DTS and the Playbar has become a hot topic recently. Many threads on these forums have been related to the issue one way or another.
No doubt the lack of DTS support is not a technical issue, but a licensing issue. There is really no difference between DD5.1 and a DTS track. I'd be surprised even if anyone could tell the difference between the two.
To an "average" consumer, the fact that there are no technical differences between the two formats is irrelevant. Really, to these people and also to many "technical" people perhaps, DD and DTS are just two different ways of representing what is basically the same information. But to some reason unfathomable to the average consumer who should never be concerned with non-technical, purely licensing issues, one format is supported and the other is not.
It is obviously a shame that the unsupported way of decoding some digital bits (for that is surely what both formats really are) is the one used on most Blu-rays these days. And yet Sonos continue to market their products as being a "full 5.1 surround" system.
I'm a technical guy, brought up and educated as a scientist and all that. I just don't think that Sonos users should have to worry about which way the makers of a Blu-Ray or other surround sound source chose to package their sound information. Surely if there is a source of 5.1, and you can plug that into the Playbar via optical, then it should just work.
I guess what I am saying is that an eventual answer from Sonos that DTS will not be supported just isn't good enough. I see DTS support as being an essential requirement that really ought to be provided, and soon.
I feel better!
No doubt the lack of DTS support is not a technical issue, but a licensing issue. There is really no difference between DD5.1 and a DTS track. I'd be surprised even if anyone could tell the difference between the two.
To an "average" consumer, the fact that there are no technical differences between the two formats is irrelevant. Really, to these people and also to many "technical" people perhaps, DD and DTS are just two different ways of representing what is basically the same information. But to some reason unfathomable to the average consumer who should never be concerned with non-technical, purely licensing issues, one format is supported and the other is not.
It is obviously a shame that the unsupported way of decoding some digital bits (for that is surely what both formats really are) is the one used on most Blu-rays these days. And yet Sonos continue to market their products as being a "full 5.1 surround" system.
I'm a technical guy, brought up and educated as a scientist and all that. I just don't think that Sonos users should have to worry about which way the makers of a Blu-Ray or other surround sound source chose to package their sound information. Surely if there is a source of 5.1, and you can plug that into the Playbar via optical, then it should just work.
I guess what I am saying is that an eventual answer from Sonos that DTS will not be supported just isn't good enough. I see DTS support as being an essential requirement that really ought to be provided, and soon.
I feel better!