Re DVD audio setup Can I get a logical explanation?

[rixrex]

Okay this might sound dumb, but it's really just out of ignorance.

In setting up my DVD player's audio, I have been trying to figure out what's best. Searching around the web for an understandable explanation of certain audio terms has been fruitless, and the manual didn't help.

Can somebody explain some terms in a way that can be understood by the general public and me? Specifically, BITRATE and why there are two choices of something like 48 and 96, and what's best for what purpose? Also, PCM is another option, what does PCM stand for? What is it?

Thanks!

[Taxi]

48 and 96 sounds more like sampling rate, rather than bit rate. To convert analog audio signals into digital, the analog signal has to be processed. Analog sounds are constantly changing, but there is no way to represent constant change digitally, because digital is on or off, 1 or zero. So, what they do is sample the analog signal at specific intervals, analyze the signal at that instant, and save that data digitally. The more often you sample the analog signal, the better representation you get of that signal. Typical sampling rates are 48kHz or 96kHz, or about 48 (or 96) thousand samples per second. Typical bitrate for DVD is 24bits per sample. CDs are recorded at 16 bits per sample. More bits = a more accurate depiction of the analog signal, but at the expense of size of the sample.

(Of course, this is a general overview. It's a lot more complicated than that.)

Here is a Wikipedia link that has much more detail: Sampling_%28signal_processing%29^Wiki

PCM stand for Pulse-Code Modulation. PCM is just one way of sampling analog signals into digital. Here's the PCM Wiki: PCM^Wiki

Hope that helps.

[rixrex]

Thanks, that clears it up.