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[Frankfurter]

Meh, seems to be much more complicated to get proper sound out of that console than I thought.

So, I got a Sony STR-DE475 receiver, it doesn't have HDMI in/out, as it's like 8 or 10 years old.

This is it:

How would I be able to get proper sound out of the WiiU? My TV has an optical (out I assume?) SPDIF thingy, but that won't work, right?

 

[Brad Grenz]

You could use one of those expensive 8 channel HDMI LPCM to analog DAC/breakout boxes linked earlier in the thread. It will give you 6 analog channel you then plug into the multi-channel input there in the bottom left corner.

 

[Frankfurter]

Thanks mate, any idea when those boxes where linked? ^^ By expensive you probably mean like 100€/$+? :/

 

[DragonSworne]

An good analogy would be WiiU not supporting 480p and claiming to be Wii compatible...

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Well damn this is gonna screw me over too.

I have never been able to get sound to work over HDMi with my tv/surround setup.
It's strange because the tv has optical out which I can hook to my surround. And then normal TV works with the surround.

But for example HDMI - > TV -> Optical -> Receiver never seems to work, with my PS3 or my PC.

 

[Chaplain]

I assume Nintendo payed royalties when the used Dolby Pro Logic II on all Wii games. Why wouldn't they want to support DD5.1 or DTS?

 

[Brad Grenz]

Thanks mate, any idea when those boxes where linked? ^^ By expensive you probably mean like 100€/$+? :/

I don't know. That one was $128. Here's another that's about $200: http://www.markertek.com/Video-Equi...Converters/Gefen-Inc/GTV-HDMI-2-HDMIAUD.xhtml

 

[brochiller]

I don't know. That one was $128. Here's another that's about $200: http://www.markertek.com/Video-Equi...Converters/Gefen-Inc/GTV-HDMI-2-HDMIAUD.xhtml

You're better off just getting a new receiver at that price.

 

[jett]

Wow the Wii U doesn't support DD and DTS? Wat? How cheap can Nintendo be?

 

[PetrCobra]

If you are using a monitor and just need to break out an analog, stereo audio feed that should be easy. It won't come in the box, but Nintendo will sell standard analog A/V cables. You'll just need to plug those in to the multi-out port on the WiiU, ignore the yellow video connector from the cord and plug the Red/White stereo RCA audio connectors into whatever receiver, Amp, multimedia speakers or adapter appropriate to your setup.

This is, of course, the obvious solution. I'm just assuming that the analog output might be blocked out by the console when using HDMI, and if that's the case, it would be nice to be prepared. My research so far indicates that if I need to use the HDMI audio, I will also need some sort of device that will transform the digital audio output to analog for my speakers to use. The easiest way to do this is to use something that will also output the unchanged HDMI (video) signal in addition to the analog audio. I've tried to find something useful but it appears to me that the selection on the market is not very satisfying... maybe I just don't know where to look.

 

[LCGeek]

Wow the Wii U doesn't support DD and DTS? Wat? How cheap can Nintendo be?

Has more to do with using tech they don't control and most likely have to pay for. If you're asking how cheap they can be you should read in to the the things they have removed from their consoles over time.

 

[jimi_dini]

It's strange because the tv has optical out which I can hook to my surround. And then normal TV works with the surround.

But for example HDMI - > TV -> Optical -> Receiver never seems to work, with my PS3 or my PC.

Because most TVs only output LPCM 2.0 through TOSlink. Even if your TV would pass Dolby Digital/DTS through, it won't help in Wii U case, because LPCM 5.1 can't be put onto TOSlink. In your case your PS3 (?) may be in PCM mode. If that's the case, you could try to switch it to bitstream and enable support for Dolby Digital/DTS over HDMI. Could work in your case (but like I said, won't help in Wii U case).

And most TVs also don't allow LPCM 5.1 input. They will just use 2 channels from such input. Mine for example has virtual surround sound, but it only supports Dolby Digital/DTS for that feature. Getting LPCM 5.1 will disable virtual surround, because the TV will effectively get a plain stereo signal.

