviews, CNET, doesn't seem to have evaluated it, here is an additional link to an editorial review. The reviewer for some reason had access only to a prototype version of the player, and reported several significant performance glitches.

The BD-UP5000 can output video at "24p" or "60p" — 1080p/24 fps and 1080p/60 fps respectively. It can upconvert standard DVDs to 1080p.

The BD-UP5000 requires a bothersome firmware upgrade to allow it to decode DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks, while coming with the ability to decode Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD audio already built-in. Those advanced codecs can also be exported as bitstreams via HDMI 1.3 for external decoding by an AV receiver.

Another firmware upgrade will provide the BD-UP5000 with Profile 1.1 disc-based interactivity, though it is unclear whether BD-Live (Profile 2.0) will be supported, for Internet-based interactivity.

Philips BDP -7200 $350.00 reasonable pricing; 1080p/24, 1080p/60 video output; DVD upconversion; HDMI 1.3; passes high-res audio tracks to external gear for decoding, but does not decode them internally

The Philips BDP-7200 is the second-generation Blu-ray player from Philips. Though it hasn't really appeared on the market yet as of February 2008, it is slated to debut in April. It's main attraction, says CNET, it that it's "the first Blu-ray player we've seen with a list price lower than a [Sony PlayStation 3]."

The Philips BDP-7200 will be able to take advantage of Blu-ray Profile 1.1 to provide users with disc-based interactive features such as picture-in-picture film commentary, but not Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) for Internet-based interactivity. It'll offer "24p" and "60p" — 1080p video output at 24 fps/60 fps — to match the frame rate of movie-based Blu-ray fare.

The BDP-7200 will be able to output bitstream audio tracks on HDMI 1.3 for all Dolby codecs including Dolby TrueHD, and for DTS and DTS-HD (though it is not clear whether the latter includes DTS-HD Master Audio or just DTS-HD High Resolution). I cannot find any reference in the BDP-7200 owner's manual, available here, that indicates the player will internally decode any of the advanced audio codecs: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, or either of the DTS-HD codecs.

Blu-ray Audio Codecs Revisited

In Blu-ray Audio Codecs I gave a rundown on the various kinds of audio tracks that can show up on Blu-ray discs (BDs) and the various ways Blu-ray players can deal with them. Now I'd like to revisit the topic, because my original discussion left out at least one important point.

There are seven basic types of digital audio tracks that can appear on BDs:

1. Linear PCM
   
2. Dolby Digital 5.1
3. Dolby Digital Plus
4. Dolby TrueHD
5. DTS 5.1
6. DTS-HD High Resolution Audio
   
7. DTS-HD Master Audio
   

Linear PCM (linear pulse code modulation) tracks on Blu-ray discs can have up to 7.1 channels of sound:

• Three front channels: front left, front center, and front right
• Four surrounds: left side, left back, right back, and right side
• A low-frequency effects channel, the ".1," carrying just deep bass for a subwoofer
  

Many linear PCM tracks on BDs have 5.1 channels, not 7.1. In some cases, you may find 2.0-channel — or stereo — PCM tracks on certain BDs.

Linear PCM is recorded with no digital compression whatever. It offers uncompromised sound quality, at the expense of taking up a lot of space on the disc.

Linear PCM is specified as having so many bits per sample (the resolution), with so many samples per second (the sampling frequency). For example. the Blu-ray release of the movie Unbreakable has an English soundtrack with PCM 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) surround sound. There are 48,000 samples per second of each of the six audio channels. Each sample contains 24 bits.

48kHz/16-bit sampling is also common. 96kHz at 16, 20, or 24 bits per sample is another sampling frequency that is permitted. It is also possible to sample each channel at a rate of 192kHz, using 16, 20, or 24 bits per sample, as long as the number of channels doesn't exceed six — i.e., for 5.1-channel audio.

All Blu-ray players are required to be able to pass linear PCM tracks through as is for use by an external receiver or a TV set. It can do this via an HDMI connection or via a digital optical output. All Blu-ray players must also be able to decode and downmix linear PCM tracks into two-channel stereo for output on analog audio connections.

