What happens to DTS and DTS-HD when u use Roku?

[dannieboiz 13]

Looking to pick up a Roku Premiere for 4k HDR but I think it only do DD, I have a lot of DTS/DTS-HD movies that I use Emby for. Does it pass or does it convert it to DD? 

[Waldonnis 148]

The Roku 3 passes DTS 5.1 through if it's connected to an AVR that can decode it, so I can't imagine that the Premiere wouldn't be able to as well. DTS-HD is another animal, though.

 

Thumbing through the developer docs, I don't think any of the Roku models support passing DTS-HD through (same goes for TrueHD or Atmos). It will pass the DTS core through for sure, but I'm doubtful it will do so with the lossless bits. For TrueHD, it isn't likely that you would get any audio if direct streaming, as there is no requirement for it to include an AC3 core to pass through.

 

It is a limitation that frustrates me, but I can understand why Roku has chosen not to implement it (their business revolves more around streaming services that rarely if ever, support high definition/lossless audio).

[PinchOfSalt 0]

My Roku 4 passes through DTS via the HDMI output port.  No doubt your model can do that too.  Note, though, that I had to go into the configuration settings to set it up that way.

[speechles 1917]

It depends entirely on what you hook your roku up to. If its a stereo TV the roku will auto-detect stereo. If its an AVR or TV with dolby digital and dts possible then the roku will detect this. The app trusts what the roku provides to it. You can over-ride this setting on the roku directly and change the HDMI/SPDIF option to something other than AUTO, but that is not suggested. The best advice is trust the roku and the app together know what is best and are doing the best they can. To change those settings will cause issues in other areas, even roku themselves suggests never changing it and leaving it on auto.

 

It isn't as much as does the roku support it. The roku supports DTS, DD, and DD+. Those codecs are pass-through only, though. The roku is not decoding these streams. Unsupported devices that cannot decode these streams on pass-through will produce silence. The app is smart enough to know when your system does not support DTS and will convert this on-the-fly to DD or DD+ (ac3 or eac3) if your pass-through setup supports this. If it doesn't the DTS will be converted to AAC or MP3 depending on how you set the preferences in the app. The blue neon night roku app has more complete support for devices/audio than the official does at the moment.

Edited December 11, 2016 by speechles

[FannieJane 1]

Roku Premiere can passthrough DTS and Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 surround sound, but don't support DTS-HD, therefore, the Emby Media Server will transcode the unsupported DTS-HD to Roku Premiere playable Dolby Digital for you.