Difference between bitstream vs pcm/lpcm?

Question

don't really understand the difference between the 2 formats.

is it pointless to have sound set to pcm/lpcm if my bluray player is hooked up to my stereo receiver via optical cable and not hdmi? i keep reading conflicting things on this subject. any clarification would help.

Answer 1

Bitstream is compressed multi-channel audio, like Dolby Digital or DTS

PCM/LPCM is uncompressed audio - stereo.

Optical will work just fine for either PCM, DD or DTS.

You need HDMI only for HD DTS or HD Dolby (but you need an appropriate receiver as well)

Answer 2

If you are listening to the sound in stereo then you won't notice any difference.