I've been burning the midnight oil trying to figure out if there is a way to get around the lack of DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD decoding in B&O's TV sets re the inbuilt digital surround sound module.

On the specifications page of the Beovision 8-40 & 10-40 HDMI is mentioned only for video input - digital sound input is SPDIF.

However I also notice that audio formats supported are PCM and also multichannel PCM

My current Sony Bluray player will either output native DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby True HD, and also DSD SACD, along with regular DD and DTS, over HDMI.  However, for the high res formats (Dolby True HD, DTS HD Master Audio & DSD SACD) the player will also decode these internally, and output them as high res PCM over HDMI.

So I am wondering if anyone might know if the two B&O TV sets mentioned will accept audio over HDMI as well as SPDIF - if so I am hoping it would be possible to set the player to decode the high res formats internally as mentioned, and thus feed the Beovision TVs with high res PCM multi-channel audio over the HDMI link - which hopefully the Digital surround module in the TV's would be able to accept and use.

Do any members here have any knowledge of this working or being able to work?

I appreciate that one can always use a separate processor and run analogue pre outs to proposed B&O active speakers, but this merely adds to the box count and removes one of the more appealing elements of a B&O surround system - simplicity and elegance coupled with performance.

So if the surround modules in the two mentioned TV's could accept high res multichannel PCM audio over HDMI it would be a very satisfying workaround until such time, if ever, B&O add the necessary high res lossless DD/DTS decoding formats to their surround sound modules.

Many thanks and all replies appreciated

Best Regards

John... 

No problem at all : decode the DTS HD with the BD player into PCM, and use HDMI to feed the BV... You will have the full quality signal, as decoding DTS HD to PCM is done perfectly by the player, doing that with a B&O TV would not improve anything (compare that as unzipping a file : the result is the same exact digital copy with an old kikinoko PC and with a brand new shiny Macbook!)

mbee:

No problem at all : decode the DTS HD with the BD player into PCM, and use HDMI to feed the BV... You will have the full quality signal, as decoding DTS HD to PCM is done perfectly by the player, doing that with a B&O TV would not improve anything (compare that as unzipping a file : the result is the same exact digital copy with an old kikinoko PC and with a brand new shiny Macbook!)

 

Many thanks for the kind reply - I am a recovering audiophool and not overly familiar with the B&O way of doing things re an integrated AV system...

I have lusted after Beolab 5's for some time and remain hopeful of a future purchase, but for the time being the financial mountain is a little high... so would look to starting out with something like Lab 3's + Beolab 2 which I can add on to later and use them in either a rear channel application or another room.  

The use of a B&O TV appeals greatly as it can double as both a centre channel speaker and also as the surround sound processor in the context of a B&O AV system, thus providing a much simpler and neater way of setting things up (albeit processors and blu ray players etc can be hidden in a cabinet).  

It also helps re the initial increase in purchase cost over say a Sony Bravia when you realise you are also getting an active centre channel speaker and a surround sound processor included with the TV.  Whilst I prefer the B&O TV aesthetics, without the use of the active centre channel and surround sound processor, it is much harder to justify the cost on picture quality grounds - the latest LCD/LED dynamic backlight/scanning Sony Bravias are very good picture quality wise and more than able to compare IMHO to a B&O on pure picture quality grounds alone - but of course with the B&O you get the other features as mentioned - provided they can be used hence the reason for my post.

So if HDMI on a Beovision will accept high res multichannel PCM and the surround sound module in the TV can convert that to analogue and send it over the powerlink(?) connectors to the active speakers, that would solve a lot of problems as I do want to have access to the latest lossless high res audio formats for Bluray.

As mentioned the Bluray player would unzip the DTS HD/DD True HD compressed, but lossless audio files, which would result in a high res PCM multi-channel audio stream being output to the Beovision by HDMI, and as I understand it from your post, the Beovision would transfer this high res PCM M/C stream from HDMI without losing any audio quality?  

Is the HDMI input on the beovision 1.1 or 1.3a etc, and does this matter in the context of a high res PCM M/C stream + video?

And lastly, I assume the Beovision surround sound module would process this PCM high res M/C stream through an DAC, and then out via the powerlink connectors (analogue as far as I understand it) to an Class D analogue active loudspeaker such as a Beolab 3?

Certainly B&O is a little different in the way they go about things compared to the audiophile world re AV, and probably all the better for it, but there is a little bit of a learning curve involved for me re how they achieve this re connections and what works and doesn't work etc.

Many thanks again for the reply and please keep them coming if you have any experience in doing this and can comment

Kind regards

John...