News DTS Headphone:X support in 2.2.03

Yes it has almost turned my headphones into a VR headpiece!!! I was just sat for 20 minutes in the Services Screen in a starport listening to all the sounds floating around my head!
 
Will ED have, or already have, any way to output audio in 5.1? I have a home theater connected to the PC via optical cable.
 
Will ED have, or already have, any way to output audio in 5.1? I have a home theater connected to the PC via optical cable.

This was a huge problem I had for many years until I realized that most computers don't or can't send 5.1 over optical. I ended up purchasing a sound card for my old pc that allowed me to connect to the receiver via coaxial cable. On a newer build I'm using a sound card with all those 3.5mm jacks on the back which go into the Multi Channel Inputs on my reciever.

You can check to see if you PC is outputting surround sound if you right click your volume icon and select playback devices. Select the speakers you are using and click Configure. Select the correct number of channels...if you don't see any other options other than Stereo then the connection you are using doesn't support surround sound.

Long story short, Elite Dangerous has supported surround sound since release and it is likely your setup that prevents it from working.
 
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This was a huge problem I had for many years until I realized that most computers don't or can't send 5.1 over optical. I ended up purchasing a sound card for my old pc that allowed me to connect to the receiver via coaxial cable. On a newer build I'm using a sound card with all those 3.5mm jacks on the back which go into the Multi Channel Inputs on my reciever.

You can check to see if you PC is outputting surround sound if you right click your volume icon and select playback devices. Select the speakers you are using and click Configure. Select the correct number of channels...if you don't see any other options other than Stereo then the connection you are using doesn't support surround sound.

Long story short, Elite Dangerous has supported surround sound since release and it is likely your setup that prevents it from working.

Thanks for the reply, in fact I connected the PC with the 3D TV via HDMI, and the TV to the Home theater via optical. It works perfect with films, netflix, etc in 5.1 using the PC as source. But the sound in ED is always stereo and surround, but not 5.1
 
Thanks for the reply, in fact I connected the PC with the 3D TV via HDMI, and the TV to the Home theater via optical. It works perfect with films, netflix, etc in 5.1 using the PC as source. But the sound in ED is always stereo and surround, but not 5.1

Yup. I tried that too. What I found particularly interesting was that the optical cable coming out of the PC would support 5.1, but only for one application, Windows Media Center. I couldn't ever figure it out, which is why I ended up resorting to other solutions. Surround sound will work in ED but the only way I got it to work consistently was to get a sound card and hook up to the receiver (in addition to HDMI to the TV) through the three 3.5mm jacks.

At some point I'll get a new receiver that takes HDMI which I hope will be a simpler solution with fewer cables strewn about.
 
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Yup. I tried that too. What I found particularly interesting was that the optical cable coming out of the PC would support 5.1, but only for one application, Windows Media Center.
That port is not an audio interface, but a digital interface that happens to support stereo PCM audio up to about "DVD quality" as one of its functions. If you want it to transport anything beyond that, you need to encode it yourself and push it through that port in "passthrough" mode. One of the better known encodings happens to be a DTS format that does some (lossy) compression to squeeze multi-channel audio in there, but that format is license encrusted to hell and back.

So effectively you can use the port to output audio that you already have in an appropriate formate, e.g., special audio tracks on DVD or BD, or from an application that has a licensed (or illegal) encoder.

(edit) And while I'm at it, I might as well keep on ranting. I don't really understand why everything still insists on using the optical interface instead of coaxial. The consumer version of the optical variant requires rather expensive hardware and non-ubiquitous cables and is severely limited compared to the coaxial interface that supports way higher signal rates at a way lower price. The only remotely valid argument for it is electrical isolation, but even that can be realised below the cost of a single TOSlink transmitter.
 
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My headset is a Logitech G933 and I think I cannot set Windows to Stereo in my Sound settings. Just 7.1 is available.

I have DTS headphone:X enabled in the G933, though. Enabling DTS in game doesn't make any difference, sigh..

I guess it works just for stereo hp
 
My headset is a Logitech G933 and I think I cannot set Windows to Stereo in my Sound settings. Just 7.1 is available.

I have DTS headphone:X enabled in the G933, though. Enabling DTS in game doesn't make any difference, sigh..

I guess it works just for stereo hp

From the Logitech web site:
http://gaming.logitech.com/en-gb/pr...B9DRUhoaIOdTCQlWR1_O9xtxGb2oj9uwRQBoCI7Lw_wcB

Experience incredible 7.1 surround sound with Dolby® or DTS Headphone:X Surround Sound

It also says for 7.1 you need the Logitech Gaming software but I'm guessing you have that.


What I'm interesting in knowing is whether enabling Headphone:X makes any difference with the Rift, which uses Spatial Stereo. I definiteley get positional audio with it enabled but whether it's more pronounced than it was without it is hard to judge.
 
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What I'm interesting in knowing is whether enabling Headphone:X makes any difference with the Rift, which uses Spatial Stereo. I definiteley get positional audio with it enabled but whether it's more pronounced than it was without it is hard to judge.

FWIW, with the Vive, it improves positioning a lot (which was there already before DTS H:X). I don't know whether Elite uses the Oculus runtime's own audio libraries with the Rift though. If it does already, it may be a case of 6 and two threes.
 
Wow, I had not spotted this -I just assumed it was special headphones or audio-hardware. I shall test when I get the time.
 
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I had to turn the music off. The spatial awareness of the sound effects clashes with the continuos sound of the music. It made me queasy. How odd.
 
I had to turn the music off. The spatial awareness of the sound effects clashes with the continuos sound of the music. It made me queasy. How odd.

They should add virtual speakers, they don't need to be visible, but just maintaining that fixed sound source for everything, even music during head movement would increase immersion.
 
Sorry to sound dim.

But I am not sure I can tell the difference.

I have the Hyper X Cloud 2 which has its own software 7.1 and that is night and day different. If I unplug the headphones from its USB (making them standard headphones) and put them into the headphone socket I cant really hear any difference between DTS H:X on or off.

When I look at the device in the Sounds panel, with the headphones in, I can only see the speakers? These are active and the default. I have made sure they are set to Stereo.

Am I doing anything wrong?

Is there a location / method which I could use where I could test the surround? Somewhere where surround is obvious?

Thanks!
 
I had to turn the music off. The spatial awareness of the sound effects clashes with the continuos sound of the music. It made me queasy. How odd.

I never have music in my games as I like full audio situation awareness. I might allow music if there`s a reall reason for it like there`s a radio nearby - which I usually switch off in combat situations anyway (Fall Out series).

p.s the sound effects do sound really good in my headphones now, can really hear everything around me. I mean it was ok before, but you can just hear extra now. :)
 
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Hm, it seems 2 me, that I found the cause of problem in ZxR and Sharkoon XTatic Digital. Another time was trying after new driver - nothing, but all the speakers are OK in the tests with the same level. But in game it sounds like stereo. And I understood, that first speaker is emulated by two side speakers and front sound is generally louder. Made back speakers level up - here is it!
 
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