Linear PCM is one of the three mandatory types of audio track which every BD must contain at least one of. The other two "mandatory" codecs are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 — see below.


Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 are competing codecs for the lossy compression and decompression of up to 5.1 channels of audio. There are no left side and right side surround channels with either of these codecs. The compression is lossy, in that the decompressed audio stream is not absolutely identical to the original stream ... though the differences ideally can't be detected by the human ear.

DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 have long been used on regular DVDs, with the former being present on virtually all DVD titles in the U.S. and the latter being used in addition to Dolby Digital (and/or linear PCM) on some DVD titles. For both, the maximum allowed bitrates (how many bits per second can appear in the encoded bitstream and need to be processed by the decoder) is low by today's standards. DD 5.1 has a maximum bitrate of just 640 kbps on BD. DTS 5.1 tops out at 1.524 Mbps.

If a Blu-ray disc lacks a linear PCM track, it must provide a DD 5.1 track and/or a DTS 5.1 track, since Blu-ray players are required to support only these three types of audio.


Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio are two competing formats for extending the audio fidelity of their respective predecessors, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. Both allow up to 7.1 channels of audio on Blu-ray discs, including two side surround channels in addition to the customary rear surround channels, and both permit far higher bitrates going into the decoder, making for sound with much higher resolution. DD+ can use bitrates up to 4.736 Mbps on BD; DTS-HD HR, up to 6.0 Mbps.

However, both DD+ and DTS-HD HR remain lossy, so the output audio stream is not perfectly identical to the original input stream that is fed into the encoder when the disc is authored. Neither DD+ nor DTS-HD HR is required to be included as audio tracks on Blu-ray discs, nor are Blu-ray players required to be able to use these tracks if they do appear on a disc. DD+ and DTS-HD HR are "optional" codecs on Blu-ray.


Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are competing codecs that extend Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, respectively, into the realm of lossless 7.1-channel audio compression on Blu-ray discs. Unlike DD+ and DTS-HD HR, these two, when decompressed, yield audio streams identical with the original streams fed into their compressor, bit for bit.

On BD, bitrates for TrueHD encoded bitstreams can be up to 18.64 Mbps. Master Audio encoded bitstreams can use up to a whopping 24.5 Mbps.

Blu-ray players are not required to support either Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, should they happen to appear on a BD. These two lossless codecs are strictly optional for players to be able to decode and for discs to include.


So there are four new codecs that can be used on Blu-ray discs as audio tracks, in addition to old standbys Dolby Digital and DTS (and in addition to linear PCM, which is not strictly speaking a "codec"). The four include Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, both with lossy compression. They also include Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, with lossless compression. For none of these four new codecs is a given Blu-ray player model required to be able to use them at all (!). The only compression-decompression schemes a player must support are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1.

In addition, always keep in mind, Blu-ray discs often include an uncompressed linear PCM track, which the player is required to support.


There are several ways in which a player can support any or all of the four optional advanced compression schemes (in addition to Dolby Digital, which the player has to support fully, and DTS, which the player also has to support fully). The four advanced codecs are:

1. Dolby Digital Plus
2. Dolby TrueHD
3. DTS-HD High Resolution
4. DTS-HD Master Audio

If a player supports any particular one of these codecs at all, the player can optionally:

• decode it fully
• decode just the "core" of it
• pass through as a bitstream the entire audio track
• pass through as a bitstream just the "core" portion of the audio track
  

A key concept here is the idea of a "core" bitstream. Taking as an example a Dolby TrueHD audio track, this track consists of two types of data. First, there is the information which would be present if it were only a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The side surround channels are wholly absent. So is the data which increases the overall bitrate well beyond the 640 kbps allowed for DD 5.1.

This, accordingly, is the "core" bitstream for Dolby TrueHD. The remainder of the data in the input Dolby TrueHD bitstream is referred to as the "extension."

