Are Dolby/DTS "cross setups" common?

[tripletopper]

First of all let's say I do not have a traditional set surround sound machine. I use my Xbox One and the Dolby Atmos headphone app and the dtsx headphone app and put on my headphones to get surround sound through my headphones.

I don't know what most other people do but I assume that most equipment is either DTS or Dolby and usually doesn't have both converters in it.

Is it correct to assume that you want Dolby converters with Dolby encoded discs and DTS decoders with DTS encoded discs?

If that's the case then why does Xbox not have a selection called best match or automatic where if the movie is in Dolby it turns on Dolby Atmos headphone app and if the movie is in DTS it turns on DTS X headphone app?

People both Dolby Labs and the company that owns DTS both say their headphones surround sound apps work best with movies encoded with that language and they would even go so far as to say that they would actually recommend for the best sound overall to keep likes with likes as opposed to 100% using their own product.

As I said I'm not in the traditional world of consuming audio video. I'm off at my own world with the Xbox surround apps for Blu-rays. I have no idea what's going on but does what I say seen to make sense?

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by tripletopper

First of all let's say I do not have a traditional set surround sound machine. I use my Xbox One and the Dolby Atmos headphone app and the dtsx headphone app and put on my headphones to get surround sound through my headphones.

I don't know what most other people do but I assume that most equipment is either DTS or Dolby and usually doesn't have both converters in it.

Is it correct to assume that you want Dolby converters with Dolby encoded discs and DTS decoders with DTS encoded discs?

If that's the case then why does Xbox not have a selection called best match or automatic where if the movie is in Dolby it turns on Dolby Atmos headphone app and if the movie is in DTS it turns on DTS X headphone app?

People both Dolby Labs and the company that owns DTS both say their headphones surround sound apps work best with movies encoded with that language and they would even go so far as to say that they would actually recommend for the best sound overall to keep likes with likes as opposed to 100% using their own product.

As I said I'm not in the traditional world of consuming audio video. I'm off at my own world with the Xbox surround apps for Blu-rays. I have no idea what's going on but does what I say seen to make sense?

It's actually quite simple really. A home A/V receiver or even a TV in that matter has onboard audio decoders that were licensed through either Dolby or DTS. When playing a movie through either a TV, receiver, or some other audio source, the onboard decoders will detect what audio codec/file that is selected and it interprets it and outputs that audio selection through the speaker system/setup.

So for example, if you play a movie that contains a Dolby Atmos audio track and your player (in your case the Xbox) is connected to a receiver, that receiver will interpret the audio the best that it can and send it out via the home theater speakers. If you have an Atmos setup, then the receiver will send it out through that. But say you just have a regular 5.1 or 7.1 setup, the receiver will then output a Dolby TruHD 7.1 signal through the speakers since there are no overhead speakers. The Dolby TruHD track is part of the core of the Atmos track.

As for the settings on your Xbox, what you are doing right now is the only way you can experience either Dolby Audio or DTS Audio through your headphones. Now if you get a receiver or soundbar down the road, you will need to select "Audio Pass Through" on your Xbox to allow the receiver or soundbar to interpret the audio. That way if the movie you're watching is in DTS, it will play it in DTS. If it's in Dolby, it will play it in Dolby.

But that's really how it works. Most newer audio sources, like receivers, can interpret both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X without issue. There are some soundbars and even TVs that cannot interpret both, which creates issues when trying to watch your favorite movies. I just upgraded to an Onkyo 7.2 receiver and absolutely love it! It takes time to invest in a true surround sound setup. But once you experience true surround sound, you will never want to go back to headphones or soundbars!!

[tripletopper]

I'm not sure if you catch the drift of what I'm trying to say. What you're saying is most decoder boxes can do both Dolby and DTS. (And lpcm I presume.). My Xbox One can do Dolby Headphobe, DTS headphone and windows Sonic headphone. However I noticed a sharp decline in quality when I try to say play a DTS encoded Blu-ray with the Dolby Atmos headphone player. The opposite is also true too.

My main question is if Dolby sounds best with Dolby and if DTS sounds best with DTS and if lpcm sounds best with Windows Windows Sonic then why doesn't Xbox have an automatic "best match" feature? Because if these headphones decoders don't sound good then don't be in DTS don't sound good especially if you mix formats and it doesn't make Xbox sound good either if it cannot automate automatically adjust to the best format.

