Blu Ray player that converts to Dolby Digital 5.1

What double blind listening tests have you undertaken? Bet you will be completly, and utterly unable to tell the difference.

I think it's well documented that the jump from 128kbps to 256kbps is quite audible. As the source becomes more complicated, the compression becomes more noticeable - e.g. a track with a single guitar would compress better than a guitar and a saxophone playing concurrently. When it comes to movie audio, you may often hear speech, car engines, explosions and music concurrently. This is extremely hard to squash into a low bitrate - like trying to fit a full orchestra into a lift.

If my wife can hear the difference, anybody can :D

In technical terms, they used to fit Dolby Digital onto a bit of magnetic strip at the bottom of the film in the cinema. As the projector shone the light through the frame, it also read the audio information back from the "tape". This tape didn't have enough quality for DTS, which had to be delivered on a separate audio CD which was played back in parallel with the movie. Not only was it higher quality, it also eliminated static clicks and pops that the tape source occasionally produced.

In technical terms, they used to fit Dolby Digital onto a bit of magnetic strip at the bottom of the film in the cinema. As the projector shone the light through the frame, it also read the audio information back from the "tape". This tape didn't have enough quality for DTS, which had to be delivered on a separate audio CD which was played back in parallel with the movie. Not only was it higher quality, it also eliminated static clicks and pops that the tape source occasionally produced.
Actually, the pops and clicks were from a magnetic multi-channel strip on 70mm prints - a pretty esoteric format. Magnetics on film were and are a rare commodity.

Dolby Digital actually uses a 2D barcode to imprint the data between the sprocket holes (it's was the only space left on the film). It's actually digital, and contains error correction, so there are no pops and hisses or other issues. SDDS used the area outside of the sprocket holes, and DTS shipped separately on CDs and synced up using a timecode imprinted just inside of the optical audio tracks. Wikipedia has a great visual of it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#/media/File:35mm_film_audio_macro.jpg

What double blind listening tests have you undertaken? Bet you will be completly, and utterly unable to tell the difference.If my wife can hear the difference, anybody can :D
My wife can also hear the difference, particularly on the back channels, as DD's rear channels usually end up far more compressed than the front so they don't even have the volume necessary to equal what DTS puts out. To even it out, you can run the rear channels about 1-3 db overamplified. And this one is easy to do an A/B for, you can simply flip the audio track back and forth on a player.

However I doubt that on most material I'd be able to tell the difference on a playbar/playbase, they can't really reproduce enough detail to begin with ... but that's why all of my larger TVs go into AVRs with real surround sound systems tailored to the room in question.

Actually, the pops and clicks were from a magnetic multi-channel strip on 70mm prints - a pretty esoteric format. Magnetics on film were and are a rare commodity.

Dolby Digital actually uses a 2D barcode to imprint the data between the sprocket holes (it's was the only space left on the film). It's actually digital, and contains error correction, so there are no pops and hisses or other issues. SDDS used the area outside of the sprocket holes, and DTS shipped separately on CDs and synced up using a timecode imprinted just inside of the optical audio tracks. Wikipedia has a great visual of it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#/media/File:35mm_film_audio_macro.jpg

Superb info, thanks - I appear to have merged two memories into one!

My wife can also hear the difference, particularly on the back channels, as DD's rear channels usually end up far more compressed than the front so they don't even have the volume necessary to equal what DTS puts out. To even it out, you can run the rear channels about 1-3 db overamplified. And this one is easy to do an A/B for, you can simply flip the audio track back and forth on a player.

However I doubt that on most material I'd be able to tell the difference on a playbar/playbase, they can't really reproduce enough detail to begin with ... but that's why all of my larger TVs go into AVRs with real surround sound systems tailored to the room in question.

Indeed, ultimately on DD you've got 640kbps between 6 channels. It's not a lot. If you run the 3 front channels at 180kbps each (still lower than DTS) you've only got 100kbps left over for both rears and the sub. It's just not enough.

I guess in most cases, customers are more than happy with PLAYBAR/PLAYBASE as it's the best home cinema system they've ever heard. As the old James record Sit Down goes "if I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor".

My BD-H6500 sounds fantastic with my Playbase even when it converts dts to Dolby.

Thanks, they look a great buy for the money so will go with one (proven to downmix to 5.1 as well).

All I'm after is a nice clean simple system with a decent sound to it, not the best of the best!. I'm sure DTS on a full system is thing to behold but for my living room Sonos Playbar with Sub and possibly a pair of Play 1's will be more than adequate.

My BD-H6500 sounds fantastic with my Playbase even when it converts dts to Dolby.

Thanks, they look a great buy for the money so will go with one (proven to downmix to 5.1 as well).

All I'm after is a nice clean simple system with a decent sound to it, not the best of the best!. I'm sure DTS on a full system is thing to behold but for my living room Sonos Playbar with Sub and possibly a pair of Play 1's will be more than adequate.

The point is that the full system costs less than the limited Sonos offering!

Anyway, if you're looking for a Samsung blu-ray, it's worth looking at eBay. I paid good money for a Samsung blu-ray that was Sonos compatible, then had to buy again when I wanted one which supported 3D. By third time around, when I wanted 4k, I decided to look at them on eBay - got one that was "nearly new" that may as well have been brand new when I got it. Saved about £100 vs. a new one.

My old one is likely to be heading to eBay soon. Actually, my 4k one may go back there as I'm looking at a player that supports Dolby Vision - none of the Samsung players do.

Samsung BD-H6500 converts dts to Dolby 5.1. I’ve connected it to an optical splitter (CYP AUD-41) so that I can connect it directly to my Playbase. This is because my Samsung TV doesn’t pass the Dolby signal from the Samsung DVD player to the optical out. (However it does pass the Dolby signal from an Apple TV.) Unbelievable I know.
Not so unbelievable! My Samsung TV won't pass ANY signal from my Panasonic Blu Ray player to the Playbar. I've done the same as you and used an optical splitter. The TV will pass DD5:1 from Apple TV, Sky Box and just about anything else.
Even so, I still can't get DD5:1 onto the Playbar, only PCM as my Blu Ray won't convert, so I am now trying to make up my mind if I will get a new Blu Ray player. We do seem to mainly watch streamed stuff these days, but it would still be nice to have the option to use Blu Rays and get the best I can from them. Decisions, decisions!

Not so unbelievable! My Samsung TV won't pass ANY signal from my Panasonic Blu Ray player to the Playbar. I've done the same as you and used an optical splitter. The TV will pass DD5:1 from Apple TV, Sky Box and just about anything else.
Even so, I still can't get DD5:1 onto the Playbar, only PCM as my Blu Ray won't convert, so I am now trying to make up my mind if I will get a new Blu Ray player. We do seem to mainly watch streamed stuff these days, but it would still be nice to have the option to use Blu Rays and get the best I can from them. Decisions, decisions!
At the end of the day, with Dolby Digital being rapidly deprecated, Sonos is going to have to do something. There is no requirement for DD on a Blu-Ray disc, or indeed any audio formats supported by Sonos - leaving you with transcoding only. Streaming services are also starting to drop DD in favor of DD+. It's just a matter of time. 🙂

The trouble is everything is "just a matter of time". We buy something today, and before you get it home, it's out of date or being made obsolete by some whizo new device. (slight exaggeration here, I admit).