No DD 5.1 support with X1 optical port?

Seems like I'll be getting Astro's in 2014. My X11's will hold me til then. Funny because I am an audio engineer, but this talk of DD and DTS has me like :txbconfused:
 
Zer0beaT said:
Yeah I had a look at the back of your "receiver" and the only way you will get HD audio is by playing a BluRay disc in your actual LG player/receiver.

It's really limited to be honest with you. You can only plug one other thing into the back by way of the optical and you cannot do DTS HD or Dolby True HD over optical. At best you can have DTS and DD from one other device plugged into the optical in.

Honestly you'd be better off to get a low end receiver from Yamaha/Denon/Pioneer/Sony even etc. at $299 price point and piece together the speakers by going used off craigslist, getting old speakers off family/friends etc. you can even not bother with a subwoofer and go 5.0 but having options to input other devices is pretty important. You basically have a BluRay player that has internal amplification.....oh well.
Click to expand...


Yea I knew piecing together a system would be a lot better but I simply could not afford to go that route. Aslong as I can get real 5.1 surround sound from my ps4/xb1 I'm okay with it. DTS/DD is good enough for me honestly. It sucks it only has 1 optical port but I bought a switch with a remote for that reason.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ViewHD-SPDI...x1-Switcher-with-Remote-Control-/271301849776
Seems pretty good.
 
Last edited:
In reality, it doesn't surprise me about the omission of DD 5.1 Its an old technology and DTS 5.1 has a sampling rate that is almost double. But even that is getting old and dated. I would imagine you will start seeing games using the DTS-HD and TrueHD here in the near future, if not already. I remember when there use to be a bunch of optical plugs on the back of receivers, now you only get maybe a couple. Everything else is HDMI.

With that also said, dont be surprised if you see a patch for this in the near future. I also have to agree with the previous post.. I believe most headphones only use 2 speakers anyway which are then matrixed (simulated) into surround.
 
It's coming.

Microsoft's Albert Penello has taken to addressed the absence of Dolby Digital output via optical cable at launch.

"Dolby Digital is coming post launch," he writes. "This was a SW scheduling issue pure and simple, and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it. Anyone with an HDMI receiver should be fine, as we pass the uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 through HDMI as well as DTS. Even if you have a Dolby only HDMI receiver (which I'm not sure exists), you will still get 5.1 or 7.1 sound since those receivers should accept uncompressed surround. For the Dolby only headsets, my understanding is that these will work but you will only get stereo audio since we only pass Stereo and DTS through the optical port. I have not tested this myself, but I'm told it works. Regardless, I understand this is an inconvenience, but again we're going to have Dolby coming."​
 
  • Like
Reactions: TeKPhaN, Grimmy and TheGeneral
Very good to hear from Pennello.

I emailed Astro about it and this is their response:

ASTRO Gaming still provides a Dolby ® Headphone 7.1 experience on the Xbox One – even from a stereo input.
Microsoft’s decision to drop Dolby ® encoding on their SPDIF output at launch does have ramifications for ASTRO’s products. While our products do not process DTS signals, we do have on-board Dolby ® encoding in both our A50 Wireless Transmitter as well as our Wired MixAmpTM Pro. An Xbox One gamer will need to select Stereo output for game audio, but our MixAmps will process that stereo signal with Dolby ProLogic II and encode it with Dolby ® Headphone – *the* gold standard for simulated 7.1 Surround Sound for gaming headphones. So have no fear gamers, your ASTRO’s will still provide a Dolby ® Digital Surround experience no matter what your console choice.
You can read more about Dolby Headphone here (http://www.dolby.com/us/en/consumer/technology/home-theater/dolby-headphone.html)
Regards
Adam Moultrie
Astro Gaming
Customer Relations
http://www.astrogaming.co.uk
Click to expand...
 
Plainview said:
It's coming.

Microsoft's Albert Penello has taken to addressed the absence of Dolby Digital output via optical cable at launch.

