Audio Video News

Toshiba has made available Firmware Update Version 2.0 for its first-gen HD DVD players. In addition to enabling "anticipated network delivered content in future HD DVD discs" the new firmware version expands Dolby TrueHD support from 2.0-channels to full 5.1-channels. The update can be downloaded directly from the "Suport" link at Toshiba's HD DVD web site, or upon request Toshiba will ship a CD to registered HD DVD player owners.

In addition to the Dolby TrueHD expansion and enhanced networking capabilities, Toshiba claims the new firmware also solves more disc playback glitches and HDMI/DVI incompatibility issues.

Dolby TrueHD is a so-called "lossless" codec that offers bit-for-bit reconstruction of original source material. Data reduction can be as high 4:1 compared with the original uncompressed digital audio, which for movie soundtracks can be 16-24-bits at 44kHz or 48kHz. So, in theory the potential of the original master audio is there but without taking up nearly as much space on the disc as uncompressed digital audio requires.

TrueHD has the potential for performance that's leagues beyond what we've heard from lossy compression codecs such as Dolby Digital and DTS. On standard DVDs Dolby Digital is most often compressed to as 384kbps or 448kbps for a 5.1-channel soundtrack, while DTS is typically encoded at either 768kbps or 1.5Mbps at most.

Although a few HD DVDs have already been released with Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel soundtracks (including Phantom of the Opera and Constantine), Toshiba's HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD DVD players have been limited to two-channel TrueHD playback. Now, the full 5.1-channel Dolby TrueHD signal can be decoded in the player and accessed from the multichannel analog outputs or the HDMI interface. Dolby TrueHD tracks are also transcoded to DTS at 1.5Mbps over the SPDF digital audio outputs,

Look for UAV to follow up on our Toshiba HD DVD player reviews with some brief reports on the multichannel Dolby TrueHD experience.