DTS in Xbox 360 games

[Brad]

Hi,

I can't see an option for DTS support in my 360's menus, nor have I played any games that use it. Does the 360 support DTS in games? Google has failed to provide a definitive answer. I don't want to miss out if it's there. I've found DTS audio on the PS3 to be noticeably better than Dolby (that might just be the PS3's implementation, not trying to start and fan war here).

Cheers guys.

[sj33]

The 360 outputs everything as Dolby Digital, even if it's 2.0. The PS3 just has a different implementation, things being game dictated rather than a universal hardware setting. Thus, 2.0 can be output as PCM, and developers can implement DTS. I have no idea if developers can override the Dolby Digital in the 360, however.

While DTS is technically higher quality, most of the percieved difference is actually because Dolby Digital is generally ~4dB-8dB quieter.

[Brad]

Thanks for teh response Jake. I'm still none the wiser though

[Profit]

360 cannot generate a DTS bitstream. Dolby only.

[Brad]

Thanks. I can stop fretting now then ;-)

But it can put out a 7.1 bitstream for example? I'm upgrading my amp at the end of the year and looking forward to trying out DiRT (I believe that has 7.1 support?).

[sj33]

Dolby Digital EX is capable of 7.1. Whether the 360 version of the game supports this is another matter, however.

[NekoFever]

The 360 outputs everything as Dolby Digital, even if it's 2.0. The PS3 just has a different implementation, things being game dictated rather than a universal hardware setting. Thus, 2.0 can be output as PCM, and developers can implement DTS. I have no idea if developers can override the Dolby Digital in the 360, however.

I'm fairly sure that Rock Band 2 - can't speak for the first one because I don't own it - outputs 2.0 PCM by default on the 360. You can switch it to Dolby Digital 5.1, but as that can cause slight lag on some receivers, which is bad for a music game, it's not on automatically.

As for DTS, I'm pretty sure it's not possible. The 360's surround sound implementation is the same as the original Xbox's, which was created when real-time in-game DTS wasn't possible - that only became available in 2005 with DTS Connect, whereas real-time Dolby Digital has been around since the early 2000s.

And 7.1 may be possible in some matrixed format, but without the HD audio formats or Dolby Digital Plus the 360 can't do 7.1 discrete channels.

[sj33]

^I guess games can override it. That's cool.

When the HD-DVD drive was launched, the sound was transcoded to Dolby Digital, but they soon added an option to output as DTS instead. So maybe DTS is achievable? Regardless, I don't think there's much desire, it's not like it's TrueHD or anything more interesting.