DTS:X confusion

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
How do I find a film with DTS:X soundtrack? I feel I should have one to test my AVR's handling of the format, but in the UK I'm struggling to find one. Search Amazon UK for DTS:X is a dead loss, as is searching the DVD Compare site.
I’ve found success using Blu-Ray Dot Com’s sale filtering tool:
https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?sort...l®ioncoding=&hdrformats=&digitalcopy=&dtsx=on

That should give you a result of current on sale DTS:X titles. I’ve found that it’s *mostly* Universal films that have it. I have: Casino, Blues Brothers, The Thing, Edgar Wrights Cornetto Trilogy (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The Worlds End), Puss In Boots 1, etc.

That being said, when those titles get picked up by other distributors, it seems like it’s converted to Atmos. Puss In Boots for example has an Atmos track via iTunes Rental, Waterworld got ported to Atmos for the fancier Arrow Video release, etc.

I also note that the official page for Pure Audio Blu Ray, of which most Atmos disc releases use does have the DTS:X logo on their site, so there’s a possibility there’s at least one music only DTS:X disc out there, but I can’t seem to find it.
https://www.pureaudio-bluray.com/
 
Denon/Marantz are certainly not immune to forced upmixing. On my 7702 MK2 unless I was using the Pure mode, it would upmix 5.1. Pure mode worked to stop upmixing, but would unfortunately disable bass redirection and room correction. It's one of the main reasons I no longer own it.

I'm currently using an Lyngdorf processor. Very pricey (I picked mine up used) but it behaves exactly how I want it to. No upmixing with all of the room correction/bass management intact. The only oddity I ran into on it was playing a DTS-ES DVD 6.1 of Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions. It would enable upmixing to the full 7.2.4 setup. After reading up, this is a DTS software feature since a 6.1 setup isn't present. On a positive note, the Lyngdorf has a post processing mode called "legacy" that tells the decoder that the setup is a vanilla 7.1. Which for me fixed things. The 6th channel is spread across the back 2 and the remaining 5 channels are played in the proper speakers.

I guess TLDR, upmixing seems to be hit or miss. I haven't used a newer Denon/Marantz to see if they have improved. I think the only way to really know for sure is to audition the equipment and see how it behaves. I can also say that Anthem is solid when it comes to handling upmixing from feedback from friends that use their products and playing with one at Mwave. They don't do any channel spreading unless you tell them to.
 
It's certainly useful to be able to tell your amp to pretend to be a 7.1 setup, or a 5.1 setup with choice of which pair of rear or surround speakers to use for 5.1 (I'm not sure any amp has that feature).
 
How do I find a film with DTS:X soundtrack? I feel I should have one to test my AVR's handling of the format, but in the UK I'm struggling to find one. Search Amazon UK for DTS:X is a dead loss, as is searching the DVD Compare site.
Universal 4K’s almost exclusively use them. Gladiator, from Paramount, has a DTS:X soundtrack though.
 
How do I find a film with DTS:X soundtrack? I feel I should have one to test my AVR's handling of the format, but in the UK I'm struggling to find one. Search Amazon UK for DTS:X is a dead loss, as is searching the DVD Compare site.
The two I have are “Lone survivor 4k” and “Jason Bourne”
 
Last edited:
For anyone who's interested, here a link to a 'DTS:X speaker mapping test file': -
My Arcam AVR31 plays that as expected. Interestingly it doesn't offer me the option to decode it as DTS HD MA which is what the bed is, I can only decode it as DTS:X MSTR (I think that's what it displayed as) plus Auro and DTS stereo downmix etc. With Atmos I can either play the Dolby True HD bed or as Dolby Atmos. It's a surprising difference, it means I can't play DTS:X the way someone with an older amp would play it.
 
How do I find a film with DTS:X soundtrack? I feel I should have one to test my AVR's handling of the format, but in the UK I'm struggling to find one. Search Amazon UK for DTS:X is a dead loss, as is searching the DVD Compare site.
Sony briefly dabbled with the format. The 4K UHD Blu-ray editions of Bad Boys For Life and Jumanji: The Next Level both feature fairly robust DTS:X surround mixes and do a decent job of showing off the format's capabilities. Neither film is particularly good, IMO, but I find the Jumanji sequel to be the more watchable, especially for fans of the series.
 
Back
Top