Features, settings & updates

[pikardenz]

I'm looking at a chart comparing the features of the different Roku models. There are two audio features listed that I'm not clear on what the difference is:

• Dolby Audio™ and DTS pass through via HDMI®

• Dolby Audio™ decode via HDMI® and optical

The Roku Ultra has both of them, all of the other models just have the first one.

[RokuMary-F · Accepted solution]

Hi @chay5301,

Congrats on your first post in the Roku Community!

We understand that you want to know more audio specs and comparison of Roku Ultra. We would do our best to assist you with your inquiry.

For additional information, I would recommend checking our Roku website for the side-to-side comparison chart of the Roku Ultra (model 4802) and Roku Ultra LT (model 4801, You may refer to this link: Compare Roku Streaming Players | Find the best Roku device for you | Roku

We hope you'll find this info useful. Let us know in case you've still got any questions.


Best regards,
Mary

[atc98092 · Accepted solution]

Reasonable questions, with fairly simple answers.

For the first question, Roku has supported Dolby Digital bitstreaming through the HDMI cable almost from the beginning. Actually I think even their very first player did so. By the way, pass through is another way of saying it will pass the digital audio bitstream intact to a AV Receiver or the TV display. Virtually any modern (within the last 20 years) TV is capable of decoding DD and playing it through their speakers. DTS is a bit different, in that few TVs have DTS decoders, so the DTS passthrough is really only useful when using an AVR that can decode the digital audio. Also, Roku only supports DTS when it's a video within the MKV  or TS container, so only applicable if you're playing media from a USB drive or a DLNA server.

Your second question is in reference to players that have a Dolby encoder, so it is capable on converting an audio stream into DD. Only the Ultra 4640 and the Ultra 4800/4801/4802 have that feature. So if the incoming audio stream isn't in DD, the Ultra can convert it to DD which again is supported by all modern TVs.