A Dolby Digital Plus track likewise has a "core" bitstream that is, in effect, equivalent to DD 5.1, along with a copious amount of "extension" data giving additional channels and/or higher resolution.

In like manner, DTS-HD High Resolution and Master Audio tracks have "core" bitstreams, equivalent to DTS 5.1 (not to Dolby Digital 5.1, which comes from DTS' rival company, Dolby Labs). These are, again, in both cases augmented by "extension" data.

(What about a DTS 5.1 track? It's already in effect just a "core" bitstream, with no "extension" data present. The player will decode all of it. If a player can pass it through as a bitstream at all, it passes through all of it.)


When a Blu-ray player decodes into linear PCM a digitally compressed audio track that includes both "core" and "extension" data, it may have the ability to decode both sources of data, the "core" data and the "extension" data, giving you all the audio information in the track.

Or, it may simply decode the "core" information and ignore the "extension," giving you the equivalent of just Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1, depending on the "family" (Dolby or DTS) of the track on the disc.

Similarly, when a Blu-ray player is set up by the user to pass digitally compressed audio tracks through to an external receiver as an output bitstream — under the assumption that the receiver which receives it as input will be able to decode it — it may have the ability to pass through the entire audio track, including both the "core" and the "extension" information.

Or it may be limited to passing through only the "core" bitstream and ignoring the "extension" information. In the latter case, the receiver will act as if it is receiving just a Dolby Digital 5.1 bitstream or a DTS 5.1 bitstream, depending on the family of the track on the disc.


Unfortunately, it is not easy to find out how a particular Blu-ray player actually handles all these various types of audio streams.

If you are in the market for a player, you can easily search in vain for information about how the various models you are considering actually handle audio. Professional reviews, manufacturers' websites, and enthusiast forums often fail to specify, or specify incorrectly, how players react to the various kinds of audio.

If you actually buy a player, you might think its manual or user guide would clear up the matter once and for all, but, no: the literature is apt to add to rather than eliminate the confusion.

For example, the online manual for the Sony PlayStation 3, which is not just a game machine but also plays Blu-ray discs, has this to say:

BD / DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI)

Set the audio output format to use when playing a BD or DVD containing audio recorded in Dolby Digital or DTS format. This setting is used when an audio output device is connected to the system via an HDMI cable.

Bitstream	Set to output audio with the original digital signal prioritized.
Linear PCM	Set to output audio by converting the digital signal to Linear PCM format.

Hint

If [Bitstream] is selected, some portions of the audio content may not be output.

Huh?

That, sadly, is basically the only guidance you get. In truth, thanks to firmware updates that have happened since the manual was written, the PS3 can internally decode Dolby TrueHD fully, including the "extension" bitstreams. And it can, as of the latest firmware release (version 2.30), decode DTS-HD Master Audio as well.

The PS3 also passes through all four of the advanced codecs as bitstreams, but only in their "core" form, minus their "extensions." Additionally, it allows bitstreams of linear PCM tracks, Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, and DTS 5.1 tracks — Blu-ray's three "mandatory" audio formats — to be passed through as is.

But you'd never know those things from Sony's PS3 online manual.

And it is often equally hard to find out what other Blu-ray players manufactured by Sony or ones made by the various other makers can do with the various kinds of audio tracks on BDs. Sigh.

TiVoToGo, Part 5

In this TiVoToGo Basics series I've been looking at how to transfer TV programs that have been recorded on a TiVo digital video recorder to a Mac (or PC) and then export them to an Apple TV.

There are several reasons why it isn't as easy as one might hope.

One of the reasons has been the difficulty of editing the video to remove parts you don't want to keep, such as extraneous material prior to or following the actual show, or commercials interspersed through the show.

Now the folks who make Toast 8 Titanium have issued a new release, Toast 9 Titanium, currently $79.99, that improves things. Toast is an all-around disc burning application in which you can do such things as create a DVD. The Roxio folks who make Toast have also been designated by TiVo, Inc., as the go-to guys for TiVoToGo on the Mac.

