Consumers with the Xbox 360 game console and the HD DVD player add-on who bought the recently released Nine Inch Nails: Beside You In Time concert disc were surprised with the poor quality and performance of the audio caused by a bug in Microsoft’s decoding software.
The NIN disc features a Dolby TrueHD lossless audio track, which promises excellent aural quality for those with the appropriate surround setup. The Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on is incapable of outputting a TrueHD signal, but instead it down samples the lossless stream into a lossy 640kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.
Microsoft plans on shipping an update to the Xbox 360 HD DVD player in early to mid spring. In this update, Microsoft will be adding DTS output, improved Audio, and improved title compatibility.
