Hi can anyone tell me if this has Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD and how many watts?

YAMAHA YHT196
http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/aud..._g/?mode=model

It won't decode HD audio itself but will accept LPCM from a BD player, it will then output it as multichannel PCM - so yes, it will do TrueHD and DTS HD.

Power rating - 100watts one channel driven.

As it only mentions DTS in the specs it looks like it supports neither of those.

It is confusing since it mentions HD audio. But it does not anywhere say Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD. So no it does not support those formats. If you look at their stand alone AV amps the lowest maodel in the range to support those formats is the RX-V471

http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/aud...product_lineup

As for the power output. Again it is one of those works of fiction like a surprisingly large number of manufacturers. It mentions 100W one channel driven. What it fails to mention is what it can do with all 5 channels driven at the same time. Which is likely to be rather less.

As it also fails to mention the power consumption in use it is not even possible to guesstimate. But reckon on it only doing 30W per channel all going, ie 150W plus the sub rather than 500W plus sub that the raw specs might suggest.

Click on 'features' and it states.......

.....The YHT-196 can accept HD Audio signals (linear PCM via HDMI transmission) from Blu-ray Disc players for enjoying maximum sound quality.

It also says 'HD Audio compatibility' in the Overview.

Though it can't decode the formats itself it can accept them, it then outputs them via HDMI as multichannel LPCM.

Whether the signals are Bitstream or LPCM it's still HD audio (TrueHD and DTS HD).


The RX-V471 is the lowest model in the range that decodes HD audio signals itself.

That is not what I would define as supporting a format if it can only do so if said format is decoded by something else.

It supports the format by carrying multichannel LPCM over HDMI - in the same respect a receiver with only multichannel analogue inputs supports DD5.1.

If the OP connects a Bluray to it they can enjoy HD audio.

I use a PS3 and a Denon 3806, the PS3 can't do Bitstream and my Denon has no HD audio decoders, it's all done by LPCM, so from your point of view nether support HD audio, but I do get HD audio.

If the PS 3 is decoding DD True HD or DTS HD to LPCM then it does support the format. The Denon doesn't because it cannot by itself decode the format.

Being able to input a signal derived from a particular format is not in my book supporting that format. After all you could decode bog standard DD or DTS and convert to the same LPCM format as the HD versions. The amp wouldn't know the difference would it?

I have a different viewpoint, not support, but compatibility - so regardless of what does the decoding the format required is output, to me that's all that matters.

In regards to the OP, if they want to listen to HD audio the Yamaha model they linked to will do just that, which is the answer they were looking/hoping for I guess.

The Achilles heel with LPCM inputting like this is that the amps don't add channel delay to the signal. So any speaker distance settings and lip sync setting on the amp are useless. It's the decoding player that has to do this before the signal gets to the amp. Okay, you've got compatibility and saved £30 quid, but IMO it's too much of a sacrifice to lose the channel delay function in the amp.

I have never heard of this before so did a search but could not find any reference to what you have explained.

All I know is it makes little difference to where you unpack the data, what you hear at the end ends up as PCM. To my ears there's no difference between Bitstream and PCM, I think this is the general consensus - if speaker delays were being dismissed by the amp on multichannel PCM, I'm pretty sure this would show up on some setups in some way.

There are amps that won't allow you to add extra processing like Game/Movie/DPLIIx etc when in multichannel mode, but I have never heard of an amp disregarding the speaker levels and audio delay settings.

I have heard amps blanking out speaker levels and delays but only when multichannel analogue inputs are used for SACD, never on multichannel PCM over HDMI.

I would be interested in knowing more if you have any reference to this. I know speaker delay is very important, it's the difference in a good soundfield or one that ends up sounding like a church hall.