Genuine bitstream support???

[Jan Lehotsky]

Dear Xbox One engineers,

it´s starting to look kinda ridiculous, this inability of yours to come up with simple and genuine solution in such crucial matter...the XB1S was never supposed to be just a console, it was supposed to be a real MEDIA HUB, wasn´t it? So how come you are unable to hear out a whole AV community and finally allow genuine BITSTREAM audio support within the system??? If it´s impossible to implement at system-wide level due to mixing with damn system sounds, then release an update of your proprietary MEDIA PLAYER app or MOVIES/TV app (the only 2 MS apps that can play back files from USB) and make the bitstream audio happen...
I have repeatedly chatted with several of your colleagues, one of the last ones even told me this:

"Upon checking here, I have already coordinated this with our Support team and this is already in progress. We are now currently working on it and it is just about to release. We are now coordinating with the developers so that upon release, everything about the bitstream will be smooth."

What does it mean then??? I´m an Alpha Preview Insider, the updates keep on coming pretty fast (which is cool), but instead of concentrating on gaming layouts, please try to do something for the console´s AV potential...lack of this feature completely disqualifies XB1S (along with upcoming X) in comparison with any 70$ BD player, which can bitstream out of the box...and they all do.

I even chatted with the VLC app team on how to get over this, their main engineer told me this:

"Unfortunately, this is not up to us, but to the availability of the API to detect the HDMI/SPDIF on the Xbox One S."

So at least, if you´re really that much inept, contact THEM and make the API available to them, so they can write it. And then any DTS-HD or Dolby Atmos file on USB will be playable via Xbox One, instead of poor PCM reencode...

Thank you,

Jan.

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

I'm pretty sure the API supports it, since it specifically references Dolby and DTS (with spatial sound), but from what I can tell they have to use the system to decode audio (which most apps already do). Plex does this and claims to support it, but I haven't tested it.

Basically if you give the system a file in one of the formats here (see the Xbox section): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/audio-video-camera/supported-codecs
Windows will decode it and have the correct audio.

also mentioned here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.media.mediaproperties.audioencodingproperties
and it's not listed as unsupported here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/extension-sdks/uwp-limitations-on-xbox

Whether it's full and complete support, I don't have enough experience to say, but it certainly seems like the API makes it possible to play encoded audio.

 

[Jan Lehotsky]

I don´t understand why the Movies app is capable of playing back a file from USB with Atmos embededd in genuine bitstream, but uncapable of doing the same thing with Dolby True HD/DTS:X/DTS-HD etc. Just tried it yesterday, every file with any other audio than Atmos simply doesn´t play.

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

Atmos technically isn't a format, it's a Dolby TrueHD track with height data (so it will decode to the same 5.1/7.1 channels). So they should play exactly the same.
Might want to report it as a bug?

DTS:X isn't supported yet (coming in future update), and I think it's also just a traditional DTS track with the height data. Normal DTS should be supported for UWP apps, as far as I can tell it works fine (playing MKVs with the system player in the Plex app).

If there's no sound, hold the xbox button and report it as a bug (I think it'll include debug info).


I believe for non-spatial sound (but when Dolby Atmos is enabled on the xbox), the Xbox seems to decode and send the 5.1/7.1 decoded channels to your receiver (as uncompressed digital audio, PCM). I have noticed that this will sound awful at first, but in my case, it's because my receiver didn't upmix the audio by default. After re-enabling DTS Neural:X (which was on by default for DTS sources, but not PCM sources), it's the same as before.
For spatial sound, it lets the receiver decode (so the receiver lights up as Dolby Atmos).
(note that these are just my personal observations, not 100% sure if this is actually how it works)

 

[Jan Lehotsky]

alright, I´ll report it as advised...the thing is that MS should have worked on this issue long time ago and ensure that ANY audio encoded in a file is playable in bitstream via their Media Player or Movies apps...these partial improvements re. playing Atmos are nice, though, still not genuinely solving a problem. I haven´t seen any udpate of the Media Player app for at least 6 months nor have I seen any new general bitstream option within the console´s Audio Settings.

Uncompressed PCM is not in any way on par with DTS-HD MA or Dolby True HD...