Problem with Beck 'Sea Change' HFPA BDA

[Failed Muso]

I've just been playing the Blu Ray of this album and apart from being blown away by the quality of the audio, I have a concern about the DTS output. I'm fairly certain it isn't a hardware issue, but I'm not ruling it out. If it is, it's probably a set up thing because both my Blu Ray player, a Pioneer BDP450, and my receiver, a Yamaha RX-V373, are both capable of playing/decoding 24/192 both in Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio HD.

The issue I am having is that I can't get the Blu Ray to play the DTS-MA HD portion at 24/192. The PCM track plays fine, with the receiver displaying it as 24/192, but the DTS-MA HD track only registers at 96KHz. I've checked all the manuals, set the player and receiver up as I believe they should be, but can't get the DTS track at 24/192.

When I swap from the PCM track to the DTS, I can see the receiver cascade through the DTS options, from Master HD downwards until it hits DTS 96Khz. This suggests to me that the receiver is fine. I then check the player and it is set to output the audio via Bitstream. There is an option within the HDMI settings for Pure Audio where it splits the audio and video and outputs them over separate HDMI outputs but I don't think this would have any bearing on this issue. If it did, surely the PCM track would be suffering too?

I'm at a dead end so I'm reaching out to you guys to seek your assistance. I am more than happy to consume this disc via PCM to benefit from the 24/192 but if Universal/HFPA are claiming a DTS-MA HD 24/192 track and it isn't, then that's yet another black mark against them.

All help and guidance gratefully received!

 

[user 4725]

Hmmm, no problems with my copy:

It certainly looks like a pukka DTS-HD MA 24/192 track to me.

(Well I say no problems, I noticed a couple of minutes ago that my amp (Yamaha RX-V673) takes a fraction of a second to identify the DTS-HD MA data, with the consequence that the first quarter of a second of the first chord of the first song is missing. No problems if I select the PCM output on the disc (and I suspect no problem if I set the BD player (Denon DBT-1713UD) to output PCM.)

 

[Failed Muso]

Hmmm, no problems with my copy:

It certainly looks like a pukka DTS-HD MA 24/192 track to me.

(Well I say no problems, I noticed a couple of minutes ago that my amp (Yamaha RX-V673) takes a fraction of a second to identify the DTS-HD MA data, with the consequence that the first quarter of a second of the first chord of the first song is missing. No problems if I select the PCM output on the disc (and I suspect no problem if I set the BD player (Denon DBT-1713UD) to output PCM.)

Thanks for that. I'm sure the disc is fine and am leaning to it being some kind of set up issue with my player. I don't think I have another 24/192 disc to try, unfortunately, but I'm heading down the route of checking all the player settings.

 

[cupboy]

Personally, I would always choose the PCM track as long as the specs are the same. It's the most pure and involves the least amount of processing.

 

[Failed Muso]

Stand down! Move along! Nothing to see here!

I discovered what the problem was and neither the disc, receiver or player were at fault. It was a slightly obscure sound enhancement setting on the receiver that had been turned on and therefore was forcing all DTS-MA HD audio down to regular DTS. Turning it off restored all DTS-MA HD tracks to normal. My only conclusion is that whilst I was away in California, my wife complained of a certain TV programme being too "boomy" when playing back through the receiver. A few hours later, she called me to say she had sorted it. Therefore I think she turned on this mode which lowered the bass to a level acceptable to her.

Anyway, normal service has been resumed.

 

[user 4725]

Glad you got it sorted. In deference to the female participants of the forum I'll refrain from a wry "that's what happens when you let women interfere with your AV receiver" but I'm impressed that she got stuck in and sorted out her problem in your absence. My wife thinks DTS is something alcoholics get.

 

[patrick1]

Hey- So what was the obscure setting on your receiver? Just ordered mine (the $20 version!, thank you) at DeepDiscount. Thanks.

 

[Failed Muso]

Hey- So what was the obscure setting on your receiver? Just ordered mine (the $20 version!, thank you) at DeepDiscount. Thanks.

It was a DSP enhancement feature called 'Cinema DSP' but the button that activates it is not called as such and wasn't immediately obvious I never use these features so it wasn't where I looked first.