Xbox One getting Dolby Digital support in March

The Xbox One's March update is set to include a feature that couldn't make it in time for the console's launch: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

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Microsoft wasn't able to include Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound support on Xbox One at launch, mostly due to time constraints. A little over three months after the console's launch, the publisher is now ready to launch the feature, alongside an upcoming system update expected to deploy in March.

According to Polygon, the system update will allow Xbox One consoles to output Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound through the use of an optical audio cable via bitstream. This audio support should also make third-party surround sound headsets compatible with the console, as well.

The March update is also slated to include updated party and friend features. The update is expected to arrive just before the release of Titanfall.

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Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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  • reply
    March 1, 2014 2:00 PM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Xbox One getting Dolby Digital support in March.

    The Xbox One's March update is set to include a feature that couldn't make it in time for the console's launch: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

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      March 1, 2014 2:00 PM

      Is it going to patch in the ability to have party chat come through both the headset and TV speakers?

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      March 1, 2014 2:48 PM

      When does it get 1080p ?

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        March 1, 2014 3:07 PM

        [deleted]

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          March 1, 2014 3:35 PM

          When your average consumer can tell the difference. In other words: never.

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            March 1, 2014 7:57 PM

            Strangely your average consumer seems to buy a ps4 over the Xbox according to sales data. Hmmmm

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              March 1, 2014 8:17 PM

              your average consumer wants to pay less, regardless.

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              March 1, 2014 10:18 PM

              [deleted]

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                March 1, 2014 11:02 PM

                Well I make games for a living so having both consoles sell a lot is what's best for me. If the console sales are too lopsided then that will effect future decisions at some point.

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                March 2, 2014 12:25 AM

                So titanfall is your only argument ? Never mind that you can play it on a 5 years old pc or a 8 year old console ( x360 )

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                  March 2, 2014 7:11 AM

                  [deleted]

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                    March 2, 2014 8:46 AM

                    I suspect Titanfall will sell a lot of copies on Xbox360 - it may not be enough to justify people making the $500 leap to play a game that runs pretty well on current-gen (or is it "last-gen" now).

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                      March 2, 2014 11:05 AM

                      360 would be last gen and Xbox one current gen. There is no next gen for now.

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              March 1, 2014 11:30 PM

              It's almost like one of them is cheaper than the other but plays most of the same games.

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              March 2, 2014 1:51 AM

              So strange that it's cheaper

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                March 2, 2014 2:33 AM

                What is this WTF tag? What are you shocked or something? What's going on?

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              March 2, 2014 3:44 AM

              Lets be real, average consumers are not driving early adopter sales of either of these.

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                March 2, 2014 3:53 AM

                But they are though. Look at the number one selling games. Call of Duty and Madden fans aren't reading Digital Foundry articles about what kind of texture filtering Tomb Raider uses for Lara Crofts arms.

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                March 2, 2014 6:27 AM

                Let's get real we left that phase awhile ago.

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          March 2, 2014 3:45 AM

          Weird, mine has been outputting 1080p since launch...

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      March 1, 2014 5:16 PM

      [deleted]

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        March 1, 2014 6:16 PM

        Actually it was already released in many regions on November 22, 2013.

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      March 1, 2014 9:34 PM

      2014 and Digital Surround didn't work over optical out of the box?

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        March 2, 2014 2:28 PM

        Right? I mean i've been sitting on the sidelines this gen, but didnt both the original and 360 xbox have this day one? Very strange.

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          March 2, 2014 3:18 PM

          LPCM is superior and is becoming standard thanks to HDMI, so I can kinda see why WiiU doesn't have it and Microsoft didn't make it a priority.

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      March 1, 2014 10:12 PM

      Something is not exactly accurate about this news story. I am 100% sure I was listening to Forza 5 in Dolby DIgital 5.1. Sound was definitely coming out of the surround speakers. I am using an HDMI cable to carry both the picture and HDMI audio directly to my receiver. Maybe what is new is the bitstream option over optical?

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        March 1, 2014 10:25 PM

        it only does DTS over optical at the moment. most, if not all, headsets like astro mix amps dont support DTS. my old non-HDMI receiver does not either.

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        March 3, 2014 7:55 AM

        Chances are, you were getting surround via uncompressed PCM, which is better than Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital (and DTS) is required for transferring surround sound over SPDIF (digital optical or coax) because SPDIF doesn't have the bandwidth to send uncompressed surround sound. With Dolby enabled, the audio is compressed (like MP3) and can then be transferred to a receiver to be decoded. HDMI has enough bandwidth capability to transfer uncompressed surround sound (LPCM) so Dolby or DTS aren't really necessary with HDMI.

        Video games can make their own surround sound environment, you don't need Dolby for that. Dolby is just an audio compression format. Dolby True-HD and DTS-MA are newer, lossless formats but are still not necessary. That's just used for encoding movie audio.

        P.S. The 360 didn't support PCM over HDMI for some reason. The PS3 did.

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      March 2, 2014 5:43 AM

      If I'm reading that right it's going to be only over optical? Not HDMI?

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        March 2, 2014 7:45 AM

        It already supports it over hdmi. This is adding optical support for old receivers.

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          March 2, 2014 9:04 AM

          So the headline was misleading then to fan the flames by the Sony fanbois.

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      March 3, 2014 10:12 AM

      Update: it will only be 2.5

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