DTS Decoding issue from PC to receiver

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measuredrums

Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2010
Messages
11
Location
Iowa, USA
Hello gang. Hope this is the appropriate place to posit my question.

I'm hoping to get some insight into a strange issue I've been having for quite some time, and I just can't wrap my head around it. I play my Blu-ray audio from my PC to my receiver. The PC is an older Win7 machine and I use Windows Media Center utilizing PowerDVD 12 as my playback software with an LG BR-ROM drive (can't recall the model). I have the PC connected to my Onkyo TX-DS575x receiver via optical digital TOSLink, the PC outputs through a Realtek HD audio card running the latest drivers. The Onkyo only decodes standard DTS and DD, but since Hi-Def Blu-ray audio streams (DTS-MA, DD TrueHD, etc.) also contain the core DTS and DD streams, it's never been an issue decoding, I'm just not getting the full lossless content in the DTS-MA or DD T-HD streams obviously.

So, the issue I'm having is that on a few Blu-ray audio release's that I own (Steven Wilson's 'To The Bone' & '4 1/2' and the Rush '2112' Blu-ray, the DTS 5.1 streams are not decoding properly through my Onkyo. The Onkyo is recognizing the stream as DTS (shows as such in the display), but it is not audibly correct. The audio is very "choppy" and it sounds slowed down, the video quality seems affected as well, as if the PC is using way too much processing power to even play the track. But every other Blu-ray I own, either movie or audio plays just fine (just got the new TFF 'Seeds of Love' BR and it plays just fine). I'm at a loss. I've tried updating drivers, updating software, changing settings, nothing works.

So, any insight or thoughts as to what might be going on would be appreciated, as I said, I'm at a loss. It would sure be nice to listen to those disc's though ... Lol
 
Something is getting through to the Onkyo but it is full of errors due to the lack of bandwidth on the TOSLink which I don't think has enough to handle the DTS-MA & DD TrueHD signals so the core is seen but corrupted.
 
Try to rip the two problematic discs into the hard drive as a iso image and play the image; if is ok, the disc drive has a problem reading these two discs. It may happen if the discs are problematic.
 
Try to rip the two problematic discs into the hard drive as a iso image and play the image; if is ok, the disc drive has a problem reading these two discs. It may happen if the discs are problematic.

That was going to be my suggestion as well. Or at least to try ripping to MKV.

One advantage to ripping is that it also works around any weird authoring issues that may trip up some players. Several years back I got a Blu-ray from Netflix and, no matter what I did, my Oppo BDP-203 would never do more than play part of the Universal fanfare before completely bailing. I wound up ripping it to MKV, which played with no fuss.
 
'Just in case', check that your problem discs have no fingerprints, scratches, dust...


Possibly similar problem...solved by upgrading the graphics/sound card.

https://superuser.com/questions/289748/choppy-bluray-playback-on-my-pc
I would try ripping the audio before doing something that drastic, though. So you can play just the audio, no video. Playback from a ripped file also takes the BD disc drive out of the picture, during playback.


(Also, have you tried different playback software?)
 
Try to rip the two problematic discs into the hard drive as a iso image and play the image; if is ok, the disc drive has a problem reading these two discs. It may happen if the discs are problematic.

I'll try the rip and see if that does the trick, though I was going through other image files I have on my hard drive, and I found the the Rush 'Farewell To Kings' BR (forgot I had that). I tried the DTS-MA stream from that, and same result, the choppy/slow playback (though, the 'FTK' BR also has the DD-TrueHD version, and my receiver decoded the core DD stream from that just fine).

Something is getting through to the Onkyo but it is full of errors due to the lack of bandwidth on the TOSLink which I don't think has enough to handle the DTS-MA & DD TrueHD signals so the core is seen but corrupted.

It's my understanding that the DTS-MA & DD TrueHD streams cannot even utilize an optical or coaxial connection (due to their bandwidth, as you point out), so whatever is getting through must be the core DTS stream, albeit corrupted somehow.

Thanks for the feedback gang. I'll keep you posted.
 
If your soundcard has hdmi I would try to hook your pc to AVR with HDMI. I know you said no hi rez capability but if you think the pipe is full, a cable is cheap enough. Or does your Onkyo not have HDMI?
 
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