Do we have DTS/Dolby Surround yet?

WR3ND

WR3ND
Maybe better suited in a tech section or something, but just wondering in general.

Kind of ironic that I have a virtual DTS headphone surround option in the game settings when my optical out from the motherboard onto my receiver, and Windows 7 have native 5.1 DTS Surround support.

The console master sound race? :D
 
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WR3ND

WR3ND
Dash said:
Elite has supported multichannel audio since day one. I run it on a full surround sound setup on my PC just fine.
Click to expand...

To be fair, stereo is multichannel. How's it mixed? Not seeing much in the options and not hearing much difference. Channel isolation doesn't seem to be a thing? Might be missing something?

If you can't select it in the settings, it's falling short one way or the other. Either stereo is missing out on sound or surround is. And considering stereo is the norm...

Things like Pro Logic and 5.1 stereo are nice enough too (love it for my vinyl records and CDs with a custom mix), but they still aren't technically surround. It's great for up-converting to 5.1 for a nice soundscape using stereo, and with the way my setup is, you don't have to be so much in the sweet-spot – channels are a few feet up as well as being decently spaced.

So, does the game follow a similar up-conversion for, let's say, enhanced stereo, or does it have true surround?
 
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Dash

Dash
True stereo is multichannel, but not surround :)

The game,like most games out there seems to output positional audio to the sound driver. Which will then do whatever it is setup for distributing.

I use six channel analogue output from my PC, but I can also output a DD or DTS signal over optical, but I find that lags slightly (no idea if my computer or the decoder).

So, as above, it seems to work fine for me, have you tried checking to see if your OS or sound card supports it? It might be that DD from your onboard is only a pass through for things like DVD playback.
 

Dizzy B High

Dizzy B High
I just got a pair of HyperX Cloud Revolver S's, which is probably the most expensive pair of headphones i have ever bought!

I turn the surround on and it seems really tinny in game, I don't get as much bass i notice it most when boosting just before hyperspace, sounds so diffirent.
If i have surround sound turned on on my card then do i have to uncheck the surround checkbox in ed settings?
I'm pretty sure they are set up correctly as music sounds just fine, maybe i'm just used to crappy sound and that's the reason it sounds odd.
 

mant3z

mant3z
Not sure if it's possible but I was never ever able to see neither Dolby noir DTS on audio receiver when playing a game and PC - Receiver is connected by optical wire.
What is interesting that with some time spend on settings, beautiful red shining DD Dolby or DTS light pop up on receiver when watching movies with optical wire.
Whenever I switch to game, receiver shows only 2 channels.

ED has no problem with 5.1 if you connect it by analog wires. I play game using huge stereo system bu as I said, I can only enjoy 5.1 with analog way of connection PC and Receiver.
 

MoonRacer

MoonRacer
AFAIK a Dolby/DTS stream is just a stream in a special format which contains the tracks/sounds, for example 5.1 or 7.1. So a Dolby stream in a movie contains 6 tracks, DTS has 8 tracks usually
.
Games on the other hand have positional sound, generated by the game. So the game has sound for the various channels (left, center, right,...) generated from the games situation. It does not generate a Dolby or DTS stream, but sends these channels via Windows/DirectX to the sound card / sound chip. The game is able to probe if your speakers support stereo or 5.1, and generates positional audio depending on this information.

If you connect a loudspeaker/receiver system via optical link it would be necessary that your sound chip/card in the PC generates some kind of usable Dolby 5.1 signal. I don't think many chips/cards can do that. If you play a movie on the PC, the Dolby/DTS stream from the movie is routed directly to your receiver if you set it up correctly. But this stream already exists, it comes from the movie.

So - to have positional sound from a game IMO you need to connect your speaker system by 6 connections (analog) from the sound outputs your PC has. Then it works fine, it does on my system. I only use the simple sound chip on the MB, but it has 6 outputs and they are connected analog to my (Logitech) 5.1 speaker system. This works fine. My speaker system also supports DTS streams via optical, but I have to change the configuration for this, and then I have only stereo sound for games. Games do not generate Dolby or DTS streams.
 

B1rdy

B1rdy
WR3ND said:
Maybe better suited in a tech section or something, but just wondering in general.

Kind of ironic that I have a virtual DTS headphone surround option in the game settings when my optical out from the motherboard onto my receiver, and Windows 7 have native 5.1 DTS Surround support.

The console master sound race? :D
Click to expand...
I could be wrong, but I think the last consumer sound chip capable of that (if the game supported it), was nVidia's nForce 2 onboard sound chip.
 

WR3ND

WR3ND
I just select "DTS Interactive (5.1 Surround)" on on-board optical out properties and set it as the default device and it shows up as DTS connected on my receiver with the active 5.1 channels shown.

When testing "Supported Formats" both DTS and Dolby Digital work with the multi-channel surround chimes and the receiver switches between showing DTS and Dolby Digital connected accordingly. It seems to revert to Pro Logic momentarily before switching back to DTS as the default – when switching to a different default output device, such as HDMI to my TV, the receiver reverts to Pro Logic as well.

DTS is still there when I launch and play the game, so I guess it's working, but then it's still there when playing stereo MP3s with Windows Media Player too. Hmm...

Need some kind of control for a sound source. Maybe a navigation beacon or something to fly around would work?
 
