What is DTS needed for on Tv's

Associate
Joined
20 Nov 2004
Posts
2,209
Location
Nock/Leicester
Hi all

Looking to purchase a mid range 55'' LED 4k TV and have found the Samsung NU7400 to have great reviews £569.

But there are loads of people complaining about 2018 Samsung's not supporting DTS any more. What does this mean and how will it effect me?!
 
It's like a higher bit rate (less compressed) rival to Dolby Digital. DVD's tend to be mastered in one or the other so you're best off having support for both if surround sound is important.

If you don't have surround then it doesn't really matter because you can use PCM which is uncompressed. The latest versions of DD/DTS are uncompressed also but again unless you have surround it's not really important to have.

I think it will only really affect you if you use the standard TV speakers and you run smart apps that output films in DTS, your TV won't be able to decode it but I'd assume they will have alternate sound output options.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for your advice mmj....

So I won't be using the TV speakers at all. Tv will be collected to an old Yamaha amp which also has my Sky box, Playstation and 5 ceiling speakers and subwoofer connected to it.

So does that mean its no problem or a big problem?!

Obviously I want all 5 ceiling speakers to work when I watch Sky, Play blue rays via my playstation etc.
 
Normally ceiling speakers are for height affects like Dolby Atmos. I assume you also have front/centre speakers otherwise all sound from the ceiling will sound very odd.
 
Does your amp support decoding of DTS audio? if it does then it shouldn't be a problem as the TV should just pass bitstream information through to it like a DVD player does and the amp will decode the DTS signal.

If your amp just amplifies the sound output and doesn't do any audio decoding like a receiver then you'll not be able to decode DTS and will either have to choose Dolby Digital 5.1 as a sound output if available or worst case stereo PCM (or if you use HDMI ARC 5.1 PCM passthrough might be possible).

edit: I just had a look at this and I might be wrong:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/5-1-surround-audio-passthrough

It seems like DTS passthrough is hit and miss.

If the rest of your gear is connected straight to the amp then they won't be affected, your only problem is likely to be smart apps built into the TV that output DTS.
 
Last edited:
All my stuff is connected via my Amp. But I WILL be using the built in apps for Netflix Amazon etc so I guess it’s not worth the risk.

Il look for an alternative tv at similar price point which does not have these issues! Any suggestions?
 
I have the NU8000 and not had an issue yet with DTS and the built-in apps.
The only built in app I use is Netflix (a lot) and everything listed as 5.1 has played like that so far.
Other things are plugged into the amp which will do the decoding.
If it came down to it, a media stick plugged in to the amp via hdmi wouldn't be an issue.
 
Normally ceiling speakers are for height affects like Dolby Atmos. I assume you also have front/centre speakers otherwise all sound from the ceiling will sound very odd.

no they aren't.

before atmos ceiling speakers were used instead of floor or wall speakers.

so he has a normal 5.1 setup except his speakers just happen to be in the ceiling.

i know someone who has every speaker in the ceiling except the subwoofer.
 
no they aren't.

before atmos ceiling speakers were used instead of floor or wall speakers.

so he has a normal 5.1 setup except his speakers just happen to be in the ceiling.

i know someone who has every speaker in the ceiling except the subwoofer.

Before atmos ceiling speakers where used for height channels, all sound coming from ceiling sounds very odd and unnatural.
 
no they aren't.

before atmos ceiling speakers were used instead of floor or wall speakers.

so he has a normal 5.1 setup except his speakers just happen to be in the ceiling.

i know someone who has every speaker in the ceiling except the subwoofer.
He said normally they are. So yes, in the context of a living room / listening room setup..they are. your mate who does things different does make that statement any less true.
 
Last edited:
The issue will only affect you if you playback media (.mkv via the usb port) using the built in media player on the TV and the media has a DTS soundtrack. Also to note the Samsung TV will NOT pass DTS audio to the receiver via the ARC (Audio Return Channel).
 
The issue will only affect you if you playback media (.mkv via the usb port) using the built in media player on the TV and the media has a DTS soundtrack. Also to note the Samsung TV will NOT pass DTS audio to the receiver via the ARC (Audio Return Channel).

This is crazy of Samung to do this, as far as I can tell there's no way to play files with DTS audio if you only have a samnsung TV unless you spend extra money somewhere.

Not that you can actually have DTS-MA over ARC anyway even if it's supported, much to my annoyance after buying a new setup.
 
I think these usb media 'handicaps' are imposed to prevent pirateing ... how many people genuinely have blue-ray ripping capability ?
I was considering a panasonic ub900, as a media hub, but found you cannot playback hevc via usb media.
 
Back
Top Bottom