Toast (along with TiVo Desktop software for Mac OS X) allows you to use TiVo Transfer, part of the Toast software suite, to copy programs from the TiVo to your Mac and store them as .tivo files, which can then be played on the Mac in Toast Video Player. Or they can be transcoded (format-converted) and exported by Toast as (among other formats) MPEG-4/H.264 files suitable for iTunes, iPod, iPhone and/or Apple TV. See my earlier TiVoToGo posts for more details on that.

Going the Roxio route will not, however, let you edit the files at any point in the transfer/conversion process. Until Toast 9, that is.

Now in Toast 9 you can drag a .tivo file into the Toast window when it is in Convert Video Files mode:




(To see this and other movie files in this post presented in larger versions, click on the respective movie player to have the movie play in QuickTime Player.)

You can click on the Edit button, and in the resulting dialog click Edit again. That starts Toast Video Player in its Editor mode. There is initially a delay for "Updating":




Then you see the .tivo file presented with editing controls superimposed. You use these controls to place markers around the portions of the file you want to remove.

Alas, I find this process clumsy and imprecise. Some of the buttons, menu commands and keyboard shortcuts that are supposed to let you zero in on precise video frames at which to locate markers don't seem to work as intended. You just have to do the best you can.

Once the portions to be removed are bracketed with markers, you select Invert Markers from a pop-up menu. That causes the markers to be replaced with ones bracketing the portions you want to keep. Then you choose Save from the File menu. That saves the edit markers so Toast itself can use them when it converts and exports the file.

You can then quit Toast Video Player.

Here is a movie showing all that:




Now you're ready to do the actual export of the video file from Toast. Click on the OK button in the dialog, then click on the big red button in the main Toast window. That window shrinks to show just a progress bar, then displays ... another dialog.

This one allows you to choose which device will play the exported file. Among the choices of Apple hardware are Apple TV, iPhone/iPod Touch, and Video iPod. You can also choose from a list of popular video game systems such as PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, mobile devices such as BlackBerry or Treo, or basic file formats such as MPEG-4 or H.264.

In the same Convert dialog you can (sometimes) choose what quality the video output should be compressed with. For example, if your device is Apple TV, your quality choices are Automatic, High, and Fastest. I'm currently using Automatic with good results for Apple TV.

Finally, you can choose where the converted output file should be put. I usually put it on the Desktop.

Once you have made your three choices, you click the Convert button. The dialog box goes away, and you can follow the progress of the conversion by means of the progress bar. (Be forewarned. If you are converting a TV program of substantial length, the conversion takes several hours. Once it is done, the main Toast window reappears.)

Here is a movie of that last part:




Notice that there is a message displayed in the Convert dialog when the source file to be exported is a .tivo file: "Your video will be exported at 480x360 resolution, the maximum size allowed by TiVo." One of the drawbacks of using Toast 9 to export TiVo files is that there is as yet no known way to get around this limitation on output resolution.

In Toast 8 there was a workaround for a similar limitation on resolution. See TiVoToGo, Part 2 for more about that. But Toast 8 didn't allow you to edit the source video before exporting it for Apple TV, or whatever other device you have in mind.

Fortunately, when you install Toast 9, it leaves Toast 8 alone, so you can still use it. You do have to redo the Terminal command mentioned in TiVoToGo, Part 2 if you want to override Toast 8's default limitations on exported file formats and resolutions. Once you do that, you can go back to using Toast 8 for material that you don't want downrezzed.

TiVoToGo, Part 4

In TiVoToGo, Part 1, I introduced TiVoToGo, the ability to transfer recorded TV programs from your TiVo to your Mac or Windows PC. In TiVoToGo, Part 2, I talked about a secret way to export the programs, once they are on your Mac, to Apple TV in the MPEG-4/H.264 video format that the Apple device likes, without restricting the video to low-resolution iPod/iPhone compatibility. In TiVoToGo, Part 3, I talked about how to avoid overstepping limits Apple has placed on the bitrates, frame rates, and resolutions Apple TV can use.

