Audiophiles! - PS4 audio - Bitstream Direct or Linear PCM??
Discussion
Hi,
I've been frustrated with the weak sound of Blu-Ray playback on my PS4, speech is quiet, action is loud etc so I started to play with the settings today. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch but just want the 'best' I can get through my setup.
I'm using a good quality wireless Samsung sound bar with wireless sub:
http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-hw-j8500-1-wirele...
And a new Samsung TV, the two speak to each other flawlessly, it's a nice convenient plug and play solution without stepping up to full surround etc
So, I stumbled across the above settings in the PS4 audio menu 'Bitstream Direct / Linear PCM'. It was defaulted to linear PCM but when switched to Bitstream Direct it seems to solve the issue with speech being muted. It sounds brighter.
However, I am wondering if this is the appropriate setting and I haven't inadvertently given myself a worse overall quality that is just louder if that makes sense...
I've done some searching, found this article from Dolby but have to confess much of it goes over my head.
http://developer.dolby.com/News/Enabling_Dolby_Bit...
I know there are some knowledgeable fellows on here and would appreciate a steer on whats best and how I get a good sound from the PS4 without having to turn the vol up a silly level.
Thanks in advance!
I've been frustrated with the weak sound of Blu-Ray playback on my PS4, speech is quiet, action is loud etc so I started to play with the settings today. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch but just want the 'best' I can get through my setup.
I'm using a good quality wireless Samsung sound bar with wireless sub:
http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-hw-j8500-1-wirele...
And a new Samsung TV, the two speak to each other flawlessly, it's a nice convenient plug and play solution without stepping up to full surround etc
So, I stumbled across the above settings in the PS4 audio menu 'Bitstream Direct / Linear PCM'. It was defaulted to linear PCM but when switched to Bitstream Direct it seems to solve the issue with speech being muted. It sounds brighter.
However, I am wondering if this is the appropriate setting and I haven't inadvertently given myself a worse overall quality that is just louder if that makes sense...
I've done some searching, found this article from Dolby but have to confess much of it goes over my head.
http://developer.dolby.com/News/Enabling_Dolby_Bit...
I know there are some knowledgeable fellows on here and would appreciate a steer on whats best and how I get a good sound from the PS4 without having to turn the vol up a silly level.
Thanks in advance!
Hi.
Bitstream audio is the correct setting, unless it doesn't work for you.
When you 'bitstream' the audio out you are just passing the audio out of the reading device to the audio playback device with no alteration, it's just a digital data signal containing the audio, straight from the disc. This lets the playback device do any decoding and adjustment to the audio before it's played to you. The playback device knows what it is and how best to do the processing, so that's where the decision should be made. I expect the dialogue is clearer as the soundbar is playing back the centre channel of the film soundtrack out of a dedicated speaker and/or doing some processing to make the centre channel louder. I dare say there is a 'dialogue lift' function or setting on the soundbar if you still need it, this (and any other processing effects) will work much better now than they used to.
The PCM output option will make your reading device 'downmix' (convert) the audio into an analogue stereo output before it's output, stripping it of quite a bit of quality and all the multi-channel information in the process. This is the setting you'd use for playback devices which can't understand Dolby Digital/DTS audio, say an old analogue amplifier.
Out of interest, how is your PS4/TV/Sound bar connected?
Bitstream audio is the correct setting, unless it doesn't work for you.
When you 'bitstream' the audio out you are just passing the audio out of the reading device to the audio playback device with no alteration, it's just a digital data signal containing the audio, straight from the disc. This lets the playback device do any decoding and adjustment to the audio before it's played to you. The playback device knows what it is and how best to do the processing, so that's where the decision should be made. I expect the dialogue is clearer as the soundbar is playing back the centre channel of the film soundtrack out of a dedicated speaker and/or doing some processing to make the centre channel louder. I dare say there is a 'dialogue lift' function or setting on the soundbar if you still need it, this (and any other processing effects) will work much better now than they used to.
The PCM output option will make your reading device 'downmix' (convert) the audio into an analogue stereo output before it's output, stripping it of quite a bit of quality and all the multi-channel information in the process. This is the setting you'd use for playback devices which can't understand Dolby Digital/DTS audio, say an old analogue amplifier.
Out of interest, how is your PS4/TV/Sound bar connected?
Edited by varsas on Wednesday 27th January 17:13
I don't profess to be any sort of expert in this field but I would have though bit streaming is probably your best bet.
What this does is simply take the audio stream off the Blu-Ray unprocessed be it Dolby-HD or DTS-HD and sends it straight over HDMI to whatever is on the other end. It is then down to that device (in this case your sound bar) to decode the audio into the separate channels and output this to the relevant speaker. It's own decoder should be better placed to decide what audio to feed where and in the case of sound bars where there isn't a speaker for each channel to mix the audio output accordingly into the available speakers and sometimes doing some clever signal processing on it to make it seem a bit more "surround".
With the LPCM option the PS4 will be doing the decoding duties and output an audio stream for each discrete speaker over HDMI, i.e. if it's a 5.1 audio stream on the Blu-Ray then it will be sending 6 individual audio streams over HDMI. Then it really depends as to how you sound bar handles this.
Upshot is if the bit stream option works then I'd use that.
What this does is simply take the audio stream off the Blu-Ray unprocessed be it Dolby-HD or DTS-HD and sends it straight over HDMI to whatever is on the other end. It is then down to that device (in this case your sound bar) to decode the audio into the separate channels and output this to the relevant speaker. It's own decoder should be better placed to decide what audio to feed where and in the case of sound bars where there isn't a speaker for each channel to mix the audio output accordingly into the available speakers and sometimes doing some clever signal processing on it to make it seem a bit more "surround".
With the LPCM option the PS4 will be doing the decoding duties and output an audio stream for each discrete speaker over HDMI, i.e. if it's a 5.1 audio stream on the Blu-Ray then it will be sending 6 individual audio streams over HDMI. Then it really depends as to how you sound bar handles this.
Upshot is if the bit stream option works then I'd use that.
If its wireless it's likely it can only handle stereo PCM but can handle multi channel Dolby Digital and/or DTS. This is due to the high data rate of uncompressed PCM audio vs lossy formats. The downmix to stereo (probably happening in the TV) of the PCM likely handles the centre channel badly compared to the soundbar, hence the improvement by turning on bitstream.
DoubleSix said:
Thank you,
I think I understood most of that!
The PS4 is connected via HDMI to TV.
The Sound bar and sub connects wirelessly (to the TV I assume...
hmm..over bluetooth maybe? You might want to hook it up via an optical 'SP/DIF' cable or even HDMI, you might get better quality. Your TV will be able to send audio down to a device through HDMI using something called 'ARC'.I think I understood most of that!
The PS4 is connected via HDMI to TV.
The Sound bar and sub connects wirelessly (to the TV I assume...
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