Title is pretty self explanatory. I have a movie file with a 7.1 channel audio track in AAC ripped from a BluRay’s AC3 (or equivalent) 7.1 track. iTunes and iPhone can play the movie, but the sound is clearly missing some channels, most likely at least the centre channel because main voices are distant, hollow and echoey. VLC on Mac and iPhone can play it fine. I have no trouble playing 5.1 channel AAC tracks in iTunes on Mac or iPhone.
So I know 7.1 is kind of high-end and I don’t have 7.1 channels on any device on which I want to play the file, but in this case it’s the only available audio track (for now) and iTunes should be able to downmix (basically combine the channels) on the fly just like VLC can, and has presumably been able to for ages. Even when listening in stereo and the stereo track is available I sometimes like to listen to down-mixed surround tracks just for a slightly different mix. The surround tracks tend to emphasise peripheral sounds a bit more when down-mixed to stereo than the standard stereo mix and it also tends to sound a bit more dynamic.
I thought Apple were supposed to be really good with AV, but on multi-channel audio support they always seem to have lagged. So is the question (or statement) posed in the title and in my experience definitely the case - Apple doesn’t yet support 7.1 channel audio in any of its software?
So I know 7.1 is kind of high-end and I don’t have 7.1 channels on any device on which I want to play the file, but in this case it’s the only available audio track (for now) and iTunes should be able to downmix (basically combine the channels) on the fly just like VLC can, and has presumably been able to for ages. Even when listening in stereo and the stereo track is available I sometimes like to listen to down-mixed surround tracks just for a slightly different mix. The surround tracks tend to emphasise peripheral sounds a bit more when down-mixed to stereo than the standard stereo mix and it also tends to sound a bit more dynamic.
I thought Apple were supposed to be really good with AV, but on multi-channel audio support they always seem to have lagged. So is the question (or statement) posed in the title and in my experience definitely the case - Apple doesn’t yet support 7.1 channel audio in any of its software?
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