Opus multichannel support

[clidx]

I am considering encoding to Opus 5.1/7.1 or keeping E-AC3/encoding lossless to E-AC3. I know Opus is not supported well on AVRs but it has good client support these days so most or all modern devices will be able to decode it. My question is what do I lose by passing uncompressed Opus compared to bitstreaming?

Ignoring track specific features like Atmos where I would keep the original track, the biggest feature I can see bitstreaming is audio post processing applied by the AVR. But the biggest feature seems to be DRC and I can add a stereo Opus track with DRC applied. Even 2 Opus tracks will end up costing around half of a single E-AC3 track (if 640k for 5.1 and 960k for 7.1).

So what are the pitalls of using Opus in multichannel? Is DRC needed/helpful when using an actual surround setup? I don't have one at the moment but will be getting one this year so can't test it for myself. Anything else?

[Boulder]

I've used multichannel Opus in my media library, and have no issues because it's decoded and output as multichannel LPCM over HDMI. I avoid using any DRC, and I think any decent AVR these days has a similar method to control the output volume for all sources in case you need to keep the volume down but still want to hear the dialog properly. I set 384 kbps as the bitrate for 5.1 tracks, and it's more than enough. Usually Opus ends up using 300-320 kbps anyway.

[jlw_4049]

Really it depends on the devices you're wanting it to direct play on.

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[clidx]

Really it depends on the devices you're wanting it to direct play on.

Sent from my SM-G986U1 using Tapatalk

So In terms of playback clients, I don't have an issue with Opus decoding. Android, Windows, Linux - all fine. In the future I will buy an AVR and surround setup, unfortunately I can't be specific on what but I imagine it's unlikely to bitstream multichannel Opus. So it's really just the AVR part of the chain which I may lose out on by encoding to Opus if the AVR can do something with a bitstream that it can't do with LPCM.

I've used multichannel Opus in my media library, and have no issues because it's decoded and output as multichannel LPCM over HDMI. I avoid using any DRC, and I think any decent AVR these days has a similar method to control the output volume for all sources in case you need to keep the volume down but still want to hear the dialog properly. I set 384 kbps as the bitrate for 5.1 tracks, and it's more than enough. Usually Opus ends up using 300-320 kbps anyway.

I read a lot of AVRs will only do any kind of normalisation/DRC/leveling with Dolby bitstreams. But I know almost nothing about AVRs.

E: so this feature is called Dolby volume and apparently not many new AVRs support it. So whatever post processing they can do these days, I imagine they can do with LPCM too.

[Boulder]

E: so this feature is called Dolby volume and apparently not many new AVRs support it. So whatever post processing they can do these days, I imagine they can do with LPCM too.

Denon has a "Dynamic Volume" functionality which adjusts the volume during playback. If I've understood correctly, it's meant to level the output just like dynamic compression. I have a Denon AVR with that one myself but never tried it.

[jlw_4049]

Opus was really designed for VoIP or web browsers. A lot of devices like Roku doesn't support it at all. Especially not 5.1.

For multichannel compatibility you should stick with ac3 5.1 and for stereo QAAC if you're playing it on devices like that.

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[microchip8]

Denon has a "Dynamic Volume" functionality which adjusts the volume during playback. If I've understood correctly, it's meant to level the output just like dynamic compression. I have a Denon AVR with that one myself but never tried it.

Yamaha has a similar feature called "Adaptive DRC"