I am new to the audio formats game, so sorry for the newb question. I just bought a vizio 36" 5.1 soundbar system. I was watching a movie last night that had a “DTS 5.1” track. Noticed it was transcoding on the server because it was DTS HD MA, however it did not tell me what too. It sounded like it was something that supported 6 channels, but I was just wondering, what is the default format it would try to transcode that too (or any file for that matter)? My soundbar lit up like it was dolby digital 5.1 and it sounded like all 6 channels were working.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Are you sure it transcoded the audio? Does your soundbar support “standard” DTS?
The cool thing about DTS compared to Dolby is, that every DTS track always contains a DTS core track. This means, that even if your soundbar only supports DTS and not DTS HD MA, it can direct play DTS HD MA as standard DTS, since this is also present in the audio track.
This thread might be relevant:
yes, I pulled up the dashboard and it said audio was transcoding. And per the specs page (SB3651-E6), my soundbar does support standard DTS.
Cool info, did not know that, dont know why it was transcoding then.
thanks for the info. and per that post since the tv (vizio PQ65-F1) doesn’t have Earc (nor does the soundbar support it), the DTS HD MA is being transcoded down, but my questions is to what? from the looks of it (the white light on my soundbar) it seems to be dolby digital 5.1. Will test with the tautulli plugin tonight, but I would think it should go to DTS 5.1 (led light should be amber, per manual), not dolby.
(I think) it is probably converting it to Dolby Digital Plus , also known as Enhanced AC-3
Tautulli should tell you. an example from mine:
the soundbar doesnt support that though…
The manual (https://cdn.vizio.com/misc/QuickStartGuides/kb/sb3651e6qsg.pdf) has this:
When a Dolby
Digital Plus or DTS
signal is detected.
Dolby Digital and DTS are available on the Coaxial In, HDMI ARC, HDMI In, and
Digital Optical Audio In inputs. Dolby Digital Plus is only available on HDMI
In input. When a Dolby Digital or DTS signal is detected, the Dolby Digital Plus
(White) / DTS (Amber) indicator LED will light up for 5 seconds before fading away
how is it connected, HDMI?
Ahh. Nice doesnt list DD+ on their support page. I have it connected via HDMI ARC.
I just installed tautulli (remotely), will test on a movie tonight.
Thanks for the help!
Your welcome.
Yep, the only place I could find it mentioned was in that quick start guide 
Looks like it was transcoding it to dolby digital. Which is weird, because the sound bar supports DTS and also dolby digital plus, so you would think it would be one of those.
Image:
I also tried another movie that had Dolby TrueHD…it also only converted to Dolby digital, and not dolby digital plus
Would be nice in a future update to be able to set a default audio selection for a user.
For the second one you have selected the (Dolby) TrueHD audio track which is obviously not supported by your soundbar, but also neither ARC nor optical support this codec. So there is no DTS issue here, simply because you selected a non-supported codec.
Where the DCA 5.1 comes from I don’t know, but this isn’t DTS either.
correct, i was just seeing what dolby true hd would go down to. You would think it would be downsampled to the next highest quality codec the soundbar supports, which would be dolby digital plus, not standard dolby digital.
As for DCA 5.1, I am guessing that is the alternate name of DTS HD MA? My remote pc connection is down right now, when it gets back up I will update it with a screenshot of the audio codec info.
AAC is not Dolby, it’s AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).
Dolby is AC3 or E-AC3.
DAC, according to Wiki, is the actual name for the codec (DTS Coherent Acoustics): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTS_(sound_system)#DTS_audio_codec
Just to give my experience, I tested DTS-HD MA on a non DTS-HD MA (but DTS compatible) system and I was never able to get it to take just the core without transcoding. That was just my experience though and I am fine with including a separate DTS core track. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
-Shark2k
DTS core in DTS HD MA works for me using:
- Shield HDMI connected to Sony TV
- AVR connected to TV via optical.
Might be that the playback devices has to support the respective codec, but I am not sure about that (the Shield supports it).
Cool. thanks for the info. I am not sure it is DTS-HD MA now, per the info i pulled up from plex:
Also, if the soundbar supports DTS, shouldnt DCA direct play?
Probably the playback device needs to support it too to recognise and passthrough the respective track correctly, but I am not sure about that. But the linked thread by blim5001 in the second reply also covers this topic I suppose.
My DTS HD MA tracks from Bluray also show as DCA btw (as do all DTS tracks).
I also use the Shield but mine is connected directly to my AVR (which does support DTS and DTS-HD MA).
My AVR is connected to the TV, so all it does is display the picture to the TV.
All my components go through the AVR, none go directly to the TV.
Thanks for confirming though. Like I said, for me, I gave up and just include the core track also.
-Shark2k
It’s DTS-HD MA. In the screenshot you included the profile wouldn’t say ‘ma’ if it was just the core DTS track (or one of the other types).
-Shark2k
Ok, cool, Thank for all your help! I have the soundbar directly connected through arc to my vizio, which supposedly supports DTS passthrough, per their support person. Wonder why it doesnt direct play, or transcode to the core DTS track and chooses ACC instead?
