Just read the news on HighDefDigest.com that the new Samsung BD-P1400 has received a firmware update that now allows DTS-HD Master audio to be passed along as bitstream to a compatible receiver for decoding! Early reports from users state that the audio quality "matches or exceeds that of Dolby TrueHD."

Here is an excerpt from the article:

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One of the most highly anticipated holy grails of high-resolution audio has arrived, with high-end home theater enthusiasts getting their first listen to full lossless DTS-HD Master Audio.

Although a good number of discs (including all of Fox's Blu-ray releases) have included DTS-HD MA tracks, until now existing hardware has only provided the ability to decode the standard 1.5 Mbps DTS core.

Now, thanks to a firmware upgrade released last week for Samsung's new BD-P1400 Blu-ray player, for the very first time consumers with compatible receivers are finally hearing DTS-HD MA in all its glory.

Note that unlike most TrueHD compatible next-gen players, the BDP-1400 doesn't decode the MA tracks internally, but rather it outputs them via HDMI 1.3a as a raw bitstream for decoding by a compatible receiver, such as Onkyo's TX-SR875 or TX-SR905. Several other Blu-ray players are due to include bitstream output in the coming months as well, including Pioneer’s BDP-95HD, Sony’s BDP-S500 and Samsung’s BD-P2400.

Initial reports are quite positive, with users reporting audio quality that matches or exceeds that of Dolby TrueHD.

Although the current cost of a high-end receiver capable of decoding the tracks via bitstream is likely to keep DTS-HD Master Audio out of the hands of all but the most dedicated home theater enthusiasts, word on the street is that DTS is working with Sony to add internal DTS-MA decoding to the PS3 before Christmas. In addition, for those who do not require more powerful wattage per channel, the 90 watt per channel Onkyo TX-SR605 is available for as low as $399 from some online retailers and also has DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD decoding.

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This really makes me wonder if I should stick to my decision to purchase a Playstation 3, or revert back to my original decision to purchase a standalone player (in this case, the BD-P1400). I'm just stoked that finally, someone has unleashed yet another terrific asset in the high-def formats.

Wow... I guess there's not too many people who give a hoot about DTS-HD Master!

Here's hoping they'll release an update to the PS3 that will decode this...

I hope so, too. I've decided I'm going to stick to getting the PS3 this month, even though I know it's a gamble as to whether or not I'll be listening to this audio codec anytime in the future if I do. Being that Sony has banked a lot on this product, I believe that they're going to do everything they can to keep up with the other products coming out.

Yeah, I'll be more excited about it when this happens. Looks good though, it's getting some rave reviews at AVS.

Lossless is Lossless. I don't care if its DTS or Dolby's version.

One of the avs insiders said that Sony hopes to have DTS HD MA internal cdecoding by Christmas.

Yeah, once the PS3 gets the necessary firmware update to decode DTS-MA, then you will see a bit more excitement about it.

CD is also lossless. And it sucks.

In the interest of balance, the Toshiba HD-A35 was just released with bitstreaming capability as well. A few over at AVS have confirmed TrueHD and DTS-MA bitstream to their receivers.

So the A35 is in fact able to bitstream those lossless tracks. Interesting. I recall some on here saying that HD DVDs had to be authored a certain way to allow bitstreaming, and none of them had been to date.

What they said was essentially correct, but there was a key misunderstanding. Only basic-mode information (movie+soundtrack) can be bitstreamed. Thus, you cannot hear any menu sounds, PiP, commentary, etc. if you have bitstreaming enabled.

Hmm, interesting. Still, you wouldn't need to bitstream to hear any of those other sounds, as none of those sounds or soundtracks are offered in lossless. But I could see things getting annoying with having to switch back and forth between bitstreaming and internal decoding. Is there a button on the remote to switch back and forth, or do you have to go into the setup menu each time?

according to the early reports over at AVS, that's not entirely accurate. if you have it set for bitstream and choose an advanced feature like IME, it still bitstreams the audio, but drops to Dolby Digital bitstream. thus, there's no need to switch between bitstream and internal decoding, even for advanced content. granted, there aren't many data points from users yet, but that's the report for now, as far as i can tell.

Interesting. It's my understanding that advanced audio cannot be bitstreamed if authored in advanced mode. This drop down to Dolby Digital is probably a player-determined function - a welcome one, I'd surmise. I'd wager different players handle this scenario differently. Thanks for the info.

i'm taking all the info with a grain of salt for the time being, since there are so few people reporting on it so far.

that said, it seems like the player could implement this...if it can decode the advanced content audio, its not outside the realm of possibility to think that it could mix everything in the raw and then re-encode it to Dolby Digital to send it out bitstream.