What receiver doesn't have a hdmi port these days?

Please read the thread. And the spec sheet of Wii U states LPCM 5.1 only. No Dolby Digital and no DTS support. Dolby Pro Logic II isn't even mentioned.
Someone should really collect all current information and create a new thread.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

What receiver doesn't have a hdmi port these days?

Wow the Wii U doesn't support DD and DTS? Wat? How cheap can Nintendo be?

That can't be right.

 

[brochiller]

Because most TVs only output LPCM 2.0 through TOSlink. Even if your TV would pass Dolby Digital/DTS through, it won't help in Wii U case, because LPCM 5.1 can't be put onto TOSlink. In your case your PS3 (?) may be in PCM mode. If that's the case, you could try to switch it to bitstream and enable support for Dolby Digital/DTS over HDMI. Could work in your case (but like I said, won't help in Wii U case).

And most TVs also don't allow LPCM 5.1 input. They will just use 2 channels from such input. Mine for example has virtual surround sound, but it only supports Dolby Digital/DTS for that feature. Getting LPCM 5.1 will disable virtual surround, because the TV will effectively get a plain stereo signal.

I asked this earlier but I never got a response, but do you know if it's been confirmed that Wii U doesn't support Dolby Digital/DTS or are we just assuming it doesn't because it isn't on the spec sheet?

 

[lacinius]

This is, of course, the obvious solution. I'm just assuming that the analog output might be blocked out by the console when using HDMI, and if that's the case, it would be nice to be prepared. My research so far indicates that if I need to use the HDMI audio, I will also need some sort of device that will transform the digital audio output to analog for my speakers to use. The easiest way to do this is to use something that will also output the unchanged HDMI (video) signal in addition to the analog audio. I've tried to find something useful but it appears to me that the selection on the market is not very satisfying... maybe I just don't know where to look.

I'm doubting the analog signal would be "blocked" while using HDMI... most devices (dvd/blu/cable boxes) the "signal" is always present at the outputs, but because most never plug in more than one cable it is just never noticed. I have noticed that in the settings for some fancier blu-ray players you can set them to physically turn off the analog outputs, but I'm thinking in the Wii U that won't be an option since it would not be needed.

If you still have a Wii, then the standard composite analog cables that came with that by default might work with the Wii U so you don't have to purchase another set. You can recycle the sensor bar from the Wii to the Wii U, so hopefully it will be the same with the analog cables.

 

[jimi_dini]

I asked this earlier but I never got a response, but do you know if it's been confirmed that Wii U doesn't support Dolby Digital/DTS or are we just assuming it doesn't because it isn't on the spec sheet?

Noone directly asked Nintendo about this specifically till now (I wrote an email 1 day ago), at least as far as I know.
We just take a look at what we got: There is definitely no optical out. There is only HDMI out and analog AV out.

The spec sheet clearly says:
"Audio Output: Uses six-channel PCM linear output via HDMI™ connector, or analog output via the AV Multi Out connector."

So why should they put Dolby Digital/DTS support in there and not mention it at all? For HDMI receivers it wouldn't even make sense. It would only make sense for people that need that data over optical out (for receivers w/o HDMI support or surround headphones or of course virtual surround sound ability in some TVs) and there is definitely no optical out built into the Wii U.

I mean if Nintendo were ultra lazy, they could have written "Audio Output: Uses HDMI connector or analog output...". Instead they wrote explicitly LPCM over HDMI.

I think the only real possibility would be support for Dolby Pro Logic II over analog video/audio out or maybe even via HDMI using LPCM 2.0. They didn't mention DPLII on their Wii spec sheet, so there is some hope left. Although I'm not sure, if DPLII had to be built into every game specifically or if it was inside the devkit or some system library. There is a systemwide option for sound on Wii - "Mono"/"Stereo"/"Surround". And then there is also the question, if they shut off analog AV in case something is connected to HDMI in case they only support DPLII systemwide on analog AV only.

