Contributor I

Sonos Arc Ultra + DTS-X / DTS-HD MA - Unlock the audio formats!

41 replies
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Hello everyone!

Ive recently bought the Arc Ultra, Sub Gen 4 and 2x ERA 300s and love the sound and sleek system design. Its fantastic!

However, I was shocked to find that i cannot play my UHD Blu-Rays with DTS-X and DTS-HD MA audio.

While i appreciate there are licensing costs associated with the formats, let the CUSTOMERS decide if they want it. Add a $10 or $20 one time fee which customers can pay to “activate” DTS if they want it.

This is supposed to be a premium soundbar, but only supports Dolby…. its extremely odd.

Would love peoples thoughts and if there is planned DTS integration (beyond DTS 5.1 which is dated!)

Many thanks

J

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WindybeyAuthor

Contributor I

That would be interesting. I’ve always worked under the assumption that XPERI, who owns DTS, was still charging a fee for use of their codec. Between that, and the (perceived) small number of people who want it, it never seemed to make financial sense for Sonos to pay for licensing across every single speaker they make, for an extremely corner case. But that’s an assumption. Even if the licensing cost is zero, the cost of writing and maintaining the codec isn’t, and given the small numbers of people (albeit vocal) who ‘want it’, it just may not be on Sonos’ roadmap. Especially as it seems to be waning in use, in favor of Atmos. That doesn’t change all the previously encoded discs, of course, but if it is truly a fading codec, I can see why Sonos isn’t anxious, especially right now, in adding it.

Except they already have the development and test costs for the royalty free DTS/AC3 codec. Part of that cost on the development side is likely reduced by it being an included codec in whatever main audio library they are using, (ffmpeg maybe)

Given how long they haven’t paid for DTS licenses and what they brand as home theatre products being targeted at streaming services not home theatre, they aren’t likely to add it now. If they were targeting home theatre then there would be more than just the lone hdmi arc port and full DTS support on the more expensive products from day one.

Even having just a single hdmi with passthrough would be better than the current offerings, but that previously would have lead to more churn on the hardware side to stay relevant as hdmi versions were replaced and more significantly for Sonos, lower margins or an even higher price for an already over priced range of products.

I appreciate your input, some great perspective. I thought to add a codec to an existing platform would require only a small amount of development time. I believe, a premium soundbar should give the users/customers the option to use it how they desire. This is the only soundbar across the entire market which i know of that doesnt support it.

Its a miss, i hope they make a change.

sigh

Prodigy II

Off the top of my head B&O stand out as a premium brand which only supports Dolby.

Both the Beosound Stage (£1800+) and the BeoSound Theatre (~£8,500+) which link up to the equally expensive speakers (£2500+ each) for surround only supports the Dolby codecs.

There will be others and I think it comes down to intended market/purpose. B&O for example advertise them for connecting to the TV and multiroom, rather than as a direct AVR (Home theatre) replacement, so with streaming services and broadcast TV there is no real use case for DTS.

In a similar way, some manufacturers support Bluetooth, chromecast and airplay, some only one or two out the three. The price/level of the product seems to have little bearing on which is included. Harman Kardon, for example stand out as having zero airplay support across their whole range.

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

I’ll be honest….it really does suck that ALL of the 4k Jurassic Parks are DTSX.

Jurassic Park on 4k UHD disc would be mind blowing on the arc ultra system….

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

Off the top of my head B&O stand out as a premium brand which only supports Dolby.

Both the Beosound Stage (£1800+) and the BeoSound Theatre (~£8,500+) which link up to the equally expensive speakers (£2500+ each) for surround only supports the Dolby codecs.

There will be others and I think it comes down to intended market/purpose. B&O for example advertise them for connecting to the TV and multiroom, rather than as a direct AVR (Home theatre) replacement, so with streaming services and broadcast TV there is no real use case for DTS.

In a similar way, some manufacturers support Bluetooth, chromecast and airplay, some only one or two out the three. The price/level of the product seems to have little bearing on which is included. Harman Kardon, for example stand out as having zero airplay support across their whole range.

Klipsch soundbars only support Dolby codecs even though just like B&O they make home theater equipment. It boggles my mind.

A

Actarus

Avid Contributor I

Hello everyone, I find your discussion very interesting because clearly I thought that DTS Master HD at least on the ARC Ultra would be a reality via update. However I know that we can read our favorite movies that are in DTS Master HD in PCM 7.1 but when I launch a movie in DTS Master HD I have no sound coming out nothing it does not switch to PCM 7.1.

So what do you think it comes from the Arc Ultra or my diffuser which is not 4K?

106rallye

What’s a “diffuser” and why would an image format like 4K have any relation to a sound format like DTS?

S

Snoomuffin

Enthusiast II

Hello everyone, I find your discussion very interesting because clearly I thought that DTS Master HD at least on the ARC Ultra would be a reality via update. However I know that we can read our favorite movies that are in DTS Master HD in PCM 7.1 but when I launch a movie in DTS Master HD I have no sound coming out nothing it does not switch to PCM 7.1.

So what do you think it comes from the Arc Ultra or my diffuser which is not 4K?

You need a dvd player that converts dts into PCM multichannel.

UB820 does this. However multichannel PCM sounds really bad on the arc system. Inconsistent volume levels and overall not very good. Sonos has never tried aiding this.

A

Actarus

Avid Contributor I

What’s a “diffuser” and why would an image format like 4K have any relation to a sound format like DTS?

I'm still using a 50" FHD Plasma as a diffuser, I thought it was related.

A

Actarus

Avid Contributor I

Hello everyone, I find your discussion very interesting because clearly I thought that DTS Master HD at least on the ARC Ultra would be a reality via update. However I know that we can read our favorite movies that are in DTS Master HD in PCM 7.1 but when I launch a movie in DTS Master HD I have no sound coming out nothing it does not switch to PCM 7.1.

So what do you think it comes from the Arc Ultra or my diffuser which is not 4K?

You need a dvd player that converts dts into PCM multichannel.

UB820 does this. However multichannel PCM sounds really bad on the arc system. Inconsistent volume levels and overall not very good. Sonos has never tried aiding this.

I'm sorry to hear that so it doesn't help my case if it's not optimal as the DTS Master HD originally is. I don't have a 4K player just a Shield TV Pro. So basically if I made backup copies of my DVDs or Blu Rays to prevent my discs from deteriorating I wouldn't be able to play them if they have DTS Master HD via the Shield TV Pro is that right? I'll definitely need a 4K player like the one you're telling me about?

106rallye

Ah, right. You meen the screen. I never heard the word “diffuser” used for it - but English is not my native language. I also own a Shield and use the last 19 version of Kodi to play DVD/BD .iso’s (I can’t get the newer 20 version to play .iso’s). Kodi can translate DTS to Dolby Digital. See the “Passthrough output device” settings, mentioned on https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/System/Audio

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