My main question is some people may have dull the only or DTS only equipment and may have certain movies that suffer. If I bought the Dolby license and the DTS license, which i did for both, what reason would anyone want to mix languages intentionally? Why would someone always want Dolby even though certain movies are DTS or vice versa. If both companies say keep everything within the families, in other words don't be at most headphones doesn't even bother playing nice with dtsx nor does dtsx headphone play nice with anything Dolby, both of them on the opposite language just feel like a foreigner in a strange land, then why isn't that a default option on the Xbox One?

Why do I have to look on the package and see what format my disc was recorded in and look at the back just to find what to set my Xbox to?

Is there any reason why anyone would intentionally want to mix surround languages? I want to see if there's an actual stereophonic audio file reason why you want to mix languages and why that's desirable. I severely doubt there is one.

[oddbox83]

You're confusing what part the player and the decoding device play. If the player, be it an XBox or whatever, is sending out bitstream then it's up to the receiving device - a AVR receiver or your headphones - to do the decoding.

As a way of being backwards compatible, Blu-ray players (unlike DVD) are supposed to have internal decoding if required for DTS - but tends to be just stereo for several reasons, which is why you get limited to stereo when you play a DTS disc on equipment that doesn't support DTS. If the player does decode in full surround, you can get 5.1 over LPCM if you use HDMI, and this is a way several years ago I used to get lossless audio on a legacy receiver which had no lossless decoding but did have HDMI input. Now even if the player did support full 5.1 decoding of DTS, that'd be no good for your headphones since it's just too big to send to them anyway plus even if it did, when the player converts you tend to strip away metadata, so no Atmos or DTS:X.

Now most can be ignorant, as those with stereo setups can be blissfully unaware. Those with AVR receivers are fine too, and all now tend to do both - you don't have to switch apps or any such faff, it just auto detects and plays. You can switch between Dolby and DTS tracks on the same disc and not even know it. The issue, as you've found, is when you want multi-channel audio experience on something like a soundbar or headphones that don't have DTS built in.

There's also one more thing - the Xbox really isn't a great dedicated disc player anyway, it's known for having a few bugs.

[tripletopper]

As apps called Dolby Atmos headphone app and DTSX headphone app. Dolby Atmos headphone app takes any Dolby movie presumably and Adobe movie but definitely Dolby Atmos and converts it to Dolby headphone where it sounds like surround sound in your own headphones. Directions based on the sound from two years alone just like how a human hears. Dtsx headphone amp is a similar app but with DTS instead of Dolby.

Finally there's one called Windows Sonic which works best with lpcm.

Take normal discreet 7.1 and converted to two channel optimized for headphone playback where if you're staring directly at the screen the sounds are directionally accurate.

None of my rooms are either symmetric enough or big enough to house a true discrete surround sound system so therefore headphones is our only option.

I was just wondering how people on the other side of the fence deal with the issues of alternating between Dolby media DTS media and lpcm media. I never got a straight answer from that but I told him it doesn't apply to my Xbox because my Xbox has Direct headphone adapter adapter apps.

I'm just wondering if anyone uses these headphone apps if there's any benefits to using DTS movies with the Dolby app or vice versa. Because if there isn't then this is a big oversight on xbox's parts to not automatically switch the media between Dolby DTS and lpcm and put in the proper headphone decoder based on the media playing.

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by tripletopper

As apps called Dolby Atmos headphone app and DTSX headphone app. Dolby Atmos headphone app takes any Dolby movie presumably and Adobe movie but definitely Dolby Atmos and converts it to Dolby headphone where it sounds like surround sound in your own headphones. Directions based on the sound from two years alone just like how a human hears. Dtsx headphone amp is a similar app but with DTS instead of Dolby.

Finally there's one called Windows Sonic which works best with lpcm.

Take normal discreet 7.1 and converted to two channel optimized for headphone playback where if you're staring directly at the screen the sounds are directionally accurate.

None of my rooms are either symmetric enough or big enough to house a true discrete surround sound system so therefore headphones is our only option.

I was just wondering how people on the other side of the fence deal with the issues of alternating between Dolby media DTS media and lpcm media. I never got a straight answer from that but I told him it doesn't apply to my Xbox because my Xbox has Direct headphone adapter adapter apps.

I'm just wondering if anyone uses these headphone apps if there's any benefits to using DTS movies with the Dolby app or vice versa. Because if there isn't then this is a big oversight on xbox's parts to not automatically switch the media between Dolby DTS and lpcm and put in the proper headphone decoder based on the media playing.

