Has anyone tried using a multichannel DAC like the Okto Dac8 Pro or the Topping DM7 to play Dolby TrueHD from VLC ?

[Bouly]

Since I don't have a big flat, I'm thinking of combining my music listening setup and my home theater setup into one. To save physical space, I store blu-rays on a 8 TB hard drive. My question is, can I use VLC or some other software that can be installed on a computer, to direct the TrueHD lossless audio track towards a multichannel DAC, connected to 5.1 speakers ?
Like this when I want to play music I can open foobar and it uses the DAC, and when I want to play movies I open VLC and will have lossless quality sound, the audio being handled again by the same DAC, and the video goes through the graphics card towards a big monitor / TV such as LG OLED C1 which can be connected to a computer.
I don't need support for Dolby Atmos because I don't plan on expanding to more than 5 speakers + subwoofer, I just want to have the lossless 48 kHz / 24-bit 5.1 channels decoded and played by the DAC, instead of having to use a dedicated receiver with probably lower sound quality.

 

[sarumbear]

There is no reason it shouldn’t work. I know this setup works with multiple-ch audio MP4 files

 

[ppataki]

Yes, I was using an Okto DAC8 Pro (now my Topping DM7 is on the way) with Jriver and it works like a charm!
Jriver decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD into multichannel PCM then you can apply further DSP items such as channel mixing, digital room correction like Dirac Live, etc. and then this signal is fed to the DAC
Video goes to my Philips OLED through HDMI

 

[Bouly]

Yes, I was using an Okto DAC8 Pro (now my Topping DM7 is on the way) with Jriver and it works like a charm!
Jriver decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD into multichannel PCM then you can apply further DSP items such as channel mixing, digital room correction like Dirac Live, etc. and then this signal is fed to the DAC
Video goes to my Philips OLED through HDMI

Awesome! That sounds like a great all-in-one setup. Why are you switching to the DM7 if I may ask ?

 

[mkt]

Yes with Otko DAC8 pro & VLC.

 

[ppataki]

Awesome! That sounds like a great all-in-one setup. Why are you switching to the DM7 if I may ask ?

Just check the price of a used Okto vs a new DM7.......

 

[dartinbout]

I can confirm that the DM7\J. River combo works. I sampled the Dolby.UHD.Blu-Ray.Demo.Disc.March.2018.2160p.Blu-Ray.HEVC.TrueHD.Atmos.7.1 and
Doctor.Strange.in.the.Multiverse.of.Madness.2022.2160p.BluRay..HEVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos
I had previously watched MoM using the Okto and it played correctly as well.
Oh what a wonderful time to be a media junkie!

 

[Bouly]

Just check the price of a used Okto vs a new DM7.......

From the reports I'm seeing here, this Pavel guy from Okto seems like a great engineer but not so great business manager. It looks like he has created a good product with pent up demand for it, but is unable to scale his business operation to meet the demand. The total lack of support sounds like he should hire someone to answer support emails for him, and maybe he should take a loan, to invest in production tools and employees in order to increase his output. At the very least there should be a pre-order button with an expected time of delivery on the okto website. Too bad because all other things equal I would prefer to buy stuff made in Europe but it looks like Okto is being outcompeted.