 

[JonathanPower]

I just noticed on the specs sheet and pics of the back side of the upcoming Wii U that they neither mention or show an optical audio connector or any other audio out connector.

They NEED to fix this.

Otherwise everyone without HDMI connector on their surround sound reciever won't get digital audio at all with Wii U. On 360 and PS3 they'll get beautiful DTS and Dolby Digital 7.1 sound etc. On Wii U they'll get analog stereo sound. Most people will probably just connect the HDMI in the TV and go with the TV sound.

I think this is unacceptable. They can't release a HD console in 2012 without some kind of digital audio connector except through HDMI. We can't all buy new sound recievers just to get Wii U to sound good.

Nintendo. FIX THIS!

Why making an optical out when they can sell a specific adaptor and make great money ?

 

[Foxix Von]

Well damn this is gonna screw me over too.

I have never been able to get sound to work over HDMi with my tv/surround setup.
It's strange because the tv has optical out which I can hook to my surround. And then normal TV works with the surround.

But for example HDMI - > TV -> Optical -> Receiver never seems to work, with my PS3 or my PC.

Basically the HDCP over HDMI will prevent that from happening. The great, vast majority of people who claim to get multichannel audio by running HDMI to their TV and then optical out to their receiver are just getting a Prologic Stereo stereo mix.

Why making an optical out when they can sell a specific adaptor and make great money ?

Unfortunately given the current information we have now a dongle is a not a viable alternative.

 

[InvincibleAgent]

Well that's inconvenient. My TV has 2 component inputs, which are my preferred format.

 

[Mr.Green]

Why would they support a standard that is over 10 years old?

That seems pretty cutting edge by Nintendo's standards.

*ba dum tsss*

Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week!

 

[hikarutilmitt]

For every one of you worrying about if even DPLII might not be supported, I'm assuming you already have a receiver capable of using that matrix setting.

Try plugging something in that only does stereo. Turn on the DPLII setting for it. Listen.

A device doesn't have to explicitly support DPLII to work with it. You can still get surround from a stereo source via matrix, with is what DPLII is anyway.

 

[CamHostage]

[EDIT: NM, shoulda read the thread, got my question answered]

 

[PetrCobra]

I'm doubting the analog signal would be "blocked" while using HDMI... most devices (dvd/blu/cable boxes) the "signal" is always present at the outputs, but because most never plug in more than one cable it is just never noticed. I have noticed that in the settings for some fancier blu-ray players you can set them to physically turn off the analog outputs, but I'm thinking in the Wii U that won't be an option since it would not be needed.

If you still have a Wii, then the standard composite analog cables that came with that by default might work with the Wii U so you don't have to purchase another set. You can recycle the sensor bar from the Wii to the Wii U, so hopefully it will be the same with the analog cables.

I didn't know it's uncommon to turn off unused outputs. In that case, I guess I have a pretty big chance to be able to do it the easy way.

I still have the Wii and both composite and component cables for it, and Nintendo has announced that they will be usable with Wii U for 480i/p resolutions, so I should be good to go.

Thanks

 

[Theonik]

I'm doubting the analog signal would be "blocked" while using HDMI... most devices (dvd/blu/cable boxes) the "signal" is always present at the outputs, but because most never plug in more than one cable it is just never noticed. I have noticed that in the settings for some fancier blu-ray players you can set them to physically turn off the analog outputs, but I'm thinking in the Wii U that won't be an option since it would not be needed.

If you still have a Wii, then the standard composite analog cables that came with that by default might work with the Wii U so you don't have to purchase another set. You can recycle the sensor bar from the Wii to the Wii U, so hopefully it will be the same with the analog cables.