Their presence on your XB has more to do with these being the common commercially available formats, and from there it's up to you to decide which to use. While I normally prefer DTS formats for home theater, the few times I've dabbled with headphone surround for gaming - namely Dolby Headhpone and DTS Headphone:X - I preferred Dolby Headphone. I otherwise haven't tried Atmos headphone.

If you prefer one format vs the other, then I'd suggest just setting the output to LPCM and then choose your preferred encoder and leave it at that.

[KubrickKurasawa]

They're both "object" based headphone solutions.

[tripletopper]

Originally Posted by red_5ive

Their presence on your XB has more to do with these being the common commercially available formats, and from there it's up to you to decide which to use. While I normally prefer DTS formats for home theater, the few times I've dabbled with headphone surround for gaming - namely Dolby Headhpone and DTS Headphone:X - I preferred Dolby Headphone. I otherwise haven't tried Atmos headphone.

If you prefer one format vs the other, then I'd suggest just setting the output to LPCM and then choose your preferred encoder and leave it at that.

The funny thing is I prefer the hand and glove approach where I decode movie discs that are natively in some sort of Dolby format with Dolby Atmos headphones, movie discs that are natively in some DTS language with DTS headphone X, and movies that are natively lpcm with Windows Sonic.

Without an auto switcher you're either causing a heck of a lot of pain, or you're forcing people to pick one or the other.

I just want the true 3D sound to be convincing enough where I don't say "that doesn't sound right.". And both Dolby Labs and the company that owns DTS say they don't even try to decode the other guys language. They both say I'm doing the best thing if I'm using headphone surround and want to get the best sound out of all my movies.

Unfortunately the Xbox operating system doesn't facilitate that. It assumes you either always want Dolby always want DTS or always want Windows Sonic when you're in headphone mode instead of manually adjusting to match hand in glove what's being played in the audio track on the Xbox.

I noticed something else weird it can only seem to access one license at a time every time I move from Dolby to DTS I have to take an extra step of re-downloading and reconfirming the license. In the old days (like two or three years ago) I would have took about 30 seconds when I only had 1.6 MB inbound internet. Thankfully I'm up to 100 megabits today.

But that makes me realize that you have to be both a licensed Dolby and DTS app handler in order to do the auto switching well.

I never lived in the communal surround Universe except when visiting theaters, so I have no idea how most people do it. Are most home theaters either Dolby exclusive or DTS exclusive? I understand the decoders turn Dolby and DTS into lpcm 7.1, and distribute individual soundtracks to each speaker. And on the box they're balancing controls to make it sound like you're in the center of the universe even though you're not in the center of the room necessarily.

The headphone trick is it restricts the spacial universe to just in between your two ears.

Is this a case of "first world problems" when it comes to sound that most people consider it a luxury to have both Dolby and DTS to coding in the same equipment?

By the way it only cost $35 at regular price to have both the Dolby headphone decoder and the DTS headphone decoder and occasionally you could find half price sales on both at separate times.

[tripletopper]

The funny thing I noticed was that if the disc wasn't coded in Dolby then the Dolby Atmos app sounds best. If the disc was encoded in DTS then the DTS:X headphone app sounds best. Finally when listening to apocalypto which uses an lpcm native soundtrack Windows Sonic sounds best.

In other words those discs sound formats and headphone formats fit hand and glove and everything else feels awkward. Unfortunately XBox doesn't have an auto switch mode for its headphone formats. You have to read the back of the packaging and see what format is in and adjust the settings each and every single time you play a new disc.

Some games have Dolby soundtracks some games have DTS soundtracks some games have lpcm soundtracks and I can't figure out which one is which but the Xbox is smart enough to figure it out yet it's not allowed to do it.

I've never heard of anyone decoding Dolby with DTS or decoding DTS with Dolby. When I try to do that that always sounds flat and awful. But when the hand fits in glove, you always get awesome audio especially for the price of one $15 decoder app and one $20 decoder app and any headphone you can find that covers your whole ears and fits with a 3.5 mm adapter .

It's funny that people are so loyal to Dolby or DTS that they'll listen to the opposite format movie in their preferred headphone option, yet I'm the kook for saying if the Xbox could sense what type of soundtrack is coming in then shouldn't need to manually adjust the headphone output to whatever decoder best fits the situation.

[bludarkknight]

why i use real Dolby Stereo CP cinema processors i can pick any in the main audio cinema processor rack for type of movie presentation here in THX sound system