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[mike0zero]

Just trialing this excellent piece of software with a view to making purchase before the 30 days is up and have a question.

I can use either bitstream or PCM to my receiver and was wondering which is my best option.

Current receiver is Pioneer VSX2020 and previously all audio was bitstreamed to the device from either Dune or PCH media player and I let the receiver decode and output.

My question is if I use PCM will my receiver still apply all the calibrations settings I set up via the calibration microphone on the receiver to the PCM stream or should all this now be handled within MC18 as I see there are seperate settings under the audio tab for this.

I am more tempted to use PCM for the fact that I can apply the lip-sync feature to keep video and audio in sync and for this alone it would be worth it however not if my receiver presets are then not applied.

Its difficult to tell by playing same movie via both but I am sure that the bitstream sounds a little better, be it a little louder and the surround effects seem to have a little more depth/ accuracy making me think my receiver presets are not applied to the PCM stream.....but this just could be in my head.

Anybody running similar/ same set up.

Cheers

Mike

[Hendrik]

Most good receivers can apply all their processing equally to PCM and Bitstream. I believe this would includes yours as well.

I would also agree on using PCM, it just has more advantages.

[mike0zero]

Thanks for the reply.

It must be just the volume setting on the PCM stream for the reason that it sounds quieter.

I think I will persevere with this setting so I can enjoy the other advantages.

[shAf]

....

I would also agree on using PCM, it just has more advantages.

I'm not sure what "advantages" you're speaking of, but when I investigated this topic I came away with the only advantages being for the purpose of shortcoming on the AVR's side.  IOW, if bitstreaming to the AVR is handled properly, or if your AVR's synthetic 5.1 processing sounds better, then choose bitstream.  I remain unconvinced that for most of today's AVR's, PCM is the correct choice.

[Hendrik]

The advantages are that you can use all the processing power of MC on your audio, from video clock to volume leveling, PEQ, room correction, etc, etc.
There is no reason to assume a AVR behaves "better" with bitstreaming. And while the AVR can do many of these tasks as well, at least video clock and proper volume leveling (new for video in upcoming MC19) is something an AVR can not easily do.

[Boltron]

Just the video clock feature alone is reason enough to use PCM. I used to insist on bitstreaming myself however after much advice on the forums here I tried PCM and have never looked back. There are other advantages I found also with going to PCM.

[shAf]

The advantages are that you can use all the processing power of MC on your audio, from video clock to volume leveling, PEQ, room correction, etc, etc.

All of these "features" are either taken care of with my AVR, or I do not have any problems with ...

There is no reason to assume a AVR behaves "better" with bitstreaming. And while the AVR can do many of these tasks as well, at least video clock and proper volume leveling (new for video in upcoming MC19) is something an AVR can not easily do.

I'm not assuming, ... rather, I know what my system sounds like in both cases, and that is all I suggesting to the OP.  After all, he did claim bitstreaming sounded better ...

just my CA$0.02  

[fitbrit]

Just the video clock feature alone is reason enough to use PCM. I used to insist on bitstreaming myself however after much advice on the forums here I tried PCM and have never looked back. There are other advantages I found also with going to PCM.

I could have written the same thing, word for word. I used to think that bitstreaming was the holy grail.
I also think that JRSS > Dolby PLIIx. I do let my Onkyo receivers matrix extra height and wide channels for a final 11.1 output though.