Yes, only example where HDMI cause trouble on the analogue outs is the Xbox 360, which since it didn't launch with both was designed to only be able to output from one of the two as far as Video was concerned. (which could cause some problems if 2 video cables were present hence post-HDMI AV cables had a plastic tab that blocked the HDMI. You could get around it though and they had audio only multi-AV cables. Again though this was a very specific issue related with late revisions on the hardware.

As far as I know the WiiU is using new analogue cables. though. Might be wrong, I'm basing this on early pictures of the console, could have changed too.

 

[Saint Gregory]

So Nintendo has supported at least Dolby pro logic II since the GC days but we're now to believe that they dropped all Dolby support because it's not specifically mentioned in a spec release?

Um... OK.

The lack of TOSlink is cheap and shitty though. A lot of new TVs are capable of surround sound pasthrough (which wasn't the case even as of last year) but there's no excuse for not including the option.

This reminds me a lot of when everyone was freaking out about the lack of wired LAN on Wii before the usb dongle was announced.

Basically the HDCP over HDMI will prevent that from happening. The great, vast majority of people who claim to get multichannel audio by running HDMI to their TV and then optical out to their receiver are just getting a Prologic Stereo stereo mix.

Not true. My LG LW6500 had DTS and DD passthrough since the option was unlocked though service menu trickery last year. Other 2012 TVs have this option as well.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1321920/lg-passive-lw6500-dedicated-thread

 

[Frankfurter]

I don't know. That one was $128. Here's another that's about $200: http://www.markertek.com/Video-Equi...Converters/Gefen-Inc/GTV-HDMI-2-HDMIAUD.xhtml

Oh wow :/


So if I'd just use the red/white chinch cables of the other output and connect them to the receiver, I'd only get stereo sound?

 

[Darth Pinche]

Meh, seems to be much more complicated to get proper sound out of that console than I thought.

So, I got a Sony STR-DE475 receiver, it doesn't have HDMI in/out, as it's like 8 or 10 years old.

This is it:

How would I be able to get proper sound out of the WiiU? My TV has an optical (out I assume?) SPDIF thingy, but that won't work, right?

I had a very similar receiver (Sony STR-K750) and used it with my Wii. The best you can do is Dolby Prologic II, which I felt was pretty good. If yours has the DSP like mine did, setting it to PL II MUS (music) had the best separation for me. Playing Goldeneye Wii, I could hear shots or guys sneaking up behind me to the left or right correctly.

 

[Foxix Von]

So Nintendo has supported at least Dolby pro logic II since the GC days but we're now to believe that they dropped all Dolby support because it's not specifically mentioned in a spec release?

Um... OK.

The lack of TOSlink is cheap and shitty though. A lot of new TVs are capable of surround sound pasthrough (which wasn't the case even as of last year) but there's no excuse for not including the option.

This reminds me a lot of when everyone was freaking out about the lack of wired LAN on Wii before the usb dongle was announced.

Not true. My LG LW6500 had DTS and DD passthrough since the option was unlocked though service menu trickery last year. Other 2012 TVs have this option as well.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1321920/lg-passive-lw6500-dedicated-thread

Yeah I know there are some on the market that support it. I was speaking very broadly haha. It's why I said the great majority of sets don't allow for 5.1 pass through, because well most don't. There are A LOT of people out there who have TVs hooked up that way and are getting stereo out of it thinking they actually are getting surround sound. It was previously discussed in the thread that optical outs on most sets are exclusively for OTA broadcasts and don't co operate with HDMI.

Anyway it's kind of moot anyway since even if your TV does support it the Wii U doesn't.

 

[jimi_dini]

So Nintendo has supported at least Dolby pro logic II since the GC days but we're now to believe that they dropped all Dolby support because it's not specifically mentioned in a spec release?

Um... OK.

Many games on PlayStation 2 supported Dolby Pro Logic II. Most of the time it was either stereo or surround sound via Pro Logic. GTA:VC for example used DTS 4.0 instead.
Games on PlayStation 3 not so much. It's game title specific (God of War 3 for example has support for DPLII, one of the few games with DPLII support). THIS is what we are afraid of.

