PS3 / BD playback issue

[Greg Alsobrook]

I have my PS3 connected via toslink to my Sony A/V Receiver (STR-DE885). I have severe audio dropouts when watching a Bluray (video games have no issues). The blue light signifying Dolby Digital will flash on and off every couple seconds, and it always takes the sound another half second or so to kick back in. Needless to say, it makes the movie unwatchable.

I finally started messing with it today. In the settings menu on the PS3, under Video Settings... I changed "BD Audio Output Format (Optical Digital)" from 'Bitstream' to 'Linear PCM'. This has corrected the issue, but now it's not in DD.

Has anyone run into anything like this?

[dave29]

I have my PS3 connected via toslink to my Sony A/V Receiver (STR-DE885). I have severe audio dropouts when watching a Bluray (video games have no issues). The blue light signifying Dolby Digital will flash on and off every couple seconds, and it always takes the sound another half second or so to kick back in. Needless to say, it makes the movie unwatchable.

I finally started messing with it today. In the settings menu on the PS3, under Video Settings... I changed "BD Audio Output Format (Optical Digital)" from 'Bitstream' to 'Linear PCM'. This has corrected the issue, but now it's not in DD.

Has anyone run into anything like this?

same exact thing happened to my brother in law, and i changed it to the same settings you just posted, no DD. i only got to mess with it for about 10 minutes, so it is still set up like that and he never did figure it out. i know for a fact that he has never updated his PS3, maybe thats why? im sure yours has the latest updates though.......

[Greg Alsobrook]

Yep... Latest software loaded... and it's done it since I first got it a couple years ago..

I'm wondering if it's just something weird with my receiver... since it's older...

[BattleZone]

Make sure you only have Dolby Digital, and not any of the more advanced flavors that your receiver doesn't understand, enabled on the PS3. The PS3 supports, and many Blu-Ray moves have newer, higher-level audio options than DD5.1, but you need to be sure that DD5.1 is all that is being sent.

[WERA689]

Make sure you only have Dolby Digital, and not any of the more advanced flavors that your receiver doesn't understand, enabled on the PS3. The PS3 supports, and many Blu-Ray moves have newer, higher-level audio options than DD5.1, but you need to be sure that DD5.1 is all that is being sent.

Excellent adice. I had the same issue with my previous pre-pro, a B&K Reference 20. I had to upgrade it to a Ref 31 in order to resolve the issue, as the Ref 20 couldn't understand the higher bitrates of HDDVD and Blu; even using simple DD5.1.

[Bobby H]

The PS3 doesn't output advanced audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD or multichannel LPCM) over standard optical connections. It just sends low bit rate audio formats. You must select HDMI output for audio for the PS3 to use the master quality audio formats.

BTW, the PS3 internally decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and outputs it as uncompressed multichannel LPCM to HDMI equipped surround receivers. The PS3 supports 7.1 channel formats.

The optical audio output should be set to bit stream. I have the following formats checked in my 80GB PS3: DD 5.1, DTS 5.1, AAC, LPCM 2.0 44.1kHz and LPCM 2.0 48kHz. I do not have the 88.2kHz and 176.4 versions of LPCM checked.

I would check the optical cable for any problems. Try swapping the cable with another one to see if the drop outs keep occurring.