Laptop Bluray and DTS (1 Viewer)

[AudioENG]

Hello everyone,

While I pride myself in knowing a lot about home theater especially Audio I am still learning in the area of PC connections to home theater systems.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a software capable of viewing bluray and outputting the sound DTS? My laptop came bundled with Corel Win DVD and no matter what I try (bluray and DVD) the sound is always output dolby digital via optical.

I have a few theories.

Bluray does not contain regular DTS format and DTS Master audio is only available via HDMI else the sound is downgraded to Dolby digital
but this does not explain why I can't get DTS when watching a regular DVD.

I have windows 7 and there is a test available for DTS to see if the receiver is compatible. When I test my sound card my Yamaha receiver displays that it is receiving DTS from the laptop so I know my sound card is capable.

Does anyone else have a setup similar to this that has a movie player they recommend for best sound and picture.

thanks a lot

 

[mattCR]

The issue is software, not hardware. DTS-MA never reduces to Dolby Digital, it reduces to DTS-Core (which is either standard DTS or DTS-EX format) The bundled software normally only comes with the licensed DD Decoder, you have to pay extra for the DTS decoder... check their website.
FYI, WinDVD is really pretty crap for this purpose; you might try TMT3 (www.arcsoft.com) which I prefer over the other real alternative (powerdvd, www.gocyberlink.com )

 

[AudioENG]

Thanks you may have easily been able to clear up something I've been struggling with for a few days.

So if I go with TMT3 and want to watch a bluray but connect to the surround sound via optical this should reduce to DTS-core?

 

[AudioENG]

Thanks again, also I was going to ask if you saw a huge difference with the TMT3 software levels (standard, Gold, Platinum) it looks like they all support DTS.

 

[mattCR]

Yes, TMT3 and PowerDVD will both put out the DTSCore, which is all you can get (unless you output via HDMI and your laptop supports LPCM via HDMI or full bitstream, you can see my chart in the HTPC Wiki)

Platinum supports Bluray straight decoding. The other versions will read Bluray from a folder or the files, but will not support managing the encryption keys.