Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater How do I select HD Audio?

I have been reading the manuals for over half an hour and am still clueless as to how I select HD Audio. I am assuming I just use HDMI setting on blu ray player (s350) to pass through the signal to the Yamaha 663, but how do I confirm what decoding format I am listening to? Do I set the Yamaha to Dolby or DTS and hope for the best? I am pretty sure it can decode those if available on disc but of all the choices I am seeing there is no choice for Dolby HD or DTS Master Audio, which is what I expected to be looking for.

Thanks for any help, I am completely new to this.

The selection is done in the player the same way you select audio tracks on DVD. In the BD menu, select "set-up" (or "languages") and then select the appropriate "tracks" if they are available (DTS:HD-MA, DolbyTrueHD, uncompressed PCM 5.1/7.1...). Your player will then either bitstream the audio or decode it and send it as a 5.1/7.1 uncompressed PCM through HDMI depending on capabilities and configuration.

Thanks I will look there, so far I haven't noticed any "options" on the player for HDMI other than "auto."

I might have introduced some confusion. The options are on the Blu-ray disk, not in the player setup. Each disk is different. It is exactly like multilingual track selection of DVDs.

OK I get that, I used to know how to do this with DVDs, let me check the menus again, the only "Audio" selections I am seeing are "Original", "English," "Spanish," "French," etc., nothing that indicates what dolby or digital options are referred to. I tried this on fairly new discs like batman begins or spiderman 3, expecting they might have the new codecs or at least indicate what codec they are throughputting. On the face of the amplifier it inidicates 5.1 sound output so I know I am getting something surround, I am just wondering if there is a way to find out exactly what audio format the disc is outputting and if there are any alternative choices. I will check again on the disc setup.

Thanks again,
SK

Check on the back cover of the BD case. It should tell you what's on it. Some players can tell you also using "display" or "info" function. The 5.1 shown by your receiver is likely multi-channel PCM, so that part seems to be working fine!

OK let me check the case(s), with the current movie, "The Fugitive," when I press "audio" it states "English 3/2.1 48khz" (same specification I believe as newer titles I was playing earlier), I will look for "display" or "info" functions.

The Fugitive is movie-theater Dolby Digital (640Kbs).

The display on the Yamaha should vary depending on which unit is doing the decoding. If you want the Yamaha to decode the sound formats then the Blu-ray player should be set to bitstream and HDMI on auto on the Yamaha, I'm not sure if the Yahama will display TruHD like the newer Denons will.
If the player decodes the sound and sent through PCM to the receiver I beleive it will only show DD or DTS on the receiver, I may be wrong though since I'm not that familiar with the Yamahas.

OK great I have it figured out now, I can see by looking at the case that The Fugitive English audio option is Dolby Digital 5.1, whereas Hulk "English 1" option as per disc menu is "DTS-HD Master Audio" and "English 2" is "Dolby Digital 2.0."

It's nice to have some way to confirm what the electronic devices are up to! Appreciate your help