If it's game-specific and needs to be implemented separately by the developer, why should a developer do it although he can just implement PCM 5.1 surround and be done with it.

On PS3 the whole surround sound support is quite wild-west like, but at least it's not a big problem, because PS3 got optical out. Orange Box on PS3 for example HAD surround sound, but PCM 5.1 only. People still say that Orange Box would be only stereo on PS3 exactly because of this. THAT's the problem that could happen on Wii U all the time.

Wii games on Wii U will surely keep their Dolby Pro Logic II support. That's not the issue.


Funnily one could even say that surround support in Orange Box on PS3 is "better", because PS3 got uncompressed surround. Xbox 360 has compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 surround.

 

[Saint Gregory]

Yeah I know there are some on the market that support it. I was speaking very broadly haha. It's why I said the great majority of sets don't allow for 5.1 pass through, because well most don't. There are A LOT of people out there who have TVs hooked up that way and are getting stereo out of it thinking they actually are getting surround sound. It was previously discussed in the thread that optical outs on most sets are exclusively for OTA broadcasts and don't co operate with HDMI.

Anyway it's kind of moot anyway since even if your TV does support it the Wii U doesn't.

I'm not trying to call you out or anything but what I was disagreeing with is that you said HDCP over HDMI would prevent Dolby Digital passthrough, which it doesn't. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you meant in which case I apologize.

I haven't read every page of the thread, just the first and the last couple, but has it been absolutely confirmed that the WiiU doesn't support Dolby standards or are we just assuming this based on what's been released officially so far?

I know GAF as a whole is prone to freaking out over stuff like this, especially when it's Nintendo and I can't blame anyone for not giving them the benefit of the doubt considering some of their miserly moves this gen like removing MP3 support from the Wii, but unless this is something that Nintendo has announced there's not going to be support for I'd suggest that people just wait for official word before giving up and investing in expensive adapter/converters.

Many games on PlayStation 2 supported Dolby Pro Logic II. Most of the time it was either stereo or surround sound via Pro Logic. GTA:VC for example used DTS 4.0 instead.
Games on PlayStation 3 not so much. It's game title specific (God of War 3 for example has support for DPLII, one of the few games with DPLII support). THIS is what we are afraid of.

If it's game-specific and needs to implemented separately by the developer, why should a developer do it although he can just implement PCM 5.1 surround and be done with it.

On PS3 the whole surround sound support is quite wild-west like, but at least it's not a big problem, because PS3 got optical out. Orange Box on PS3 for example HAD surround sound, but PCM 5.1 only. People still say that Orange Box would be only stereo on PS3 exactly because of this. THAT's the problem that could happen on Wii U all the time.

Wii games on Wii U will surely keep their Dolby Pro Logic II support. That's not the issue.

I see, well that could be a serious problem if that's really what Nintendo is doing in terms of SS support. But is this confirmed.

 

[Foxix Von]

I'm not trying to call you out or anything but what I was disagreeing with is that you said HDCP over HDMI would prevent Dolby Digital passthrough, which it doesn't. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you meant in which case I apologize.

I haven't read every page of the thread, just the first and the last couple, but has it been absolutely confirmed that the WiiU doesn't support Dolby standards or are we just assuming this based on what's been released officially so far?

I know GAF as a whole is prone to freaking out over stuff like this, especially when it's Nintendo and I can't blame anyone for not giving them the benefit of the doubt considering some of their miserly moves this gen like removing MP3 support from the Wii, but unless this is something that Nintendo has announced there's not going to be support for I'd suggest that people just wait for official word before giving up and investing in expensive adapter/converters.

I see, well that could be a serious problem if that's really what Nintendo is doing in terms of SS support. But is this confirmed.

