I’ve just begun upgrading my sound system at home and plumped for Sonos. Anyway, after buying the Soundbar I discovered that Sonos doesn’t support DTS; which is disappointing.
Although I did a fair bit of research before choosing, I’d never heard about this issue until after I’d committed because I just assumed that one of the biggest names in audio would support one of the most widely used encoding technologies. I mean, it’s bloody annoying, and frankly stupid, but there’s enough people complaining about it. I’m not overly convinced they’ll listen to all of the complaints, which leads me to my question:
Is there any way of “Optimising”/converting the audio tracks on films/TV series in a similar manner to how we can change the resolution? I have loads in different formats and I’m going to be getting a 7.1 system eventually, so I want to try and convert the files to Dolby TrueHD. Can Plex do this? If not, does anyone know of any method/tools to do this with?
Also, as a follow-up question, what will happen if I play 7.1 out of a 5.1 system? Will it just play 5.1? I ask this as I’ll likely get a 5.1 before buying another 2 speakers.
I’m pretty sure I know that the answer to the follow-up is that it will just combine the additional side-channels into two that are there just creating 5.1.
If that’s the case, then that’s a bit of a cheap out! They make so much money off people and loads of users have been crying out for DTS support for ages.
My files are generally in all sorts of formats! I have loads in DTS 5.1 and 7.1 (was never an issue before), some in FLAC 5.1, some in DD5.1 and DTHD 7.1, even Atmos. Some even have multiple tracks already assigned.
Thanks for the recommendation on Handbreak, that’s precisely what I was looking for. Any others you’d recommend?
Would that effectively mean doubling the size of my media files? What is the alternative? Replace?
I mainly use the built-in apps on my smart TVs for a number of reasons - convenience being the main one. However other Sonos users have spoken of issues issues surrounding DD5.1 passthrough. It’s not the optical side that’s the issue with most TVs as most of them. Support that. What the issue is, is taking a source via HDMI producing 5.1 and then pushing that through the optical. Sonos have been specifically designed for streaming apps like Netflix, so work flawlessly with them, but lack support for other inputs. Frustrating as hell, but that’s what Sonos’ model is built on and if I can get 5.1, that’s good enough for me! Because of the optical cable, Sonos only supports DD5.1 at most.
The other option, if the app won’t support 5.1 streaming, is to buy an optical switch and connect, say, my PS4 and TV to the Playbar via that, allowing me to switch between them.
OK, I’ll have to see how that works. The Plex app should know that optical only supports up to 5.1, it’s the DD/DTS bit it won’t understand. In this instance, Plex may just transcode the 7.1/Atmos to 5.1. Fingers crossed.
