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[forbigd]

Hello all,
I can play my DTS files by telling MC to play them through the video engine.
Or I can play them through the audio engine but turn on Dolby Digital in the DSP.
The output is definitely 5.1, but does it sound as good as it could if it were real DTS?
The receiver says it is getting the DTS signal when in video mode, but when set to Dolby Digital in the DSP it only says Dolby Digital on the receiver.
Anyone know if DTS passed through is better sounding than it being converted to Dolby Digital? Or am I wasting time trying to get real DTS?

Thanks

Don

[kstuart]

Both DTS and Dolby Digital are lossy conversions, so converting one to the other always will be lower quality.  Is it audible to you?   Only you can say.

[forbigd]

You are so right.
How about converting them to FLAC, which is lossless?
Will I get a file that sounds the same, or will the conversion process take a hit on quality?
When I tried and had MC convert to FLAC I used a level 6 which gave files over twice in size.
I guess lossless needs more space. But does it sound as good? I think they original wavs sounded a bit fuller, but no way to A/B correctly so it is hard to say.
I just want the best I can get, that's all

On the same topic, I use the volume normalization constantly, but still have variations. Will FLACs work better with MC than WAVS for MC to keep at a constant volume?

Thanks

[kstuart]

Converting to lossless should result in equivalent quality to the originals.

But one issue is whether the original files are two channel stereo or instead are multiple channel surround.  Usually DTS are surround files.

Why not just play them as DTS ?

[forbigd]

They are all 5.1 DTS Surround files from DTS CDs. I wonder how CD players that handle DTS get the sound to a receiver, it has to be spdif, so they must be altering the music..
To play them as DTS files I have to play the MediaCenter with File Types for WAV set to playback with the Video engine, and then you can't use any visualization. You can covert to 5.1 FLAC, it works fine, other than it is a conversion step I would rather not do.... unless MC handles FLACs better than WAVS with Volume normalization. Better tagging, better visualizations, and Spdif output are all great pros. Better handling of volume would be a great bonus, wavs don't seem to like the volume normalizer part of MC. But will I lose sound going to FLACs? I guess so.
That may be more than I can accept. It is all about the music. If modifying the format of my DTS files makes them sound even the slightest bit worse, I can't do it. The pros would have to be huge to outweigh a slight loss in quality.

Thanks

[mojave]

Did you see my post in your other thread? Just bitstream them since you don't have any multi-channel PCM output.