Dolby True HD vs. DTS HD

Longhorn, you're not even listening to lossless. The Marantz can't decode it. Its HDMI capability is limited to HDMI 1.2, so its HDMI feature is only functioning as an HD video switcher; it's not extracting the audio bitstream from your Blu-ray. The TrueHD and DTS-MA lossless bitstreams require HDMI 1.3. You're evidently getting your bitstream over the optical digital link, which doesn't have the bandwidth to transmit lossless multichannel. The PS3 downconverts the lossless bitstream to DVD-standard DD or DTS, which is lossy. By this method the Blu-rays still sound a bit better than standard DVD because the downconvert operates at a higher bit rate than the DVDs did.

"The PS3 downconverts the lossless bitstream to DVD-standard DD or DTS, which is lossy. By this method the Blu-rays still sound a bit better than standard DVD because the downconvert operates at a higher bit rate than the DVDs did."
Thank you Johnnyb53. I stand corrected. My reports assumed I was listening to lossless, but I too am listening through an optical connection.

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).