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Now, how do the PCM and TrueHD tracks compare? Given this historic opportunity, I decided to conduct a little experiment. I invited a friend over, who is a big movie and music buff, but not particularly technical. He knows good audio when he hears it, yet doesn't know a PCM from an RPM from R.E.M. In other words, he's Joe Six-Pack with a great ear. Anyway, together we conducted a "blind" audio test -- we select ten short sequences from the film, and listened to a compare of each. We took turns firing up each scene, and selecting which one sounded better, with no knowledge of which sample was the Blu-ray and which the HD DVD.

After writing down our answers on little scraps of paper (note that we didn't throw them into a hat -- we aren't that dorky), the results were interesting. Out of the twenty comparisons (ten for him, ten for me), we could only detect differences on four scenes total. But of those four, we both always preferred the PCM track, if only a smidgeon. For example, there is a scene in involving an attempted trade bust between the Costello character and a Chinese gang. There is a sound of a gun firing that we went back over a few times, and as silly as it sounds, the force and impact of the sounds was a shade more realistic in PCM. Also a beneficiary of the uncompressed mix is the music, as this is a film brimming with rock songs. The first scene we picked featured the Rolling Stone's "Gimme Shelter," and again the PCM track boasted a slightly more spacious feel to the music in all channels -- as if the very highest end of the frequency range was more palpable.

Granted, these are very slight differences and subjective preferences. Had we not blindfolded each other (figuratively speaking, of course) and been flipping back and forth between discs like one of those old Coke-Pepsi commercials, such deviations likely would have been imperceptible. It is also certain that the average listener wouldn't be able to tell the difference without possessing the ears of a dog. Still, in this case I give a slight edge to the PCM track, though a comparison between a single title hardly qualifies as the final word. If nothing else, it made me realize that if all the studios dumped this dueling audio format business and went all-PCM, I can't say I would be likely to complain...

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'Ghost Rider' comes to Blu-ray with dual uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround (48kHz/16-bit/4.6mbps) and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround (48kHz/16-bit) mixes. It's an embarrassment of riches, and quite frankly probably an unnecessary overload aside from the coolness factor in getting two high-resolution audio formats on the same disc. Both are lossless codes, and the only real difference is that PCM is a locked bitrate format while Dolby TrueHD is variable bit rate (peaking around 3.5mbps in this case). So pick your poison, and either way you're not likely be disappointed -- both deliver the goods with aplomb.

Aside from the PCM sounding a little louder than the TrueHD, after level matching I couldn't discern a difference between the two. 'Ghost Rider' has very aggressive sound design and is a treat either way. The rears are pretty much a bulldozer, with a wall of discrete effects almost constant in the action scenes. Imaging is airy, the 360-degree effect usually awesome and directional effects localized with great accuracy.

Dynamics are also superlative, with palpable tonal realism across the entire spectrum. Motorcycles roar, Wes Bentley overacts wildly and Peter Fonda mumbles between puffs of smoke, yet I could understand every last word. Low bass is also a real kicker, with some tones so deep you might want to bolt your subwoofer to the floor. Granted, there is no subtlety here, but the few straight-ahead dialogue scenes do usually have at least some minor ambiance in the rears so the track is consistently engaging. Be sure to play this one very loud -- in either PCM or TrueHD -- and you're sure to enjoy some great demo material.

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You can get Dolby True HD from the A2 since it can decode this format and transmit this to the receiver using HDMI or analog 5.1. You don't need HDMI 1.3 to do this.

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I'm not sure of the specs or what audio decoding chip the A2 has but as long as it does its job there should be no or only minimal difference between the audio as decoded by the A2 and the XA2.

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You mean the HD-XA2? The A2 doesn't have 5.1 analog outs.

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I mean, nobody is going to be able to compare HD DVD's with TrueHD to Blu-ray's with uncompressed 5.1 until TrueHD can actually be bitstream'd to the receiver, right?

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Since no players can actually send the signal bitstream.

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Do you have to use HDMI to get the uncompressed PCM sound?

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Actually the XA2 and the PS3 have HDMI 1.3 so they can send the Dolby True HD and DTS HD MA bitstream to a receiver that can decode these signals.

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