My assumption up to now has been that you'll utilize Roxio's Toast 8 Titanium software, including its bundled TiVo Transfer app, to do all this. Now I'd like to explore some alternatives to going the Roxio route.

There are several reasons why you might want to bypass the Roxio software. One reason is that there are subtle bugs in it, at least in the current version, 8.0.3. According to several complaints I've run across on the Web, for instance, I'm not alone in finding that Toast's exported output files sometimes get the audio out of sync with the video.

Another reason is that the Roxio software affords no way of trimming the unwanted ends off video recordings. When you set up your TiVo to record a program such as, say, a film on Turner Classic Movies, there is usually a swatch of lead-in before the movie starts and then a bunch of unrelated stuff after it ends, and you'd just as soon trim it all away. Roxio doesn't provide a way to snip.

MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5 software does just that. This free software is a powerful, high-quality video player, converter, and editor. It can input and output MPEG-2 video files, MPEG-2 transport streams, QuickTime video files, MPEG-4/H.264 iPod video files, and files in many other video formats:

You can use MPEG Streamclip to: open most movie formats including MPEG files or transport streams; play them at full screen; edit them with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trim; set In/Out points and convert them into muxed or demuxed files, or export them to QuickTime, AVI, DV and MPEG-4 files with more than professional quality, so you can easily import them in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Toast 6, 7, 8, and use them with many other applications or devices.

I don't yet understand things like what the difference is between MPEG files and MPEG transport streams, or between muxed and demuxed files, but I do know that MPEG Streamclip is a powerful tool. But it has some drawbacks too. The worst one is the difficulty of giving it a TiVo-derived input file it can use.

When you use Roxio's TiVo Transfer app to grab a recorded TV show from your TiVo box and store it on your Mac or Windows PC, the show winds up in a file with a .tivo extension. The file works fine in Toast or in Roxio's included Toast Video Player app, but it's encrypted. Most video software can't use it. For example, QuickTime can't deal with it.

There are ways and means of decrypting it into an MPEG-2 file other software can use. One of them is simply to bypass Toast and to transfer the file from the TiVo to the Mac using something other than Roxio software. I'm currently using TiVoDecode Manager for this purpose.

TDM, sometimes called TiVoDecode, is, again, free software that is, in this case, the work-in-progress of a single individual, David Benesch. It hasn't been updated in over a year, and it's not clear that it ever will be again. If something breaks, don't hold your breath until it's fixed.

Still, TDM can be a help. Its job is to access TV-show recordings directly on your TiVo, and copy them to your Mac via your home WiFi or Ethernet network. The main difference between it and TiVo Transfer is that, as it copies the files from the TiVo, it decrypts them into non-protected MPEG-2 files with an .mpg filename extension.

Here is its interface:


In theory, TDM's MPEG-2 output files could then be input directly to MPEG Streamclip for editing and conversion to MPEG-4/H.264. But for reasons I have yet to discover, TDM's output files don't play properly in MPEG Streamclip, or, for that matter, in QuickTime.

This problem exists despite the fact that I purchased and installed Apple's QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which you can buy from Apple (www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2) for $19.99. QMPC, as I'll call it, is an add-on for QuickTime 6 or 7 (I'm using it with QuickTime Pro version 7.4.1). It

... provides QuickTime users with the ability to import and play back MPEG-2 content, including both multiplexed (a.k.a. muxed, where the audio and video tracks are interleaved together into one track) and non-multiplexed (a.k.a. elementary) streams.

Before I installed it, QuickTime wouldn't even open files output by TiVoDecode Manager. Afterward, it would open them and seemingly play them, but the on-screen video display was blank (though the audio was fine). In MPEG Streamclip the video portion of the display window was likewise empty.

I find I can use downloadable software from TechSpansion called VisualHub to bridge this gap. VisualHub is "the universal video converter for Macintosh," and costs $23.32 (strange choice of price, no?).

