Noob question about PCM audio..

vectrex3000 · Posted: 12 Jul 2019, 02:34

Hi, (I hope i've submitted this into the right category)

I'm curious to learn about PCM audio. I noticed both my players, as well as my television, have an orange port labeled PCM...

What are the advantages of PCM over traditional analog red and white channels?
Do all Laserdiscs support PCM? If not, how can i tell if an LD supports PCM?
How do you access PCM? Is it the from orange port to orange port, or is there a man in the middle like an AC3 demodulator?

Any and all information is appreciated. Looking to learn more about LD output..

Thanks.

substance · Posted: 12 Jul 2019, 03:58

vectrex3000 wrote:

Hi, (I hope i've submitted this into the right category)

I'm curious to learn about PCM audio. I noticed both my players, as well as my television, have an orange port labeled PCM...

What are the advantages of PCM over traditional analog red and white channels?
PCM is digital audio which needs to be converted to analog audio before speakers. Analog red and white sockets use players internal digital to analog converters(dacs). Having a digital output allow you use the dacs of an Av receiver or a stand alone dac. There are really expensive and great sounding dacs that people want to use instead of the stock dacs in the player
Do all Laserdiscs support PCM? If not, how can i tell if an LD supports PCM?
most newish ones do. They would have a digital coax (same socket as red/white rca, and/or digital optical outputs. You can still use the analog sockets but that would use the internal dacs
How do you access PCM? Is it the from orange port to orange port, or is there a man in the middle like an AC3 demodulator?
you need an audio amp with digital inputs as described above(coax and/or optical). Yes, the connection is from digital output to digital output of the same kind(ex.coax to coax). No demodulator needed.
Any and all information is appreciated. Looking to learn more about LD output..
most tvs don’t have good built in dacs, the player likely has better dacs. You want to use the digital audio output if you have an av receiver. Ultimately, even if you have an digital audio capable av receiver, you want to try and compare both analog outputs of the player and digital outputs. Whichever sounds the best to your ears the right one to go

Thanks.

signofzeta · Posted: 12 Jul 2019, 05:14

If you research Digital Sound, that's the term usually associated with PCM sound in the LD world. If the disc/player has it, you can hear it. It was added to LD between 85-90 so stuff before that only has analog sound and stuff after that period usually both analog and PCM (Digital Sound).

PCM on LD is the same as the CD redbook standard. It can be sent over SPDIF (the orange connector you mentioned) or TOSLINK (optical).

forper · Posted: 12 Jul 2019, 12:29

Not saying anyones saying otherwise but PCM isn't a codec by the way, it's a bitstream, not a file. I love PCM.

vectrex3000 · Posted: 12 Jul 2019, 17:08

Thanks for the information, everyone.

Noob question about PCM audio..

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