Audio Question

SK1979

Hi guys

Can anyone tell me whether there are any 360 games that utilise any of the new HD Audio formats or are they all still simply the old surround sound formats (e.g. DD, Pro Logic 2, DTS etc)?

Am looking at getting a new amp and was wondering whether any XBOX games actually need the new formats.

Thanks.

Flaccus

360 only supports the old formats as far as I know. One of the things websites were banging on about when the elite came out is that it would support only up to hdmi 1.2 spec. 1.3 adds support for Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HD Master Audio etc.. which are usually found on blu ray such as the PS3. In fact the PS3 can decode these formats into a linear pcm signal and therefore you don't need a HD amp really, just an amp that can take a linear pcm signal from the ps3 over hdmi. Anyway as I said, I don't think any 360 games will have HD tracks so you won't have to worry about the new HD standards if only using an Xbox 360, though it doesn't stop you doing dolby digital / ac3 etc over hdmi with the right amp if your so inclined. I bought the Sony HT-SS1300 recently and highly recommend it. It's a 5.1 all in 1 amp/dvd player, which has 3 hdmi inputs and 1 output (plus optical and all the other usual bits). I have the Xbox 360 and PS3 going into it with 2 hdmi cables, and a 3rd hdmi cable coming out of the amp into the LCD. It's able to deal with linear pcm signals so when watching BD movies on my PS3 I get proper HD audio as the ps3 does the decoding. When playing 360 games I get 5.1 dolby digital over hdmi. For SKY HD I have a 3rd HDMI cable going into it, but as sky won't output 5.1 over hdmi, I use the optical cable from the sky box to the amp. Works a treat.

SK1979

Thanks Flaccus

Thats what I thought as well, I had a feeling that the 360 didn't support those HD audio formats.

I've been looking at this amp myself:
http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/product.asp?ObjectID=938&Mode=0&CategoryID=3&sub=24&productid=648

And having previously been looking at amps that can accept HD audio formats, I was curious what I would lose out on by getting one (which is a lot cheaper) without the ability to do so.

The Amp linked above sounds like a pretty similar spec to your Sony one (no DVD player though), think there are 2 HDMI in / 1 out. Thats plenty for what I need I think.

Thanks again.

Flaccus

Actual the sony ss1300 I got has no dvd player (don't why I said it had), and the sub while decent quality is a passive sub plus the cable which plugs into the amp from the sub is captive and has a proprietry connector on the amp end. In fact all the speaker cables on this sony amp have proprietry clips on the end, so if you interested in extending cables or replacing them it could be tricky. The yamaha in richer sounds is way more fleixble in this regard. However if you want something slimline, and if you have a sony tv/bd player/sky hd etc.. you can get 1 sony remote to control the lot using this amp. That's why I went for it. Inicidentally the amp also has an optical input and can do 5.1 from the optical output on your TV (digital terrestrial), or various pseudo varitiatons of 5.1 with stereo sources (sky). It also has the full 1080P upscaling on all inputs (not just hdmi), and support 24P mode to smooth out BD playback. Speakers seem pretty good too and happy with it so far. While certainly no where near as good as a decent yamaha / onkyo /denon separates setup, it's more than good enough for a medium sized bedroom A bit pricey though at 450 in Soundstore, but a lot cheaper on Pixmania I believe.