Originally Posted By: HomeDad
I don't believe any of the HD sound formats can be sent through optical on any player.


I've been curious about that, and managed to find the following info from the Dolby Technology site:

 Quote:
Included within 7.1-channel multichannel Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD streams is a core 5.1 mix prepared by the content maker that is used when the player is set for 5.1-channel mode. After playback audio signals have been mixed in the player, the PCM signal can be encoded to a Dolby Digital signal and output from the player via S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) to your connected Dolby Digital A/V receiver or processor.

In many instances, the audio quality you will experience from this connection may be better than what you would experience during playback of standard-definition DVD-Video discs, especially if the native signal on the disc is Dolby TrueHD or high-bit-rate Dolby Digital Plus. This is a direct result of a higher-quality source signal feeding a Dolby Digital encoder running at 640 kbps—higher than the maximum bit rate on DVD-Video.


So basically it you get the equivalent of a top quality DVD 5.1 sound track, but that's it. From what I have read DTS MA works the same way.. e.g. both have a core 5.1 track that can be down-sampled to SPDIF digital/coax.

Of course DD TrueHD can be 18 Mbtyes/s and DTS MA maxes at 25 Mbtytes..

Gene