Xbox One audio question

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I just got my Xbox One today and love it so far. I have my DirecTV passing through it. The only problems I have are with audio. Everything on my av receiver shows as PCM and doesn't even sound as good as my 360 did. I do have HDMI audio set to 7.1 but TV and games only do PCM. Also, voice commands like mute or volume up don't work. It tells me I gave to set it up in TV settings but I don't see anything about that and I already gave my Tv, DirecTV box, and Pioneer receiver set up. It would just be cool if I could control sound with voice commands. Also is MS not supporting Dolby Digital yet or something?

[Brendeth]

Do you get your devices setup in the TV & Oneguide section in the Settings menu?

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Yes, all 3 devices are there. DirecTV, Pioneer VSX 53, and Panasonic TV. Everything seems to be in stereo and I have no control of the receiver with Kinect. The system was automatically set up for 7.1 surround during setup. It even played its tones in all speakers. Playing Forza 5 sounded like stereo. Playing the latest Forza on my 360 had bone-shattering surround sound. You could hear car sounds all around you. It seems that maybe there's a bug in the One with playing digital surround?

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

You actually have to change it to Bitstream to get true DTS or Dolby Digital. I just had to do this earlier this week myself and it was driving me nuts as I also had it to 7.1 but was not getting true surround sound (my receiver has an orange light when I am getting true surround). Changing it to Bitstream fixed it.

 

As far as your Kinect issues are concerned, you do not control Kinect through your receiver, it has it's own mic array on Kinect itself. So something is not configured properly there.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I noticed Bitstream was greyed out and I can't even select it. And I am talking about controlling my receiver with Kinect, not the other way around.

[jerzdawg]

I noticed Bitstream was greyed out and I can't even select it. And I am talking about controlling my receiver with Kinect, not the other way around.

That may be your problem, as Larry pointed out you need to select bitstream to see your pioneer show DD or DTS.  I would go through the TV setup again to be sure you selected the right options.  You should be able to use voice commands to mute and volume up/down.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Well, I input Pioneer, then chose VSX53 from their list so I figured it would just work. I get sound, just no surround and I can't enable bitstream. I tried last night to delete the receiver and re-add it and it didn't change anything.I should just re-run the whole TV setup again?

[jerzdawg]

Well, I input Pioneer, then chose VSX53 from their list so I figured it would just work. I get sound, just no surround and I can't enable bitstream. I tried last night to delete the receiver and re-add it and it didn't change anything.I should just re-run the whole TV setup again?

and you have the HDMI out going directly to the receiver?  try the whole TV setup again just to be sure you didnt miss anything

 

 

edit - also, dont forget, if you do choose PCM (uncompressed 5.1 or 7.1) you should still be getting surround sound as your receiver would not have to do the converting (hope this makes sense)

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Yes, I have the xbox going right to the receiver and then output to my TV. I didn't choose PCM, I don't see that option anywhere. It just says HDMI 7.1. There is an option for bitstream which is greyed out and I can't select it. My 360 never said PCM, it always had Dolby Digital on the display and I had full surround. I don;t get nearly as good sound now.

[pupdawg21]

PCM just means that the Xbox One has already decoded the signal and your receiver plays it as it is received. When your receiver actually says Dolby Digital, or DTS or whatever it means the receiver is receiving an encoded signal of the specified type and it is doing the decoding.

 

Which ever one you are seeing, you should still be receiving surround sound if the signal in question has surround sound information in the stream.

[jerzdawg]

I just found this on the xbox forums.  As much as I like seeing DD or DTS on my receiver.. I think I am going to switch back to 5.1 uncompressed

 

The Xbox does auto-detect the signal, it has too.  The Xbox then has to decode everything into PCM so that it can mix the audio as necessary, it never just passes on the signal.  After the audio has been mixed it simply sends out the audio as PCM if that's what's selected or it will compress it into Dolby or DTS if that option is selected.

If your Xbox is directly connected to your receiver with HDMI, PCM is always the best option.  If your audio has to go over an optical or coaxial cable at some point before it gets to your receiver, Dolby or DTS would be the best choice.

The real problem here is that the Xbox will always output a 5.1 signal if that is what is selected, even if the source audio is stereo.  This leaves the center and rears blank with everything coming out of the fronts.  Your audio receiver is then unable to matrix the audio into 5.1, because it is already getting a 5.1 signal.  If the Xbox switched to stereo when it was only getting a stereo input, that would enable your receiver to matrix stereo into 5.1.

The only issue with this is what happens if say, you're watching stereo content on Netflix and then snap TV with a surround signal.  It's then going to have to either switch to 5.1 anyway or output the TV in stereo.  I think this is probably why the Xbox is currently locked into exactly what the user selects, instead of adjusting the number of channels output based on the source.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I just found this on the xbox forums. As much as I like seeing DD or DTS on my receiver.. I think I am going to switch back to 5.1 uncompressed

The Xbox does auto-detect the signal, it has too. The Xbox then has to decode everything into PCM so that it can mix the audio as necessary, it never just passes on the signal. After the audio has been mixed it simply sends out the audio as PCM if that's what's selected or it will compress it into Dolby or DTS if that option is selected.

If your Xbox is directly connected to your receiver with HDMI, PCM is always the best option. If your audio has to go over an optical or coaxial cable at some point before it gets to your receiver, Dolby or DTS would be the best choice.

The real problem here is that the Xbox will always output a 5.1 signal if that is what is selected, even if the source audio is stereo. This leaves the center and rears blank with everything coming out of the fronts. Your audio receiver is then unable to matrix the audio into 5.1, because it is already getting a 5.1 signal. If the Xbox switched to stereo when it was only getting a stereo input, that would enable your receiver to matrix stereo into 5.1.

The only issue with this is what happens if say, you're watching stereo content on Netflix and then snap TV with a surround signal. It's then going to have to either switch to 5.1 anyway or output the TV in stereo. I think this is probably why the Xbox is currently locked into exactly what the user selects, instead of adjusting the number of channels output based on the source.

Thanks for this. I was just about topmost that I changed from 7.1 uncompressed to bitstream and now I can choose DTS or DD. But from what you're saying, I should leave it at 7.1 and not worry about the PCM on the display? That only leaves me with why won't voice commands control my receiver?

Edit I saw that there was a 2nd VSX53 model listed with characters in parentheses. I selected that one and now I can volume control my tv.

[jerzdawg]

Thanks for this. I was just about topmost that I changed from 7.1 uncompressed to bitstream and now I can choose DTS or DD. But from what you're saying, I should leave it at 7.1 and not worry about the PCM on the display? That only leaves me with why won't voice commands control my receiver?

Edit I saw that there was a 2nd VSX53 model listed with characters in parentheses. I selected that one and now I can volume control my tv.

Great, glad it all worked. And yes, as boring as it looks on your reciever, PCM should be your best bet based on the post I got on the xbox forums. But as anyone would tell you, go with what sounds best for you

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Great, glad it all worked. And yes, as boring as it looks on your reciever, PCM should be your best bet based on the post I got on the xbox forums. But as anyone would tell you, go with what sounds best for you

I marked your post as best answer. PCM is really fine now. I played Forza 5 last night and noticed hearing cars behind me as I passed theme surround is in fact working.