Quote:
Originally Posted by Derb
Don't underestimate IBM. 
btw, there is no difference in quality, LPCM or Bitstream & in fact most don't care. Its a marketing stragedy from CE's so they can show off them fancy logos for the next CES. Ooo my toy has this symbol & yours doesn't! Ha Ha.  |
Obviously people do care about it otherwise the Onkyo 605 wouldn't be destroying the competition in sales. You can easily find a comparable cheaper receiver with PCM 5.1 over HDMI support.
There is likely no audible difference in quality between 1.5mbps lossy 5.1 audio and lossless 5.1 audio, but that doesn't mean people don't buy into the PR and think lossless audio sounds better. Heck Derb, for a while you were arguing that PCM as a format sounded better than lossless TrueHD due to the BDA PR on PCM sounding better since it was "uncompressed," which is of course a farce. Yet many still believe the PR arguments and will run with them. The arguments for bitstreaming some of those same people might make is that the DSP in a receiver may be better than the one in a player and that there is less chance of fouling up the signal (see Panasonic BD30) with bitstreaming; also, some may even go as far as saying bitstreaming is better as it will not suffer from jitter like LPCM transmission. Now I'm not saying I'm going to personally stand by any of those arguments, but I *do* want the option of bitstreaming, simply because my equipment supports it. On top of this, PS3 does not support DTS-HDMA decoding at this point, thus bitstreaming in that case is a valid argument regardless.
In addition to being having bitstream nextgen codec support, internal DTS-HDMA decoding, and analog 5.1 output - all features the PS3 fails to support, and at least 2 of which the PS3 can never add due to hardware limitations - the Panasonic BD50 also is smaller than the PS3, looks much more attractive, and is significantly quieter overall (the BD50 does not have ramped up louder stage2/3 fan modes like PS3). For as many people I see posting that the PS3 is quiet, I see others posting that it is inconsistent and can get very loud at times when watching movies. Since the BD50 doesn't have a massive fan like the PS3, you don't have to worry about the BD50 being loud at any time. Not to mention, the BD50 unlike most other BD standalones is a very speedy machine as it is based on the already speedy BD30 architecture. Overall, the BD50 looks like it will be a better purchase for most seeking a BD movie player IMO. If you are already interested in a video game machine and don't already have XBOX 360, the PS3 might be a better option despite it having less movie-related features, being much larger & much less attractive, and being louder.