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Para Handy

Para Handy
This is re Elite sound:

I was under the impression that E D doesn't provide a DTS output.

I use the discrete channel connectors from my mono to a Logitech Z906 and have really superb 5.1 sound.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
Here's the thing when it comes to Dolby... DTS, or Digital Theater Systems is more than just a recording method, it's an encoding and decoding method, owned and licensed by Dolby, and guess what? Dolby will make you bleed out of places blood should never come for licensing for DTS Encoding and Decoding.

https://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/licensing.html

It's one of the reasons it's not terribly common, especially among smaller studios (Less than EA or Microsoft sized).
 

mant3z

mant3z
MoonRacer said:
AFAIK a Dolby/DTS stream is just a stream in a special format which contains the tracks/sounds, for example 5.1 or 7.1. So a Dolby stream in a movie contains 6 tracks, DTS has 8 tracks usually
.
Games on the other hand have positional sound, generated by the game. So the game has sound for the various channels (left, center, right,...) generated from the games situation. It does not generate a Dolby or DTS stream, but sends these channels via Windows/DirectX to the sound card / sound chip. The game is able to probe if your speakers support stereo or 5.1, and generates positional audio depending on this information.

If you connect a loudspeaker/receiver system via optical link it would be necessary that your sound chip/card in the PC generates some kind of usable Dolby 5.1 signal. I don't think many chips/cards can do that. If you play a movie on the PC, the Dolby/DTS stream from the movie is routed directly to your receiver if you set it up correctly. But this stream already exists, it comes from the movie.

So - to have positional sound from a game IMO you need to connect your speaker system by 6 connections (analog) from the sound outputs your PC has. Then it works fine, it does on my system. I only use the simple sound chip on the MB, but it has 6 outputs and they are connected analog to my (Logitech) 5.1 speaker system. This works fine. My speaker system also supports DTS streams via optical, but I have to change the configuration for this, and then I have only stereo sound for games. Games do not generate Dolby or DTS streams.
Click to expand...

That's correct.
I've SoundBlaster Audigy and I remember that once a time I did something that every sound from PC was recognized as 5.1 but in general it was a bit messy on speakers.
For games analog way is better, recognition of sounds direction is more clear.
 

Stamford Rider

Stamford Rider
IndigoWyrd said:
Here's the thing when it comes to Dolby... DTS, or Digital Theater Systems is more than just a recording method, it's an encoding and decoding method, owned and licensed by Dolby, and guess what? Dolby will make you bleed out of places blood should never come for licensing for DTS Encoding and Decoding.

https://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/licensing.html

It's one of the reasons it's not terribly common, especially among smaller studios (Less than EA or Microsoft sized).
Click to expand...
Last I looked Dolby and DTS were competitors, and a brief google showed no evidence of a take-over; do you have any?
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
Just a random one, I have better results from USB sound card drivers for surround to headphones than I do with the in game option. Strangely I find the default stereo has more detailed audio to headphones, though that’s probably expected.

Multi channel game audio I always imagined was handled by directx given how it’s one with the sound control panel, though not certain just from observations.
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
What I thought was confusing was the introduction in E D of the DTS Headphone: X option.

That is supposed to produce binaural sound, however I didn't feel it managed to get the "spatial" feel of the audio though my Bose cans - I shall have to try it again some evening to see if it has improved.

... What I meant by confusing was - if F D have licenced the DTS Headphone: X encoding, can't they provide a DTS audio stream to our mobo toslink? Perhaps the optical output is only derived from the MOBO onboard sound chips and so that would not be possible? (I am not sure of the architecture as I retired from electronic engineering many moons ago.)
 
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WR3ND

WR3ND
Yeah, I'm not sure how these things talk to themselves internally on the software side of things. DVD surround works on my PC (Star Wars DVDs THX surround menu option for testing, for example) as does Windows Control Panel Sound surround chime testing for the various channels/speakers for the selected optical output for both DTS and Dolby Digital.
 

GTwannabe

GTwannabe
WR3ND said:
I just select "DTS Interactive (5.1 Surround)" on on-board optical out properties and set it as the default device and it shows up as DTS connected on my receiver with the active 5.1 channels shown.

When testing "Supported Formats" both DTS and Dolby Digital work with the multi-channel surround chimes and the receiver switches between showing DTS and Dolby Digital connected accordingly. It seems to revert to Pro Logic momentarily before switching back to DTS as the default – when switching to a different default output device, such as HDMI to my TV, the receiver reverts to Pro Logic as well.

DTS is still there when I launch and play the game, so I guess it's working, but then it's still there when playing stereo MP3s with Windows Media Player too. Hmm...

Need some kind of control for a sound source. Maybe a navigation beacon or something to fly around would work?
Click to expand...

DTS is just a transport format for multiple discrete audio channels; it doesn't expand stereo. Your music player needs some kind of matrixing plugin to expand 2-channel to 5.1. I use Matrix Mixer for Winamp.
 

WR3ND

WR3ND
GTwannabe said:
DTS is just a transport format for multiple discrete audio channels; it doesn't expand stereo. Your music player needs some kind of matrixing plugin to expand 2-channel to 5.1. I use Matrix Mixer for Winamp.
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to expand stereo. I can just do that on the receiver using Pro Logic or the 5.1 stereo option. I was hoping the game had surround support. But... I guess not?
 
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