DTS Connect / Dolby Digital live still a thing/needed?

[Gimpymoo]

Waay back when, I recall to get 5.1 working through digital connections required certain support from your soundcard/active speakers.

Is this still the case?

For example, if running HDMI from AMD GPU to AV receiver, do games work in 5.1 as in theory, no compression is needed, right?

Thanks

 

[Radox-0]

Yes you can get 5.1 / 7.1 etc all fine via HDMI.

On Nvidia stuff (not tried AMD recently) but ATMOS also works fine.

Use AV receivers in my setups and get it all fine. Not used AMD recently as mentioned, most recent card being R9 Nano which I got rid of and did not try on my ATMOS setup, but it did 5.1/7.1 etc all fine like Nvidia card did.

 

[Marsman]

If using HDMI then DTS Connect and Dolby Digital Live are not needed. They were only for compressing 5.1 in real time so it can be sent via SPDIF, which was too limited in bandwidth for anything more than stereo uncompressed.

Creative dropped those from their sound cards, likely because the majority use HDMI instead. I'd imagine they'd have to pay royalties for something that not many would use these days. There are some people who are annoyed about that though; perhaps those who want to use an Astro Mixamp, which relies on Dolby Digital signal, for example.

HDMI has got far greater bandwidth, so multi channel without compression is not a problem.

 

[EsaT]

Creative dropped those from their sound cards, likely because the majority use HDMI instead. I'd imagine they'd have to pay royalties for something that not many would use these days. There are some people who are annoyed about that though; perhaps those who want to use an Astro Mixamp, which relies on Dolby Digital signal, for example.

Standard AC3/DD5.1 patents have expired and anyone can do encoder without paying anything.
https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/02/10/dolby-digital-ac3-us-patent-has-expired-on-february-1-2017/

Though opticals usage is starting to get lower with that outdated standard limiting number of channels etc.
Hence many newer sound cards with optical output support only stereo PCM, including SBX G6.
Though Sound Blaster X3 again includes Dolby Digital Live.
Just don't see why anyone would buy it with that price for using optical output.
(and even less why anyone would use Astro's Dolby Headphone instead of Creative's HRTF)

 

[andrewOC]

im in the position with TV gaming where HDMI to TV i can get 4k@120hz HDR (qled q85r)
but sound is 2.0, as windows sees the tv as a 2 speaker system. so just sends lcpm 2.0 to it.

thru my denon 1600 amp i can get dolby in games / apps, but im limited to 4k@60 on that.

so i use the 1st option, and use dolby live / digital...this goes to TV as compressed dolby, then to AVR, and i get proper surround in games with 4k@120hz HDR.
BUT, there is 100ms delay lately.
been trying for ages to fix it. it may have been there all along who knows.

so yes its still a think as far as im concerned, unless there is an amp that will pass 4k@120 HDR, OR i run 2 hdmi cables, 1 for tv, 1 for sound..which i cannot do.

console gamrs dont have this issue too.

this is all grom an nvidi HDMI port.

 

[Uriel]

Soundblaster Z still has DDL / DTS Connect if anyone needs it.

 

[james.miller]

so i use the 1st option, and use dolby live / digital...this goes to TV as compressed dolby, then to AVR, and i get proper surround in games with 4k@120hz HDR.
BUT, there is 100ms delay lately.

That's the reality of using encoded audio. You are compressing it on the fly then the amp is decompressing it - this takes times. You can try to minimise it by playing with the sampling rate in windows - you'll find the latency is lowest at one of the rates, usually 44.1 or 96khz - but you won't get rid of it.

so yes its still a think as far as im concerned, unless there is an amp that will pass 4k@120 HDR, OR i run 2 hdmi cables, 1 for tv, 1 for sound..which i cannot do.

Why not?

 

[Gimpymoo]

Why not?

If I understand correctly, extracting HDMI audio on a PC and using HDMI video too is not a straightforward process, needs extra equipment.

 

[james.miller]

Depends. If you dont mind running an extra screen then all it needs is two cables from the gpu.

 

[Gimpymoo]

but sound is 2.0, as windows sees the tv as a 2 speaker system. so just sends lcpm 2.0 to it.

Something odd though as my much more basic LG is recognised as an 8 channel audio device. This is through AMD though.

When it does get messy is when you want to run say 21:9 through your AV setup.

PC Gaming/Home Theatre are two different worlds and still have many obstacles to overcome but I think are very niché and not on the manufacturers radar.

Same problems will happen with the new gen consoles too but hopefully will become more mainstream that people take note and push for a solution.

Do we have enough bandwidth to "bitstream" video for example so the AV amp could get the audio then pass the video data to the display?