Bhahah no problem. Yeah that is kind of what I meant, in which case I was probably wrong. It's the impression I got from reading some previous posts on the matter and I was really just trying to prevent more people from making the mistake of running their audio that way when they probably don't have televisions that support it. Whether the HDCP thing is true or not after looking for a second it does seem to be a common misconception, and a common excuse from customer service representatives as to why DD/DTS passthrough doesn't work on their televisions.

EDIT: Okay looking into some more, others suggest that it's sort of a part of HDCP in that the device cannot send or receive audio data that it doesn't support. In which case a television would have to have support for the audio format in order to relay it through S/PDIF. Is that right? So it's not exactly HDCP preventing passthrough, it's the TV itself not supporting the format which by HDCP standards means that it can't pass that data through.

 

[jimi_dini]

EDIT: Okay looking into some more, others suggest that it's sort of a part of HDCP in that the device cannot send or receive audio data that it doesn't support. In which case a television would have to have support for the audio format in order to relay it through S/PDIF. Is that right?

According to this HDCP could still be involved somehow.
http://forums.astrogaming.com/archive/index.php/t-4718.html

NOTE: Samsung and Sharp Branded TV's have been confirmed to work with this method. And I don't think it has to do with the brand of TV itself. I believe that the XBOX 360 disables the HDCP & EDID going through your HDMI cable. Your TV would not necessarily need the OPT OUT Pass-through feature for this to work.

Although the whole thing doesn't really make sense. It's totally allowed to send regular Dolby Digital / DTS streams through optical. That's what all sorts of BluRay players do. That's what PS3 does. Why in hell would anyone not allow such signals to get passed through. Maybe license fees are involved or some crap like that.

 

[Saint Gregory]

Bhahah no problem. Yeah that is kind of what I meant, in which case I was probably wrong. It's the impression I got from reading some previous posts on the matter and I was really just trying to prevent more people from making the mistake of running their audio that way when they probably don't have televisions that support it. Whether the HDCP thing is true or not after looking for a second it does seem to be a common misconception, and a common excuse from customer service representatives as to why DD/DTS passthrough doesn't work on their televisions.

Yeah, A/V GAF isn't as active as it used to be but this is something that we used to discuss a lot a few years ago. I was never clear on what is and isn't protected by HDCP but since it always support the passthrough of sound itself I figured it was just TV manufactuers being cheap with their audio processing.

The passthrough on my LG was disabled though the system firmware presumably because LG couldn't getting working consistently (which it doesn't) but I've noticed that this years TVs are listing at least 5.1 passthrough as a supported option.

Doesn't change the fact that Nintendo needs to provide official support for optical output though. They had no problems this gen championing the rights of SDTV owners so they should do the same for owners of non-HDMI receivers.

EDIT: Okay looking into some more, others suggest that it's sort of a part of HDCP in that the device cannot send or receive audio data that it doesn't support. In which case a television would have to have support for the audio format in order to relay it through S/PDIF. Is that right? So it's not exactly HDCP preventing passthrough, it's the TV itself not supporting the format which by HDCP standards means that it can't pass that data through.

That would make the most sense. How could the TV passthrough what it doesn't understand how to decode? Although jimi_dini's post make's thing even more confusing I think :/

Interesting. How is that possible for something to opt out of HDCP? I always got the impression that that would cause all sorts of crazy compatibility issues.

Yes it should. Maybe HDCP is primarily for protecting video and not audio?

 

[Foxix Von]

According to this HDCP could still be involved somehow.
http://forums.astrogaming.com/archive/index.php/t-4718.html

Interesting. How is that possible for something to opt out of HDCP? I always got the impression that that would cause all sorts of crazy compatibility issues.

 

[CambriaRising]

I don't really care about this because I just connect directly to the TV, but jesus christ nintendo this is a standard feature on any multimedia device and isn't going away for quite some time. HDMI's sound channel failure rates are through the roof on devices still.

 

[Theonik]

For every one of you worrying about if even DPLII might not be supported, I'm assuming you already have a receiver capable of using that matrix setting.

