Calabasas, Calif. — Microsoft’s Xbox One game console will incorporate DTS’s new DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 decoder when it goes on sale Friday.
With the technology, the console will be able to decode 7.1-channel soundtracks streamed over the Internet in the DTS-HD format.
The new DTS decoder not only supports streamed and downloaded video incorporating DTS-HD soundtracks, but it also decodes any DTS audio format on optical discs, including DTS-HD Master Audio, the company said.
In addition, the technology delivers real-time transcoding of any input source into earlier-generation 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, which is then output via optical digital output or HDMI to a connected A/V receiver, soundbar or HTiB for decoding.
Transcoding delivers stereo sources in surround and delivers surround sound to legacy sound systems whose S/P DIF inputs, unlike HDMI inputs, accept 5.1 DTS Digital Surround but don’t accept newer higher-resolution surround formats.
Sony’s PlayStation 4, which launched earlier this week, was the first product available with DTS’s new DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 decoder.
Streaming services with DTS-HD soundtracks can deliver multichannel audio at data rates up to 512Kbps. If the stream is received at 512Kbps via a good network connection, the sound quality will be “nearly indistinguishable” from lossless PCM soundtracks and from soundtracks encoded in lossless codecs, DTS has said.
CinemaNow streams movies with DTS-HD soundtracks, and Paramount plans to use DTS-HD for Ultraviolet copies of its movies, DTS said.
