Warner Blu-ray defaulting to DD.

mecolwell -- Mon, 05/11/2009 - 07:23

I recently have upgraded my Processor to an Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 (Integra DTC 9.8). It seems like a lot of the BD's I have watched have been DTS HD Master, which sounds excellent, and a couple have been in Dolby True-HD, which also sounds excellent.
I wanted to watch "Blade Runner", the other night, a Warner title, which did not begin at a startup menu, going right to the film, and the controller read "Dolby Digital". When I pressed "menu" on my Panasonic BD-55 player, no option for audio setup. I tried 3 other titles I had on hand, all Warner in True HD, and the same thing, including "Batman Returns". Hmmm.
I discovered that when the film starts, I have to press "pop-up menu" to access the audio setup options, which is annoying, as it only works "on the fly", after the film starts and must be running. A Columbia BD, which, after the many up front ads, not able to forward through (come on, guys, make this an option!!), gave me a setup start menu, where I could select True HD.
Anyone else have this experience with Warner titles?  I applaud the going right to the film, rather than a setup menu, but not the defaulting to DD. There seems to be no option to make the player do it, and the Onkyo is just doing what it is sent. 
My Panasonic has the latest firmware, as does the Onkyo Pro.
Mike

Robert Harley -- Tue, 05/12/2009 - 11:12

I'm sure that they author the disc  this way to avoid customer confusion, but the downside is that only a small percentage of consumers will know to look for the audio options. Let's hope this is a transitional approach until TrueHD decoding has greater market penetration.

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