2015-08-01, 02:20
(2015-07-31, 23:30)Dave the Minion Wrote: Hi all. Trying to learn about the Pi2 and it gets a little confusing reading about the support for HD audio. From the last 2 posts it appears that the most recent nightly(?) does bitstream both TrueHD and dts-HD to the AVR, the same as an HTPC currently does?
Not quite.
The Pi 2 doesn't bitstream HD Audio to an AVR (bitstreaming is where the compressed audio is carried in compressed form over the HDMI interface). Its hardware isn't compatible with the HDMI requirements for bitstreaming HD Audio. HOWEVER - there are now open source, lossless, decoders for both Dolby True HD and DTS HD audio, and the Pi 2 has the CPU power to decode these formats.
The latest OpenElec builds elsewhere in this section of the forum implement lossless DTS HD and Dolby True HD decoding to multichannel PCM of 48kHz and 96kHz multichannel audio (and there is almost no 192kHz HD Audio out there, and not that much 96kHz stuff either) The Pi 2 then outputs this lossless decoded multichannel PCM audio over HDMI to your amp.
The Pi 2 is effectively processing the compressed audio in the same way that your Amp would otherwise do - but the lamp doesn't come on on the front of the amp signalling DTS HD or Dolby True HD.
