5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio recording - it really works, and it works well :)

[Bernhard Koenig]

One feature of the 930 I was really eager to try out was DD Plus 5.1 Audio Recording. So today I recorded a few videos in Stereo and in DD and went home to turn on my home cinema equipment.

I have a Yamaha RX-V3900 A/V receiver which cannot stream videos, so I used my Xbox One as a playback device. I wondered if the used codecs would work flawlessly. The 930 generates a MP4 container with a H264 video stream, the DDPlus audio stream (E-AC3) and also a stereo stream (MPEG AAC Audio). Being mp4, I had high hopes the Xbox One would support it.

I used Nokia's great PlayTo app to stream the Video to the Xbox One via DLNA. First I played a video recorded only in Stereo, then I switched to a 5.1 video. The difference was immediately noticeable, the ambient sounds from the place I recorded the video instantly filled the room. Everything that happened in front clearly came from the front speakers. I then did some talking in the video and as I was obviously behind the phone when I filmed the video, my speech absolutely came from behind. There was also a portion of my voice coming from the front speakers, but that was expected as my mouth of course was just a feet behind the the phone.

Anyway, this first test got me really exited. It works as expected, it sounds great and even more the generated video files can be easily played back on your 5.1 system without any conversion needed. As the Xbox One supports this codecs well, I'm sure any other video streaming device will do just fine, too.

5.1 sound recording sounds a bit too gadgety on a phone ... but now I'm excited to play more with it. As a standard stereo track is recorded with it too anyway, you can't do any harm using it besides a bit of a larger file size. While it might not make that much sense in everyday use, I can think of a lot of scenarios where it does, like recording parts of a concert, and if the reproduction of the sound I heared today with my short tests is any indicator for the 930s performance in such scenarios, it could improve recording such experiences even further (the latest top Lumias where all very good at recording sound, as far as I could tell).

 

[jojoe42]

One feature of the 930 I was really eager to try out was DD Plus 5.1 Audio Recording. So today I recorded a few videos in Stereo and in DD and went home to turn on my home cinema equipment.

I have a Yamaha RX-V3900 A/V receiver which cannot stream videos, so I used my Xbox One as a playback device. I wondered if the used codecs would work flawlessly. The 930 generates a MP4 container with a H264 video stream, the DDPlus audio stream (E-AC3) and also a stereo stream (MPEG AAC Audio). Being mp4, I had high hopes the Xbox One would support it.

I used Nokia's great PlayTo app to stream the Video to the Xbox One via DLNA. First I played a video recorded only in Stereo, then I switched to a 5.1 video. The difference was immediately noticeable, the ambient sounds from the place I recorded the video instantly filled the room. Everything that happened in front clearly came from the front speakers. I then did some talking in the video and as I was obviously behind the phone when I filmed the video, my speech absolutely came from behind. There was also a portion of my voice coming from the front speakers, but that was expected as my mouth of course was just a feet behind the the phone.

Anyway, this first test got me really exited. It works as expected, it sounds great and even more the generated video files can be easily played back on your 5.1 system without any conversion needed. As the Xbox One supports this codecs well, I'm sure any other video streaming device will do just fine, too.

5.1 sound recording sounds a bit too gadgety on a phone ... but now I'm excited to play more with it. As a standard stereo track is recorded with it too anyway, you can't do any harm using it besides a bit of a larger file size. While it might not make that much sense in everyday use, I can think of a lot of scenarios where it does, like recording parts of a concert, and if the reproduction of the sound I heared today with my short tests is any indicator for the 930s performance in such scenarios, it could improve recording such experiences even further (the latest top Lumias where all very good at recording sound, as far as I could tell).

And to think my 1020's sound quality already trumps all of my friends' S5s - this is exciting to hear!

 

[Sebbak]

Nice! I'm looking forward to testing this out too. Glad to hear the directional sounds actually works and it's not just a bit of a gimmick!

Oh, would you know if it allows the 5.1 track to be sent over Miracast, or will that only send the stereo sound data?

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

 

[Bernhard Koenig]

Oh, would you know if it allows the 5.1 track to be sent over Miracast, or will that only send the stereo sound data?

Unfortunately, I do not have any Miracast enabled devices in my setup, so I can't test it. But as Miracast generally supports streaming AC3 Audio (E-AC3/DDPlus is fully backwards compatible) and the 930 using the widely supported MP4 container format, I'm pretty sure it will work just fine if the target device itself can handle/output 5.1 audio.

 

[rumpelst]

Nokia use haac microphones in their flagship phones that's why audio is much better on 920 or 1020 than iPhone. For short time HTC used same technology in their HTC One m7. 1520, Icon or 930 took this technology to a next level.
Sent from my RM-875_eu_poland_956 using Tapatalk

 

[PabsTheGeek]

I'm getting more excited to pick up this phone now and a trip to Knockhill may be in order to test the video/sound recording :-D

 

[Tran Viet]

Hi guys, can you tell me where to find the settings for Dolby? In my Camera app I see only Video light, White balance and Video mode (720p or 1080p) in Video Settings? This is my version:

 

[Tafsern]

Settings - sound

 

[Sledgehamma]

camera - settings - video

And btw I am not very pleased with the "surround" sound. The audio was very quiet: I played music with my Lumia 920 on 15/30 one meter away and I had to put my AVR on 0 DB to hear it at a normal level. That's very a very high setting for my setup. Normaly I watch at -30 to -35 DB.
And there was no way to point out where the music came from. It works good for the front speakers (so you could tell if the 920 was on the left or right) but the back speakers are just playing constantly.
But I think that's all we can ask for. This are tiny tiny mics which are at max 10cm away from each other.

 

[VSparxx]

So just to check, you played music on 920 while recording on 930, or played some music and recorded on 920 ?

 

[klinkpc]

I do not have an Xbox so I play all my videos through a WD TV Live box. The WD does not support E-AC3 so the only way I can get my 930's videos to play is by disabling surround sound.