Hi guys, I apologize in advance if the questions I am going to ask are potentially stupid, but I am just getting into the world of sound systems these days.
First question: I have a TV that supports Dolby Digital Plus and also Dolby Atmos, which in turn relies on the same DD Plus. Does the term “supports” simply mean that the TV can output these audio signals to external devices (such as Soundbars or AV receivers), or does it also mean that the TV also outputs them through the internal speakers? Or will these still always output a PCM 2.0 signal? Example: I am playing a game on ps5 that supports the Dolby Digital plus format . Does this format also come out of the TV speakers or can it only be output to external devices?
Second question: can a 2.1-type system, in addition to supporting classic PCM, also support Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus signals, in theory? Or are they only compatible with systems, respectively, 5.1 for DD and 7.1 for DD Plus?
Third question: if the answer to the second question is yes, it would still not make sense to use a DD or DD+ signal on a 2.1 system, since they are compressed formats, so they lose quality compared to PCM. Right?
Fourth question: with the advent of eARC, it doesn’t even make sense now to exploit a Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital + signal on 5.1 and 7.1 systems, because eARC allows you to get a multichannel PCM, which is of higher quality. Maybe it only makes sense to use Dolby Digital + because it also carries Atmos, so you can exploit it as an alternative to PCM to get a 3D effect that PCM does not give. All correct?
Answer to 2nd question: DD, Dolby Atmos, DTS and all sound compression codecs can run in stereo just as well as multichannel. Theybwill mostly use them instead of PCM to save space cause PCM is uncompressed and takes a ton of space.
HI! Thanks for the reply, now everything is clearer to me, definitely! Let’s say that all my questions, at this point, can be answered with a big ‘it depends’. Even on a 2.1 system I can comfortably run Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital + if the PCM format isn’t that great or to take advantage of particular effects that PCM doesn’t give me, despite having superior quality. And I can also implement this choice on 5.1 and 7.1, it all depends on which formats are supported by the content and how they are mixed. So PCM does not exclude Dolby and vice versa, one is not better than the other. I wasn’t convinced otherwise! Furthermore, from what I understand, multi-channel PCM is still difficult to support as it is a very heavy format, so the standard for surround sound is still Dolby, so it makes great sense to still have these formats even if they are dated! Only using Atmos on 2.1 and 5.1 doesn’t make so much sense, It needs ceiling speakers.
In all this I’m opting for a 2.1 system powered by an Onkyo A/V Receiver (€90-used) that I’ve been eyeing, a bit old, but which can support up to 5 channels and which, therefore, supports up to Dolby Digital. This therefore means that I will be able to choose between PCM and DD even on a 2.1 depending on my taste or how the audio format is mixed, so I don’t necessarily have to stick to PCM as I think. Thank you!