Multi-channel Audio Part 2
computer.rip
Multi-channel Audio Part 2
1–10 of 35 posts
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#2I gave up on getting audio passthrough to work reliably and just send PCM over HDMI. I don't think there are downsides to this, unless my computer is somehow worse at decoding DTS than my AV receiver?
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#3> But what about object-based surround sound? I'm using that somewhat lengthy term to try to avoid singling out one commercial product, but, well, there's basically one commercial product: Dolby Atmos.
In theory, the recent(ish)ly standardized SMPTE 2098-2 bitstream protocol will allow for 3rd party encoders/decoders of object-based "immersive audio." In practice, 2098-2 is the bastard child of Atmos and DTS:X and I kind of doubt we'll ever see a FOSS decoder.
But anything's possible.
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#4I gave up on getting audio passthrough to work reliably and just send PCM over HDMI. I don't think there are downsides to this, unless my computer is somehow worse at decoding DTS than my AV receiver?
The only two things I can think of are Atmos (as mentioned in the article), and metadata for dynamic range compression (which you can do on the computer too but may be more convenient to control on the receiver).
I think the main reason for audio passthrough preference in the home theater crowd is seeing the DD/DTS logos light up on the receiver.
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#5Somewhat tangential, but here's a cool somewhat open-source project related to Dolby Atmos:
https://cavern.sbence.hu/cavern/
https://github.com/VoidXH/Cavern
The visualizer, which is what I was _most_ interested in (along with software decoding) is written in C# and the rendering is done in Unity -- both things I valued & thought were cool. In theory, you could build a DIY multi-channel "receiver" with this type of software if given enough audio outputs (and/or put something like Dante to use).
I explored it a bit further but it's relatively cost prohibitive, especially if you want to do something like accept HDMI input, it gets messy. AFAICT, at least when I went down this research path a few months back, even finding & getting dev kits/boards with HDMI input (of semi-recent generation) was non-trivial & pretty pricey.
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#6All the Atmos PR and descriptions talk about "objects," but they never say how those objects' sounds are separated from the others' in the datastream. How can, for example, 56 waveforms be carried independently in one stream?
The use of Atmos in music is just plain bad. How many pop recordings are actually mixed for Atmos? I can't imagine that it's as many as Apple is presenting "in Atmos" on Apple Music. So is there some post-processing BS going on, a la "Q-Sound" and other fake surround over the past few decades?
Here's an example of Atmos messing up music. It's too bad it happens, too, because the Atmos versions of songs seem to be less dynamically compressed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUgfp6mFG2E
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#7I'm a grumpy old man, and no one can ever make me care about any audio transport fancier than analog stereo. To my dismay, it's getting hard to find TVs that can even provide usable stereo output without some kind of extra decoder box or something. Luckily, last time I bought a TV, I was still (barely) able to find one that had a headphone jack, which I use as a stereo line out.
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#8VLC and other PC based software has always left me with just as many problems - if not more - regarding picture quality, as well as audio. The gold standard for me - this goes for three TVs going back 12 years - has always turned out to be to use the TV's own media player app, in conjunction with a solid DNLA server.
Otherwise it's gripes over finding the ideal combination of TV picture settings AND OS display settings. The TV is an OS of it's own, of course. How does one go about tweaking two sets of settings that overlap?
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#9I'm a grumpy old man, and no one can ever make me care about any audio transport fancier than analog stereo. To my dismay, it's getting hard to find TVs that can even provide usable stereo output without some kind of extra decoder box or something. Luckily, last time I bought a TV, I was still (barely) able to find one that had a headphone jack, which I use as a stereo line out.
fwiw, you can get a higher quality output (if your tv has it) via optical and/or hdmi looking for the "PCM" output setting. on my recent tv (an LG) it was buried in the settings and greyed out until i turned off all the Ai processing bs. only then could my external stereo DAC work.
Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2
#10I'm a grumpy old man, and no one can ever make me care about any audio transport fancier than analog stereo. To my dismay, it's getting hard to find TVs that can even provide usable stereo output without some kind of extra decoder box or something. Luckily, last time I bought a TV, I was still (barely) able to find one that had a headphone jack, which I use as a stereo line out.
fwiw, you can get a higher quality output (if your tv has it) via optical and/or hdmi looking for the "PCM" output setting. on my recent tv (an LG) it was buried in the settings and greyed out until i turned off all the Ai processing bs. only then could my external stereo DAC work.
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