As many of you know by now, the 360 ELITE will not support Uncompressed Audio for support of TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus audio formats on HD-DVD Movie Disks. Uncompressed LPCM Audio support is actually required for TrueHD support if the HDMI interface is 1.2 or below while Dolby Digital Plus is still a compressed audio format that simply requires around 9 times the bandwidth of Dolby Digital (bandwidth is similar to TrueHD – 640 kbps vs 6.1 Mbps).

You have heard me say that HDMI 1.3 is not necessary for TrueHD and I should clarify:

When dealing with HDMI 1.1 and 1.2, the TrueHD track is decoded into LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation - LPCM is the method of storing analog audio in a digital format) and then pushed out over HDMI 1.1 or 1.2. This process yields nearly the same result as pushing the native TrueHD track over HDMI 1.3 (which as the bandwidth to carry TrueHD Audio natively without decoding to another format) without having to convert the audio to LPCM. LPCM (over HDMI 1.1 or 1) requires less bandwidth than native TrueHD tracks over HDMI 1.3.

With Microsoft not supporting Uncompressed Audio on the 360 ELITE, due to hardware limitations (existing audio paths are not wide enough), the console cannot support the bandwidth needed to carry LPCM or Dolby Digital Plus Compressed Audio. Apparently the development team decided it was not worth the effort to redesign the Mainboard to support LPCM or HDMI 1.3. This is understandable as it takes much effort and money to redesign, run through alpha/beta phases, conduct QA and finally get the product to manufacturing. Sure the PS3 supports LPCM and HDMI 1.3 but does so at a cost to the consumer (one of the many reasons the PS3 is high in price). Does anyone really want the 360 to hit the 500.00+ range?

What does this really mean?

Not much to the average consumer but means a good deal to us audiophiles looking for the absolute best audio one can get for his money. I have a Toshiba HD-A1 therefore it is not a devastating blow to me but for those of you who were building an HD-DVD setup around the 360 (and wanted TrueHD), this is a major blow. If you were considering the 360 ELITE for HDMI Uncompressed Audio in addition to 1080p video, you may want to reconsider. I am not saying DO NOT BUY the 360 ELITE as 1080p video via HDMI is appealing, but just consider the fact that you are now paying 300.00 for HDMI 1080p (assuming you planned to buy the 120GB upgrade drive at 179.00) support instead of 1080p and High Fidelity Audio via TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus. Much to think about before the launch for the ELITE, just do not lose sleep over it.

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