They say it couldn't be done, or was impossible, but somehow Sony managed to route the multi-channel signal from SACDs via the optical cable on the PlayStation 3 with the recent 2.00 firmware update. My receiver indicates a DTS 5.1 input, and the "multi-channel decoding" indicator is lit. My test discs were "The Dark Side Of The Moon" and "Layla".

Thanks to egon_spengler from the Blu-ray.com forums for discovering this!

Wow, it reports itself as DTS5.1??

How is that possible with DSD?

It is decoding and then recoding into DTS?

Weird...

Does that mean the PS3 is able to encode DTS?

Arite.

You have a pirate copy that is actually DTS...?

Apparently the PS3 is encoding the DSD to DTS on-the-fly @ 1.5Mbps.

1.5Mbps?? Wow!. That is not lossless but comes close to it...

...and the PS3 is able to encode in DTS5.1. Nice!

Is stereo content also at 1.5 MBit/s?

Isn't DSD 2.8 Mbit/channel? So 5 channels would imply thats about 10:1 compression. I guess thats almost lossless in the 160k mp3 sense.

Christ, why do they have to make things so bloody complicated? They really shouldn't be surprised their formats don't catch on if they're going to obfusticate them so much.

Not necessarily, first it is resampled to 48kHz (so you get rid of all the supersonic noise that SACD contains), even with 24 bit/sample that leaves about 1,1 Mbit/chan. Then there's interchannel correlation (comp. joint stereo) to take advantage of but yes, it is a lossy compression (and not VBR) ... maybe like in the 192 mp3 sense

Nevertheless it is a remarkable move from Sony, after all the lengths they went with SACD to prohibit unencrypted digital out (at least in High Resolution) they now convert to unprotected DTS.

Or, more likely, this is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. I'll give even odds that somebody at Sony will bitch, and this will get pulled in a later firmware.

Prophetic words. Firmware 2.01 has taken away the capability. They're so stupid it's not even funny.

I can appreciate content providers wanting to protect theit content, but shouldn't a format be popular before they worry so much about piracy? I fno one wants to steal your format it may need work...

In Sony Japan, you don't steal format. Format steals you.

Hi! I have a friend that kept his PS3 at this firmware version and I wanted to convert to DTS the few multichannel SACDs I have, so as to be able to stream them off my Squeezebox.

Can someone suggest how to record from the optical out of PS3 to the optical in of a PC?

You've got optical input on your PC? No clue how to handle that. An alternative way is to record DSD on your PC, but you'll need to go via analog then. PS3 won't give DSD via HDMI (yet) or optical, for that matter, nor analog multichannel output so I'm not sure PS3 is much use in this case. Anyway, you may want to check the FAQ at PS3SACD.com.

O M G... That is so incredibly Sony... Damn... They really have some very creative and interesting technologies (PS3, Minidisc, SACD) but they always trip over themselves in this way (basically due to copy-protection).

I wish Sony would get out of the content business so that legal wouldn't need to block these very usefull options anymore.

Yup, I do. Anyone able to suggest a course of action?

I can't believe nobody around here is able to able...

Please...

Sorry, it just doesn't work like that. Philips got out of the content business about 10 years ago (when it sold PolyGram) and they can't avoid these legal issues either.

Point is that both companies are huge and therefore easy legal targets for the music and movie industries.

Philips certainly has been more liberal with it's devices (think of that dual-CD CD-copier). With Sony and Sony Music being one company, most new ideas are stopped in the tracks (like NetMD/HiMD, they finally opened up (relatively speaking) but by then everyone had an iPod/mp3_player).

This feature being recalled in 2.01 is an excellent example I think how Sony Music is killing the often not bad product that Sony makes.