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.