Try plugging something in that only does stereo. Turn on the DPLII setting for it. Listen.

A device doesn't have to explicitly support DPLII to work with it. You can still get surround from a stereo source via matrix, with is what DPLII is anyway.

While it's true that DPLII can work with a regular stereo source to try and create surround sound. The results of using it in this way are quite appalling. There is a huge difference between DPLII encoded sound and regular stereo sound...
Edit: In fact what was added on DPLII over DPL was the ability to try and estimate a surround field out of a regular Stereo source in addition to decoding DPL Matrixed surround sound.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Interesting. How is that possible for something to opt out of HDCP? I always got the impression that that would cause all sorts of crazy compatibility issues.

The only stuff I've seen that doesn't use HDCP is the 360 and video cards for PCs. Maybe cable boxes, don't, but I dunno.


Oh, and whoever is thinking DPLII is something to be excited about, cut it out. It is an atrocity.

 

[Teletraan1]

We still don't know definitely if the WiiU will support encoding DD5.1 for games. The spec sheet says that it will output LPCM so really that's all the info we have. If only there were these people that covered the industry for a living that could ask Nintendo directly about this and report their findings.

Since games aren't a static audio track in order to output in DD5.1 there would have to be an encode that occurs before it is sent out to the HDMI cable. There is a DSP in the WiiU which is rumored to be a Cortex-M3 clocked at 125Mhz. I personally have no experience coding for ARM processors but the only info I could gather was from Marketing Material is that a Cortex-M4 clocked at 150Mhz takes around 50% of its processing power to encode a DD5.1 audio stream. An M4@150Mhz:M3@100Mhz is roughly 2:1 in terms of processing power. Prices in lots of 10k for these chips wasn't drastically different either (+-$0.25). On PS3 and 360 this encode takes place on the CPU so its possible on WiiU but will effect system performance if they wanted to support it. Take this info with a grain of salt as it is not first hand material.

Since they are going to output LPCM there seems to be no reason for them to basically max out their sound DSP or devote a thread just to do a DD5.1 encode for non announced dongle users so that format seems unlikely. I don't think that DPLII is too processing intensive so that could be an option if supported. Would they not have to support this format for Wii BC? At this point this is all conjecture on my part based off of limited possibly incorrect information.

 

[megarockexe]

I'm no expert on sound, but I am wondering on a more scaled-back approach. How would a sound bar work here as opposed to a prohibitively expensive home theater setup work? From my understanding, it would be Wii U to TV via HDMI, then TV to sound bar via HDMI on some models and some sort of optical out on other models. And of course, this varies across TVs and sound bars since not all TVs have optical out or vice-versa.

 

[Mudkips]

For every one of you worrying about if even DPLII might not be supported, I'm assuming you already have a receiver capable of using that matrix setting.

Try plugging something in that only does stereo. Turn on the DPLII setting for it. Listen.

A device doesn't have to explicitly support DPLII to work with it. You can still get surround from a stereo source via matrix, with is what DPLII is anyway.

Yes, but if you apply the inverse operation on a 5.1 source your 5.1 becomes PLII encoded stereo, and the PLII expansion afterward is much better than if you were starting with a plain stereo source.

 

[CLEEK]

I'm no expert on sound, but I am wondering on a more scaled-back approach. How would a sound bar work here as opposed to a prohibitively expensive home theater setup work? From my understanding, it would be Wii U to TV via HDMI, then TV to sound bar via HDMI on some models and some sort of optical out on other models. And of course, this varies across TVs and sound bars since not all TVs have optical out or vice-versa.

Soundbars should work no differently from an AV Receiver. You connect your device (Wii U wtc) to the soundbar with HDMI, then connect the soundbar to your TV with HDMI. Make sure you get one that supports ARC (audio return channel) so that the one connection between soundbar and TV works both way, so you also output audio from the TV.

