Audio Processing on the PS3 and Xbox 360

[Asher]

This came up in another thread and it's worthy of discussion, I believe. This is NOT a versus thread.

We know that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 use their CPUs to process audio. A claim has been made that some games sound a lot better on the PS3 than the Xbox 360. As an owner of both, I've not heard any differences myself (on a 5.1 system).

One thing that's been promoted is the PS3's support for 7.1 channel audio, which as far as my understanding goes, computationally isn't exactly expensive. The Xbox 360 is, however (as far as I can tell) restricted to 5.1 surround for certification reasons alone. Does anyone know?

 

[woundingchaney]

Yeah only 5.1 for the 360.


I have both setups and outside of a few additional sound sources in the 7.1, I can notice absolutely no difference in sound quality. I run both through hdmi to my receiver. If anything it seems to primarily depend on the source of the the audio (as to say certain games sound better than others as well as movies etc).

I dont have a top of the line sound system although I am definitely above average with polk M series speakers( 2-70s, 2-50s, 2-bookshelf, polk m-series sub) and a new model Sony receiver (sorry havent looked on the book for the model number). Where I wouldnt doubt that there is a fidelity difference determining it would benefit considerably from a well tuned ear and a high end sound system.

Are we talking sound quality or processing demands here??

 

[Asher]

Both are relevant discussions, I think. I also think they're related.

 

[habbe]

I haven't really noticed any nextgen about the audio until i played COD4 (ps3 version) the audio really stands out IMO.

I do own both consoles but haven't really noticed anything special until COD4, can't speak for the xbox version thou.

Edit. when i think of it, it came to my mind, the ingame voices are very low so you have to crank up the volume a coupe of notches to hear what they say, and with the dynamic (24bit ?) the sound from the rifles are of course in the higher bit range.

 

[RobertR1]

Unless the audio bitrate is different between on the PS3/360 on CoD4, there should not be any difference.

If you're doing a side by side comparison, make sure you're not doing any post processing on either. Switch your receiver to "pure" mode to ensure that's the case.

 

["Nerve-Damage"]

The only audio/sound effects that I can think of that screams “unbelievable” from a next generation game is Lair. My audio system loves that game.

 

[Jedi2016]

Unless the audio bitrate is different between on the PS3/360 on CoD4, there should not be any difference.

I agree, but that brings up an interesting topic. Uncharted on PS3 features DTS 5.1 instead of the usual Dolby Digital. DTS is well-known for it's higher bitrate (from DVD encodes and the like), although I have no information on the bitrates used for game audio streams. Would that make a significant difference, using DTS over DD, given identical source audio files?

 

[Betanumerical]

I agree, but that brings up an interesting topic. Uncharted on PS3 features DTS 5.1 instead of the usual Dolby Digital. DTS is well-known for it's higher bitrate (from DVD encodes and the like), although I have no information on the bitrates used for game audio streams. Would that make a significant difference, using DTS over DD, given identical source audio files?

Most PS3 games use lossless audio afaik.

 

[RobertR1]

I agree, but that brings up an interesting topic. Uncharted on PS3 features DTS 5.1 instead of the usual Dolby Digital. DTS is well-known for it's higher bitrate (from DVD encodes and the like), although I have no information on the bitrates used for game audio streams. Would that make a significant difference, using DTS over DD, given identical source audio files?

If the original stream was encoded at DD at a certain bit rate, doing a conversion to DTS at 1.5 won't change much. Btw, you generally want to avoid conversions. Again, the encoded bitrate and audio format on disc would be most telling.

 

[almighty]

PS3 wins hands down IMO. My 360 sounds good but my PS3 sounds even better. PS3 games seem to have more detail and have better positioning of the surround effects they also have smoother transition when sweeping round the audio channels.

 

[RobertR1]

How does your receiver light up for each? what is your output from each console.

 

[SonComet]

Wouldn't the PS3 have an obvious advantage on games that use uncompressed sound as long as they have top notch sound design and the user has the speakers to take advantage of the higher quality? 7.1 and 5.1 should have nothing to do with it. Just compression quality unless I'm missing something.

 

[Mr Deap]

Wouldn't the PS3 have an obvious advantage on games that use uncompressed sound as long as they have top notch sound design and the user has the speakers to take advantage of the higher quality? 7.1 and 5.1 should have nothing to do with it. Just compression quality unless I'm missing something.

Sound effect are used from the memory. If it was streamed from the disk or the hard drive, it would always lag each time the sound goes of.

Sound effect can be in the audio music track, but predetermined such as cutscene & such to take advantage of the hard drive or BluRay.

Though 7.1 is a better experience than 5.1 anyway...

 

[-tkf-]

If the original stream was encoded at DD at a certain bit rate, doing a conversion to DTS at 1.5 won't change much. Btw, you generally want to avoid conversions. Again, the encoded bitrate and audio format on disc would be most telling.

Why would you encode anything in DD natively?
The games sound system take the audio, process it and puts it´s through the DD/DTS encoder.

he best solution would just be pure PCM out via HDMI on the PS3 (impossible on the 360 though) since i don´t have a HDMI reciever yet i dunno if Drakes support it, but i wouldn´t be surprised and it would be even easier for the game since it didn´t have to go through the DD/DTS encoding.

 

[ErnstH]

Although not really relevant to games, PS3 also supports SACD, which took a few SPUs to process (don't remember exactly anymore).

 

[pipo]

I don't believe all that 'PS3 uses uncompressed audio' talk. Sure, maybe for streaming a cut scene or something...

Do you guys have any idea what the in game memory req's are for uncompressed samples?

Also, 7.1 is nice but almost non-existent in normal households.

I'll do some sound checks on both systems in my basement, but I would be surprised if there is big difference, if any at all.

To me it sounds a lot like the MP3 discussions (good bitrates VS wav). Lots of people say they hear differences but blind tests prove otherwise time after time.

 

[DieH@rd]

Kojima mentioned a while ago that he wants to use 50GB blu ray, just for some crazy high bitrate 7.1 audio

 

[pipo]

Kojima mentioned a while ago that he wants to use 50GB blu ray, just for some crazy high bitrate 7.1 audio

I know.

There was a nice discussion right here after that comment too...

 

[Asher]

PS3 wins hands down IMO. My 360 sounds good but my PS3 sounds even better. PS3 games seem to have more detail and have better positioning of the surround effects they also have smoother transition when sweeping round the audio channels.

I still have trouble believing this. I just don't hear any difference on multi-platform games, and exclusive games sound great as well on both systems. I definitely don't hear any differences w.r.t. smoother transitions when comparing multiplatform games, which when you think about it is a rather absurd observation since that's algorithmic more than it's a hardware difference and I'm sure most games use the same algorithms across both platforms.

In addition, even though this isn't worth much, I haven't found a single HeadToHead on IGN where the Sound section on a PS3 version got higher marks.

 

[almighty]

I still have trouble believing this. I just don't hear any difference on multi-platform games, and exclusive games sound great as well on both systems. I definitely don't hear any differences w.r.t. smoother transitions when comparing multiplatform games, which when you think about it is a rather absurd observation since that's algorithmic more than it's a hardware difference and I'm sure most games use the same algorithms across both platforms.

In addition, even though this isn't worth much, I haven't found a single HeadToHead on IGN where the Sound section on a PS3 version got higher marks.

It all depends on you system, my speakers alone cost ~£11,000 and my speakers have such clarity that its easy to tell a bad sound mix. Its the same when i watch a DVD aswel, i can hear the difference between a poor DD5.1 mix and a very very good one.

And transistions are more to do with your audio amp/revceiver :smile: