MULTICHANNEL AUDIO!

Hi MADDUCKY013,

I can't speak for Microsoft Xbox, but i can tell you that the current updates that should hit in Feb 2015 will not have or add this feature.

Also, keep in mind that the current adapter used to send sound from the controller is "stereo" only.

My thoughts are that if this is supported in the future, it would be by a specific headset and Turtlebeach seems to be the only company producing high end headphones with Xbox One compatibility marketing surround sound of any kind.

I have not seen anywhere regarding multichannel DTS or DD but have you thought about getting wireless headphones that work through a stereo rather than the investment of headphones limited to one console?

This was from the beginning of last year and seeing on how slow MS is to add key features and fix critical bugs of the Xbone probably in 2 years...

www.gameinformer.com/.../xbox-one-controller-may-support-surround-sound-in-future-update.aspx

Lemon, the One does not output Dolby Digital currently. However, do you have this or a similar Onkyo receiver? If not, not sure why you posted here... If so, you don't need Dolby Digital. The Xbox One does output uncompressed multichannel 5.1/7.1, which
the receiver should handle and produce true surround sound. DD and DTS are just methods used to compress multichannel audio. As such, you are better off skipping the (re)compression to DD if you have a receiver that can accept the uncompressed multichannel
audio over HDMI.

That is absolutely incorrect. PCM is the raw, uncompressed audio and certainly can be discrete multi-channel 5.1/7.1/etc. Bitstream is multichannel (usually) PCM audio that has been compressed to a single bitstream using a lossy codec (Dolby Digital or
DTS) or a lossless codec (Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio). That bitstream is ultimately decompressed to multichannel PCM (though it will not be quite as good as the original if a lossy codec was used) to be played through your speakers. Usually, your receiver
will be the device decompressing the bitstream from, for example, a Dolby Digital DVD soundtrack; but because the Xbox One mixes together audio sources for Snap etc., it has to decompress all incoming bitstream sources to make the mix. If you set the Xbox
One to output bitstream, you are needlessly (if your receiver has HDMI) forcing the Xbox One to compress the multichannel PCM audio mix to a bitstream and send it to the receiver, which will just decompress it to multichannel PCM again. Among other things,
this wastes processing power and may cause A/V sync issues.

The Xbox One does not output Dolby Digital, which is just a compressed/encoded bitstream that would be decoded by your receiver to multichannel 5.1/7.1. Instead, the Xbox One takes the incoming compressed bitstream (e.g. DD, DTS, etc.) and decodes it itself
(necessary for it to mix in its own sounds from the overlay home screen etc.). It then outputs that mix to your receiver as uncompressed multichannel PCM (5.1/7.1 depending on your audio setting on the Xbox One). (It would be pointless and reduce quality
to reencode this mix to DD to output to the receiver for the receiver to decode again.) Your receiver may allow you to apply different "effects" (Cinema, Music, etc.) to the incoming multichannel PCM.

Thus, the difference is that the Xbox 360 outputs the compressed DD bitsream for the receiver to decode to 5.1/7.1, whereas the One decodes the bitstream itself then outputs the decoded 5.1/7.1 PCM to the receiver (which doesn't show DD/DTS because it is
receiving the already decoded/decompressed multichannel audio). You should end up with the same quality audio in the end, only the location of the decoding has changed...