VisualHub doesn't actually play video files; it just converts them:


In the above screen shot I'm converting a .mpg file produced by TiVoDecode Manager into an MP4 (MPEG-4) file using the highly efficient H.264 encoding method. The output filename will have an .mpv extension. It will be playable in QuickTime, in iTunes, and on Apple TV.

Another possibility is to export the file from VisualHub in MPEG (i.e., MPEG-2) format, as opposed to converting it in VisualHub to MP4, a lengthy and unnecessary process — unnecessary because the conversion to MPEG-4 will have to be repeated later by MPEG Streamclip anyway. If I export an MPEG-2 file from VisualHub, it will have the .mpg filename extension and will be playable in QuickTime.

It could also be opened and edited in MPEG Streamclip, which depends on the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component. After I set the In and Out points in MPEG Streamclip so as to chop off extraneous leading and trailing material, I found I could export it as an Apple TV MPEG-4/H.264 file with filename extension .m4v:


The exported file then played in QuickTime, in iTunes, and on the Apple TV.


The above gives just some of the ins and outs of bypassing the Roxio TiVoToGo software suite by means of a "bucket brigade" using TiVoDecode Manager, VisualHub, and then MPEG Streamclip. It glosses over a lot of potential problem areas, glitches, and unknown quantities which can make the process of moving TV programs from a TiVo to an Apple TV via your Mac an adventure. I'll talk more about those in my next post in this series.

Blu-ray Player Profiles

One of the things about the Blu-ray disc that makes it superior to the DVD is its ability to provide "enhanced" interactive video content of a sort yet to be seen in home TV-based entertainment. Some of the "enhanced" content is recorded on Blu-ray discs themselves; other such content is expected to be downloaded by the player from the Web.

The Panasonic DMP-BD30K was the first standalone Blu-ray player to include Blu-ray Profile 1.1 for handling interactive disc content, also known as the "Final Standard Profile" or "Bonus View." Previous players implemented only the "Grace Period Profile," aka Profile 1.0 or "BD-Video."

Profile-1.0 players — i.e., all of the early player models — cannot deal with much if anything in the way of interactive disc content. True, they do use BD-Java, aka BD-J, a programming language devised specifically for Blu-ray, so they can utilize "enhanced" disc menus, if they're present on a disc. (For a list of Blu-ray titles that have "enhanced" BD-Java content, click here.)

But other "enhanced" Blu-ray content requires Profile 1.1. All Blu-ray player models released to market after November 1, 2007, are required to be Profile 1.1-compliant. The Panasonic DMP-BD30K was actually released just before that deadline and became the first 1.1-compliant player.

Profile 1.1 players are capable of using special interactive content encoded on certain Blu-ray disc releases, such as filmmaker commentaries intended to be displayed along with the film, using PIP (picture-in-picture). Profile 1.0 players generally cannot use PIP content, and they typically cannot be upgraded to Profile 1.1. The reason is that Profile 1.0 players usually lack enough local storage and/or the hardware decoders needed to decode more than one audio/video stream at once. (For a rundown on the hardware and software requirements of the various Blu-ray profiles, click here.)

An exception is the Sony PlayStation 3, a video game console cum stealth Blu-ray player, which has always had the necessary hardware for implementing Profile 1.1 and was made 1.1-compliant by System Software version 2.10, released on December 10, 2007.


Profile 1.1 is now (as of early 2008) in the process of being superseded in the most recently announced player models by Profile 2.0, aka "BD-Live," which includes full Profile 1.1 functionality plus the ability to use interactive content from the Internet as well as on the disc. BD-Live requires network connectivity in a Blu-ray player, a requirement met by the PlayStation 3 but not by many early standalone Blu-ray players.

Future system software upgrades to the Sony PlayStation 3 are expected to make it capable of using BD-Live content, but, again, most standalone players to date are not BD-Live ready and lack the ability to be upgraded to support BD-Live.

The Panasonic DMP-BD50 is, as of early March 2008, one of the handful of announced Blu-ray players that will support BD-Live.

