DTS Interactive vs. Dolby Digital Live

[Wolfcastle]

I am simply testing my optical connection now from the Razer Barracuda to my z5500.

If I'm not watching a movie but maybe listening to youtube music videos, is there any difference between DTS Interactive and Dolby Digital Live?

I figure if I'm watching a movie that supports a particular technology, I'll select the proper one, but what about in "neutral" situations like internet sound from web browsers?

 

[TerryMathews]

According to the Tech Specs for the Razer AC-1 it supports DD Live!, so you want to use that so all of your 3d sound effects in Windows will end up in the correct speakers.

 

[Wolfcastle]

So between DTS Interactive and Dolby Digital Live, unless the media specifically supports DTS, I should always use Dolby Digital Live?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If the media is DTS or DD, don't have DD live or DTS interactive selected, just do passthrough of the bitstream signal. I'm not sure if DD live or DTS interactive would mess it up, but the point of both is to encode in realtime. If it's already DD or DTS encoded, you don't need to encode it again.

DD live or DTS interactive is for surround sound sources like games that aren't pre-encoded. That's taking true surround sound and encoding it into a DD/DTS stream that can be sent.

For stereo sources like youtube videos, I'd just leave it in stereo.

For the z-5500s, you don't even need to do any of this DD/DTS encoding because you can just send 5.1 analog from your soundcard to the speakers and use 6-channel direct.

The main benefit to DD/DTS is if you're hooking up to a receiver or pre-pro and using an analog connection wouldn't work well.

 

[Wolfcastle]

There are lots of muddled ideas floating around concerning how these technologies should be used. Thanks for your input.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Indeed....

Here's a slightly outdated thread I made on the subject in general
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=1940133&enterthread=y