Skip to main content

Windows 10 and Xbox One to get support for DTS:X spatial sound

windows 10 october update
Image used with permission by copyright holder

One of the best ways to spice up the audio quality on your Windows 10 PC or Xbox One console is with Dolby Atmos, but you soon could have another option. Support for the DTS:X spatial sound standard is reportedly coming, promising for enhanced and immersive audio experiences when gaming or watching videos.

The news comes via a tweet from Steven Wilssens, a lead program manager at Microsoft. Responding to a positive comment made about Dolby Atmos, he explains that DTS:X spatial sound will be “coming to PC and Xbox in the coming weeks.” He also suggests that the audio standard will be available for Windows Insiders to beta test first, and then make its way over to Xbox. “After testing, the feature will then make its way to everyone else on retail builds,” Wilssens explains.

Recommended Videos

Currently, there is a DTS:X Ultra app listed in the Microsoft Store. Though it promises to allow consumers to DTS:X Ultra audio effects, it can’t be downloaded, according to a report from Windows Latest. The presence suggests that an official release could be coming soon and that testing could have previously been done internally at Microsoft.

A website dedicated to DTS:X details that the audio codec “places sound where it would occur naturally in space, creating the most lifelike, multi-dimensional audio experience ever.”

A subsequent tweet from Wilssens also adds that Microsoft will be improving on Dobly Atmos on Windows 10 and Xbox. “We have some great enhancements coming to Dolby Atmos on PC and Xbox One. Including enablement enhancements (PC & XB1), laptop speakers (PC), customization (PC & x XB1), and Dolby Atmos upmixing for legacy channel based content with home receivers (Xbox),” he explained.

Microsoft originally added support for Dolby Atmos in Windows 10 and Xbox One in 2017. The standard creates a more immersive audio experience, and you need Dolby Atmos-ready A/V receiver and speakers to make the most out of it, though headphones work as well.

It is not clear if Microsoft is planning to release support for DTS:X spatial sound as part of the incoming April 2019 update. You can, instead, expect Microsoft’s Windows and Xbox Insiders to test out and report bugs on the new support for DTS:X spatial sound before it sees a rollout to everyone else.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
Microsoft is cracking down on unsupported Windows 11 installs
A Dell laptop with Windows 10 sitting on a desk.

A support document showing users how to install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs was deleted sometime in the past two months. Its disappearance, noticed by Neowin, echoes Microsoft's recent "year of the Windows 11 PC refresh" rhetoric, encouraging (or forcing) users to buy new PCs that meet Windows 11 hardware requirements.

When Windows 11 launched in 2021, Microsoft announced that it was adding TPM 2.0 as a hardware requirement -- a move that was met with plenty of resistance. To soften the blow, Microsoft also published a support document detailing how users could edit their registry key values to bypass the TPM 2.0 check.

Read more
Microsoft is axing support for its own apps on Windows 10
The Surface Laptop 7 on a table in front of a window.

Microsoft has announced that support for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 will end this year on October 14, as reported by The Verge. This is also the end-of-support date for Windows 10 as a whole, but the move is still a little surprising considering that Microsoft is now offering the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Program.

Anyone who joins this program for $30 can continue to safely use Windows 10 for a whole extra year -- so you might think that Microsoft would let them continue to use the Office apps too. That said, it's not like the apps will disappear, they just won't receive any more updates. According to Microsoft, this could cause "performance and reliability issues over time" but whether these issues will pop up within the ESU program's duration or not is anyone's guess.

Read more
Another frustrating reason to upgrade to Windows 11
A person looking frustrated at a laptop while sitting at a table.

As if you didn't already need plenty of reasons to finally upgrade to Windows 11, here's yet another.

The latest Windows 10 update, version KB5048239, isn't just failing to install -- it's actually updating successfully over and over again. This is the update that Microsoft first released in November 2024 on 21H2 and 22H2. As TechRadar reports, the software giant is rereleasing it again this month.

Read more