Dolby True HD vs. DTS HD

IMO both DTS-HD and DThd will, produce legacy DTS/DD signals (at their max bit rate) from BD discs on even low-featured players.

I disagree with you Johnny. While true that the Marantz cannot convert the native bitstream DTS HD/DD THD it can read a PCM signal.

My PS3 is decoding the DTS HD/DD THD into a PCM signal and sending it to my Marantz via HDMI (no optical cable used).

I have confirmed this by checking the output on my PS3 (hitting select during playback) and it shows what is being converted within the player.

I was also skeptical about this at first and I have double-checked numerous AVS forum topics regarding this same exact set-up.

BTW, I have A-B tested War of the Worlds and yes, it is more 'dynamic' on lossless format, not necessarily louder though.

So for those that don't have receivers capable of decoding the lossless codecs, how do the DACs onboard the Blu-Ray players compare? Would the lossless codecs through a somewhat inferior DAC sound better than the lossy ones through a better DAC?

Of course it's allways a matter of scale. The player I'm looking at is the Pioneer BDP-320, which has some mid-low range Burr-Brown DACs, although I can't remember the exact model.

I don't actually have a receiver, what I would do is hook up my preamp/amp for the front speakers and amp w/ volume pots for the rears directly to the player - I have a 4.0 system and I want to run a phantom center. Since my budget is limited (spent all on the stereo setup), my other option is to get an older pre/pro (like an Outlaw 950) or a receiver with pre-outs (preferably one that lets me disable the dynamic range compression of DD from downmixing).

I see the original post has been robbed. Let's see now, what was the original question asked?

There is no answer that is true all of the time Tlg. Most of the time DTS HD is better and uses less compression. But in some cases D True HD sounds better. It's easy to compare if your Bluray remote has an audio button as most do. Just start the disc and switch back and forth while it's playing.