Also expected to arrive fairly soon are the Sony BDP-S350 ($400) and the Sony BDP-S550 ($500). Both will support BD-Live, but the cheaper is called only "BD-Live ready," while the more expensive is "BD-Live capable." (See this coverage of Sony's announcement.) The distinction means that the BDP-S350 needs to have optional USB flash-based memory connected to its external port to provide sufficient local storage, since BD-Live requires at least 1 GB of local storage. The BDP-S550 ships with a 1GB storage device.


The first BD-Live movie titles, War and Saw IV, were released on Blu-ray by Lionsgate in January 2008, despite the fact that no players yet existed to play the Web-enhanced content. More BD-Live disc releases can be expected in coming months.

Sony PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray Audio Codecs

Sony PlayStation 3 $399.99 (40 GB)

The Sony PlayStation 3 is not just a video game console. It's also a stealth Blu-ray disc player. However, it has certain limitations when it comes to playing audio tracks found on Blu-ray discs.

Blu-ray discs' digital audio tracks can be:

• Linear PCM (LPCM), up to 7.1 channels, not digitally compressed
  
• Dolby Digital, up to 5.1 channels, lossy compression
  
• Dolby Digital Plus, up to 7.1 channels, lossy compression at higher data rates than Dolby Digital
• Dolby TrueHD, up to 7.1 channels, lossless compression
• DTS, up to 5.1 channels, lossy compression
• DTS-HD High Resolution, up to 7.1 channels, lossy compression at higher data rates than DTS
• DTS-HD Master Audio, up to 7.1 channels, lossless compression

See Blu-ray Audio Codecs Revisited for more on these possibilities.

(The following information represents what I have been able to glean from sketchy information available online and from the Sony PS3 manual, which can be found here. Anyone who knows more or has better information is invited to post a comment.)

The Sony PlayStation 3 can pass 7.1-channel Linear PCM through, in the exact form in which it is recorded on the disc, to its HDMI output for use by an HDMI-capable AV receiver.

Edit: From this point on in this post, I have edited what I originally posted to correct misinformation in that post. The new text is presented in green. The replaced text is struck through.

It is unable to pass any of the other formats in the above list through as undecoded bitstreams to its HDMI output, even though it is HDMI version 1.3. That is, none of the six Blu-ray audio formats that are digitally compressed can be passed along as is by the PlayStation 3 as bitstreams to be decoded and uncompressed by external gear.

The PS3 can pass through Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio and DTS 5.1-channel audio as undecoded bitstreams on HDMI. It can also pass through the "core" bitstreams for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master Audio. The "core" bitstreams for codecs in the Dolby and DTS "families" are equivalent to Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, respectively. They do not include the "extension" bitstreams which add extra channels and/or more sonic information to the surround channels.

To obtain bitstream outputs for digitally compressed Dolby and DTS codecs you must, in the PS3's BD/DVD Settings menu, select "Bitstream" (rather than "Linear PCM") as the BD/DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI). A similar setting applies to those who are using the Optical Digital output rather than HDMI.


The PS3 can internally decode either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to LPCM 5.1 and output the latter on HDMI 1.3.

It can also internally decode Dolby TrueHD 7.1 to LPCM 7.1 and output the latter on HDMI 1.3. And as of the firmware update that Sony released in April 2008, it can do the same with DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1.

It can internally decode DTS-HD High Resolution 7.1 or DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 as if it were DTS 5.1. These two formats are This format is recorded on Blu-ray disc in two parts. The "core" part is equivalent to DTS 5.1. The "extension" part contains the extra audio channels, if present, and also additional information making the reproduced sound more full-range and realistic. The PlayStation 3 ignores the "extension" part and decodes only the "core" part to LPCM 5.1, and outputs the latter on HDMI 1.3.

Finally, it can internally decode the Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 "core" (which is equivalent to Dolby Digital 5.1) to LPCM 5.1, and output the latter on HDMI 1.3. The "extension" part unique to Dolby Digital Plus is ignored.