Wii U ---> Soundbar <---> TV

 

[megarockexe]

Oh, wait. The Wii U could be connected directly into the soundbar, and the soundbar could then transfer the video to the TV? I never thought of it that way, but from what I read up on, it would be simpler if it's just connected to the TV that way an audio out on the TV goes to the soundbar which would work regardless or input device. Anything connected to the TV goes to the soundbar like that, I guess.

 

[Brad Grenz]

The problem with that is you never know how the TV might mangle the audio before sending it out to your audio device. Like if you're getting 192Khz LPCM from HDMI but the TV down-mixes that to 48Khz. Or if you're using analog cables instead of optical at that point, the TV's digital to analog converter probably sin't as good as your soundbar or receiver's.

 

[Matt]

The problem with that is you never know how the TV might mangle the audio before sending it out to your audio device. Like if you're getting 192Khz LPCM from HDMI but the TV down-mixes that to 48Khz. Or if you're using analog cables instead of optical at that point, the TV's digital to analog converter probably sin't as good as your soundbar or receiver's.

99% of the time, the TV will convert it to stereo. No one should count on their TV doing differently unless they are absolutely sure.

Not that that will help them with the Wii U anyway, but oh well...

 

[Oblivion]

Can somebody explain what an optical out or whatever actually is?

What's the difference between that and an HDMI port?

 

[jimi_dini]

Yes, but if you apply the inverse operation on a 5.1 source your 5.1 becomes PLII encoded stereo, and the PLII expansion afterward is much better than if you were starting with a plain stereo source.

wat?

 

[Theonik]

wat?

DPLII supports surround expansion of ANY Stereo source. However there is a difference between using DPLII to upmix a stereo source than to decode a DPL encoded surround source. Both don't really compare to discreet surround but the latter is much better than the former.

 

[jimi_dini]

DPLII supports surround expansion of ANY Stereo source.

Yes, but DPLII applied on a plain stereo source, can't accurately guess, which parts of the audio is supposed to play in the rear and which doesn't. And that's what we would get, if stereo is taken from the PCM 5.1 signal (which would happen in most TV cases). I don't know of any TV, that will downmix Dolby Digital 5.1 into DPLII audio. You would get plain PCM stereo on optical. And most TVs don't even support PCM 5.1 in. Mine for example doesn't. Although it supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS for virtual surround.

Just play Star Wars: Rogue Leader on Gamecube. If a tie fighter is at your left rear, you will hear it at your left rear - and nowhere else.

However there is a difference between using DPLII to upmix a stereo source than to decode a DPL encoded surround source. Both don't really compare to discreet surround but the latter is much better than the former.

Encoded DPLII audio works really well. It's not as good as discreet audio of course. For games there is not a really big difference. Like I said - play Star Wars: Rogue Leader or Rebel Strike.

 

[Theonik]

Yes, but DPLII applied on a plain stereo source, can't accurately guess, which parts of the audio is supposed to play in the rear and which doesn't. And that's what we would get, if stereo is taken from the PCM 5.1 signal (which would happen in most TV cases). I don't know of any TV, that will downmix Dolby Digital 5.1 into DPLII audio. You would get plain PCM stereo on optical. And most TVs don't even support PCM 5.1 in. Mine for example doesn't. Although it supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS for virtual surround.

Just play Star Wars: Rogue Leader on Gamecube. If a tie fighter is at your left rear, you will hear it at your left rear - and nowhere else.

Encoded DPLII audio works really well. It's not as good as discreet audio of course. For games there is not a really big difference. Like I said - play Star Wars: Rogue Leader or Rebel Strike.

I was just explaining what the poster meant to say. He didn't imply that TVs should be able to decode the 6CH LPCM and encode it in DPL.

 

[jimi_dini]

I was just explaining what the poster meant to say. He didn't imply that TVs should be able to decode the 6CH LPCM and encode it in DPL.

Ah, now I understand what the poster meant.

By "inverse operation" he meant phase shifting. Okay, then it makes sense. I got seriously confused by the "inverse operation" bit.