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View Full Version : What does PCM mean?

jlabsher
03-01-03, 11:15 PM
I know what Dolby is, but what is PCM. When I am watching a channel that isn't Dolby Digital and listening through my receiver it displays "PCM 48". Also I have noticed that some of the STARZ channels have movies that are Dolby Digital but not listed that way in the program guide (at least that is what the receiver displays.)
Frank Z
03-02-03, 07:14 AM
PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation.
ibglowin
03-02-03, 07:40 AM
And the 48 is the data bit rate/ seconds.
Mike123abc
03-02-03, 09:31 PM
It is essentially uncompressed digital data. Dolby Digital is compressed, MP3 is compressed.
Me
03-15-03, 10:08 PM
PCM - Pulse Code Modulation

48 - 48kHz (sampling rate).

This means that it's uncompressed PCM audio, with 48,000 audio samples a second, for an effective frequency response of 24kHz. Of course the resolution of those samples matters a lot also to quality...

"And the 48 is the data bit rate/ seconds."

Nope, it's not the data rate, it's the sampling rate in kHz.