To summarize: HDMI 1.3 digital audio output from the PlayStation 3 can be Linear PCM at up to 7.1 channels if:

• That is what is recorded on the audio track being played from the disc, or
• A Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio audio track is being played and converted to LPCM
  

HDMI 1.3 digital audio output from the PlayStation 3 can be converted to Linear PCM at up to 5.1 channels if:

• A Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus audio track is being played from the disc, or
• A DTS, DTS-HD High Resolution, or DTS-HD Master Audio audio track is being played from the disc
  

In all cases, the HDMI digital audio output of the PlayStation 3 is LPCM. Only the number of channels and the range and quality of the reproduced audio varies, depending on the format of the audio track being played.

In no case can the PlayStation 3 pass through any digitally compressed audio track as an undecoded bitstream for decoding by external gear. (It can pass through LPCM from the disc, but LPCM is uncompressed.)

HDMI 1.3 digital audio output from the PlayStation 3 can be unconverted bitstream output for Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1.

HDMI 1.3 digital audio output from the PlayStation 3 can be bitstream output that has been stripped to the equivalent of Dolby Digital 5.1 for Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby TrueHD. It can be bitstream output that has been stripped to the equivalent of DTS 5.1 for DTS-HD High Resolution or DTS-HD Master Audio. In both cases, the "extension" part of the bitstream is discarded and just the "core" bitstream is output.


In the above, I have been careful to state what the PlayStation 3 can do. What it will do, audio-wise, on its HDMI output depends on the device the PS3's HDMI output is connected to. For instance, if the external device is a TV that cannot handle any more than two channels of LPCM input, the PlayStation 3 will downmix everything to LPCM 2.0 before outputting it. This will happen automatically, since HDMI devices coordinate with one another to find a mutually acceptable format.

By the same token, when the PS3 is connected to a device that is not HDMI 1.3-capable, the connection cannot achieve the increased data rates possible with HDMI 1.3. At lower HDMI 1.2 rates, the LPCM output of the PS3 might be internally downsampled so as to reduce its data rate, and thus its audio quality.

Another caveat has to do with the TOSlink Optical Digital audio output of the PS3, as distinct from its HDMI output. Since the former has a lower maximum data rate than even HDMI 1.2 does, the PS3 might well reduce the LPCM audio output stream for that connection, by limiting the number of channels to two, or by downsampling.


Many PS3 aficionados have asked whether Sony might one day issue a System Software upgrade which will allow the PS3 to pass the various compressed audio formats through as bitstreams to be decoded by external gear. In particular, they'd like the lossless codecs, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, to be optionally treated as bitstreams for external decoding. Of these two lossless codecs, DTS-HD Master Audio is the one most asked about, since Dolby TrueHD is, after all, able to be decoded internally by the PS3 with no loss of information. (Now, as of April 2008, DTS-HD Master Audio can also be decoded by the PS3, but not passed through as a bitstream.)

To date, Sony has not been terribly responsive to these suggestions. Other than confirming that:

• of the four higher-resolution or lossless audio compression codecs, the only one the PS3 can decode without sacrificing any information is Dolby TrueHD, and
• of the four higher-resolution or lossless audio compression codecs, the PS3 can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, but not Dolby Digital Plus or DTS-HD High Resolution
  
• the PS3 cannot pass through any codecs as bitstreams rather than LPCM
• the PS3 can pass through the four advanced audio compression codecs as bitstreams, rather than decoding them to linear PCM, but it can pass them through only in their "core" 5.1-channel, low-bitrate forms
  

Sony has shown no inclination to give the PS3's Blu-ray users more bitstream options than that. In fact it is not even clear whether the PS3 has the necessary hardware to do so. Even though it implements HDMI 1.3 in hardware, does it do so in a way that would permit it to pass along high-bitrate audio bitstreams if the system software cooperated?

Put another way, is the only thing holding the PS3 back in this regard its firmware, or is the PS3's hardware partly to blame?

No one seems to be able to answer such questions definitively.