"Dolby Digital is coming post launch," he writes. "This was a SW scheduling issue pure and simple, and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it. Anyone with an HDMI receiver should be fine, as we pass the uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 through HDMI as well as DTS. Even if you have a Dolby only HDMI receiver (which I'm not sure exists), you will still get 5.1 or 7.1 sound since those receivers should accept uncompressed surround. For the Dolby only headsets, my understanding is that these will work but you will only get stereo audio since we only pass Stereo and DTS through the optical port. I have not tested this myself, but I'm told it works. Regardless, I understand this is an inconvenience, but again we're going to have Dolby coming."​
Click to expand...
So this is a software thing? I figured the problem was lack of the necessary hardware.
 
Encouraging but when s it coming. Sound is very important to my gaming and I am still using DD 5.1 through Optical cable.
 
So just to get this straight....cause it's not 100% clear right now. Dolby Digital with optical doesn't work, but it DOES work with HDMI? And DTS with optical?
 
MosquitoSmasher said:
So just to get this straight....cause it's not 100% clear right now. Dolby Digital with optical doesn't work, but it DOES work with HDMI? And DTS with optical?
Click to expand...
LOL...pretty much

Optical
  • DTS
  • Stereo
HDMI
  • All expected formats
Everyone that has a system that has optical input that is DD only will get stereo until the update.
 
Tentonhammer said:
LOL...pretty much

Optical
  • DTS
  • Stereo
HDMI
  • All expected formats
Everyone that has a system that has optical input that is DD only will get stereo until the update.
Click to expand...

Well..not truly stereo, as Astro said. Their Mixamp upscales the sound to Pro Logic II i believe they said?

Either way. Because of this situation i decided to check out how my Astro A40's would sound on my Yamaha receiver that supports DTS and oh my....what a difference. A much more powerful bass than the Astro's Mixamp and sound in general more clear and crisp. The EQ setting on the Mixamp that is best for gaming has a rather weak bass compared to the bass i can set the Yamaha at.

I'll stick with this setup, and if i was to buy a X1 if it had released here this year, there would have been no problem for me.
 
Haggis said:
Encouraging but when s it coming. Sound is very important to my gaming and I am still using DD 5.1 through Optical cable.
Click to expand...
Does your receiver not do DTS decoding? All but maybe the first year digital receivers will accept and decode DTS, as well as DD.

Like some have stated, DTS>DD over optical. Both actually have multiple bitrate verieties, but not only does DTS top out higher, the compression itself sounds less lossy, even at the equivelant bitrate. This is subjective to the listener, but to my ears, it really is no contest. DTS is easily the best over optical.
 
To be clear, this is really a non-issue, except for anyone with either a 1st gen digital reveiver without DTS (rare) or someone with DD 5.1+ headphones (can still use stereo!). I was actually always wanting DTS on 360, since I have yet to have an HDMI receiver. I'm excited about DTS now and lossless later!

Don't get me started on how silly putting all those drivers in a headphone really is, when we have but 2 ears! Binaural mixing is much, much more realistic than DD headphones... and you only need stereo headphones to achieve the effect! I do believe that binaural mixing is really the way forward, especially when VR starts rolling out. I wish MS would have made devs put it in every game as a standard option, especially with their advanced audio chip in the X1.
 
Ok 1 more thing, lol:
If you have DD headphones, set to stereo over optical and check each game for audio options. A lot of the time, there is a "headphone" setting. That is the audio engineer's best try at binaural. It should sound pretty good with DD cans, at the very least. I'd honestly like to know which games have this option, if somebody with an X1 could report back...
 
So DTS is better than 5.1. Sorry I am a newbie to this stuff. Maybe I am mistaken but when I choose DTS I don't seem to get sound in my rear speakers only stereo sound. Front two plus center channel.
 
My turtle beaches are plugged in optical, sound works but its in stereo, this needs to get fixed

at least I have sound but they really should have let the mic work on the these with the xbox one
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back